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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
and breadth of the country

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to see what remains
of Bradshaw's Britain.

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Ever since I was a kid,
I've found it exciting

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to travel by train, whether
rattling along high-speed lines

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or pottering along single tracks,

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there's something very special
about a railway journey.

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Now I'm following Bradshaw's
19th-century guide to the railways

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to find out how much
the railways changed Britain

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and how much Britain
has changed since.

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Today I'll be finding out about
free rail trips.

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The whole town was going on holiday
at the same time. Virtually, yes.

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Virtually, yes. Virtually the whole
town was coming to a standstill.

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'I'll be sampling the spa in Bath.'

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What is the etiquette?

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A sort of wallowing etiquette.

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Wallowing. These are great
for wallowing. Yeah?
I could think of various...

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You could deliver a nasty blow
to someone with one of those.

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And I'll be trying my hand
at glass blowing.

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Very, very impressed. I've got to be
honest, I really am truly impressed.

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All this week, I'm following my
Bradshaw's Guide to the West Country
along the Great Western Railway.

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Stretching over 300 miles,

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this was one of the earliest
passenger routes in England,

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created by the great Victorian
engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

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It will take me through
Devon and Cornwall

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to the end of the line at Penzance.

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Starting in Swindon,

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today I'll cover the first 40 miles
through Bath to Bristol.

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This route was nicknamed
the holiday line

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because, for the first time,
large numbers of people
could afford to travel by train.

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Most people today take it for
granted that they will get a holiday
away from home at some time,

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but, before the railways, most
people couldn't have dreamt of that.

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The change that occurred in Britain

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when suddenly people
could take a seaside holiday

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must have been quite similar to
the package holiday revolution
in our own time.

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Nowadays, people can go to Spain
or they can go to Thailand.

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But in those days, to be able
to go to Devon and Cornwall...

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It really changed people's lives.

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This is Swindon.

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In Bradshaw's day,
Swindon was the headquarters
of the Great Western Railway,

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which built all its locomotives
in the town's colossal workshops.

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Bradshaw described it as,

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"One of the extraordinary products
of railway enterprise
of the present age.

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"It's a colony
of engineers and handicraft men."

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These clearly are
the old railway works.

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Bradshaw was awestruck by them,
they were so vast.

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I think they're probably a bit
smaller than they were, but even so,
they are pretty impressive.

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This was the hub of
the Great Western Railway

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and they attracted skilled people
from all over Britain

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to build and maintain the engines
for the Great Western Railway.

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No wonder Bradshaw was bowled over.

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Everyone in Swindon
seems to know about the works.

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How are you?

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Nice to see you. Nice to see you.
I watch you on the TV.

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Thank you very much. Here we are
doing something about the railways.

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Oh, right. Is Swindon a railway town?

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It certainly is. This used to be
the works. Yes, I know.

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Quite a lot of it has gone,
is that right?

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Yes.

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Your government, Margaret Thatcher,
closed most of it.

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You don't live in one of these,
do you? I don't.

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This is the modern village that
was built for the railway workers.

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'The Great Western Railway Company
was a pioneering employer

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'and it needed thousands of workers,
so it built them houses.'

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The village does still
look very good.

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This side looks pretty derelict but
that side still looks pretty good.

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There used to be various workshops
but I think most of them have shut.

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I don't know who rents it out
any more. I'm going to potter about
and have a look at it all.

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I look forward to seeing you on
the telly. Nice to meet you.
Very nice to see you. Goodbye.

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'As well as decent houses, there
were other perks for the workers.

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'In 1848, the Great Western Railway
began to run free trains every July

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'for their employees
to go on holiday.

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'It became known as Trip.'

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Who are Ron and Mary?
Hello. Hi, Mary.

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'Friends Ron and Mary travelled
on those trains to Paignton
almost every summer for 50 years.'

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What was Trip?

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A glorious holiday at the seaside.

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The railway works' annual holidays.

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They'd close...

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and it was all the build-up
for going away on holiday
to the seaside.

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A whole town was going on holiday
at the same time? Virtually, yes.

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Virtually, yes. Virtually the whole
town was coming to a standstill.

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What did the railway workers
pay to go on these trains?
Nothing. We had free travel.

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'Ron and Mary and most of their
families worked for the railways.

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'By 1900, the Swindon works
employed three quarters
of the town's population.

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'Soon, almost 30,000 people
were taking Trip trains every year

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'to resorts all over
the South West.'

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Were you dressed up in smart
clothing for the Trip? Oh, yes.

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You had to look your best.

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Even though you were going down to
the beach, the beach hut, you still
had to be dressed Sunday best.

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Just tell me what it's like to
travel in a train in those days

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with a steam engine up the front -
what was that like?

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Oh, lovely. Lovely.
They are so friendly, steam engines.

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Ch-ch-ch-ch, ch-ch-ch-ch.
Rattling away, because now...
There was always a tune.

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Smoke coming in the windows?

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Oh, yes. Grit, dirt and smoke.

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Within a few decades,

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the railways had turned
quiet coastal villages into
bustling holiday destinations.

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What was the resort like? Wonderful.
We had the same beach huts.

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Beach huts next to one another.

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We'd decorate it when it was
her father's birthday
and when it was my mother's.

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Always a week? Sometimes a fortnight
later on but previously we didn't
get paid for any holidays,

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not until after the war.

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When they came back from Trip
they used to call it the dry week,

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because they had no pay,
they couldn't drink.

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The fact that you'd been away for
a week meant the following week
wasn't paid. That's right, no money.

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Overall, working for the railway
was a good thing, do you think?
Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

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If you died, they'd take you away
for your funeral. A full service.

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They always used to say
from the cradle to the grave,
didn't they, Ron?

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Births, deaths and marriages.
Everything.

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It's been great talking to you.

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Thank you very much. Thank you.

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The railways enabled the workers
to go on holiday to the coast.

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They also helped ordinary
Victorians to become tourists

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in places previously accessible
only to the rich.

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One of those attractions
is 35 miles away.

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Next stop, Bath.

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For the next leg of my journey,
I'm following Bradshaw's Guide
from Swindon to Bath Spa.

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One section of the Great Western
Railway, Box Hill,

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posed a particular challenge
for the line's engineer, Brunel.

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The hill was too steep to run
the railway over it so he decided
to go straight through it.

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This is the Box Tunnel -

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a feat of engineering by Brunel
that Bradshaw was very impressed by.

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He writes, "It's upwards of one mile
and three quarters in length

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"through the solid heart
and immense mass of Box Hill."

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It took 4,000 men almost four years
to dig through the limestone rock

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but when it was finished it was the
longest railway tunnel in the world.

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It caused some controversy.

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Brunel had acquired an adversary,
a Dr Dionysius Lardner.

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He said that if you travel
through this tunnel at the speeds
they were going at - nearly 60 mph -

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the air would be sucked out of
your body and people would die.

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Fear spread,
as it does with health scares today,

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so lots of people decided
they would get off the train
before it entered the tunnel,

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make the journey by road and
rejoin the train at the other side.

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But...
HE INHALES

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I seem to be doing fine!

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This has to be
one of the prettiest approaches
to any railway station in England.

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I can see spires and terraces
and church towers

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and lovely open spaces.

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A magnificent city.

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And I'm not alone.

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Bradshaw says, "The view from
the station is one calculated to
impress a stranger very favourably

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"with the importance of the city,
so renowned in the world
of fashionable invalids."

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So, Bath.
Straightaway, you are struck by
the very beautiful colour of stone.

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But right here by the station,
this is not the finest bit.

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I want to find those crescents
and terraces that I remember

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and that Bradshaw
waxes lyrical about.

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It was the Georgian architecture
of Bath that so impressed Bradshaw.

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He wrote of Bath, "Spacious streets,
groves and crescents

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"lined with stately stone edifices
and intersected by squares
and gardens

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"complete a view of city grandeur
scarcely surpassed
by any other in the kingdom.

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"The gaieties of Bath
are celebrated all over Europe."

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Bath's elegant streets
were designed by the architect
John Wood in the 18th century.

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His classic uniform facades
gave simple terraced houses
the grandeur of stately homes.

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In Bradshaw's day, Bath was
the playground of high society,

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but the railways changed all that.

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For the first time,
the middle and lower classes
could afford to travel here

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and sample what the wealthy
had been enjoying for centuries -

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the spas.

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This is one of what were
three medieval baths -

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there was the Hot Bath, the King's
Bath and the Cross Bath.

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We'll go in and have a look at it.

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'Dr Roger Rolls
is a GP and medical historian

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'who has been studying the medicinal
properties of the waters.'

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It's a wonderful combination
of the old and the new.

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Absolutely.
It's been restored very beautifully.

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This is where the spring comes out.

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That is a hot spring coming out
at that temperature from the ground.

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It is quite warm,
it's kind of blood temperature.

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More than blood temperature.
More than body temperature.
About 44 degrees.

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Did many famous people
come to this bath?
Samuel Pepys used to come here.

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He liked to get here very early
in the morning at 4 o'clock

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because he didn't like the crowds
later on.

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The most famous person
who came here was Mary of Modena,

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who came in order to avail herself
of the property of the water,

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which was supposed to improve
fertility and fecundity.

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Mary of Modena was married to
King James II of England.

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They'd been trying to produce
an heir to the throne for 14 years.

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She was successful in the following
year - she gave birth to a son.

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No-one quite knows whether it was
the effect of the waters that did it

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or the fact that
there was mixed bathing

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and quite a licentious attitude
to bathing at that time.

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What about the whole business of
the magical waters of Bath?

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Are there properties in
this water that make them curative?

187
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A lot of people thought there were.

188
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The main reason for that
was that they thought the water
could go through the skin,

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through pores in the skin.
That's been disproved. Has it?

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One theory is that certainly many of
those with paralysis that came to
Bath were due to lead poisoning.

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In the 18th century, nobody
realised it was lead poisoning,

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but by the time the railways
came here it was well-known.

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What difference
did the water make?

194
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Some recent research
that was done into
immersing people up to their necks -

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they would have shown that
if you have raised levels of lead
in your body,

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it's excreted more rapidly
if you immerse yourself regularly...

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It's just pressing?
It's literally pressing and
it makes your kidneys work harder.

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Whatever the reason was,
people came here and were happy
because they felt better?

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They were very happy. They came
here in droves, as they still do.

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During the last century,
the baths' popularity declined
until they were closed in 1978.

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But a few years ago, contemporary
architects gave the baths
a multi-million-pound renovation.

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Fashionable invalids,
as Bradshaw called them,

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and many others,
are flocking back to the baths
from all over the country.

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Brilliant.

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Fantastic.

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Lift goes straight out
into an open air pool.

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This is obviously very new.

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This was by the architect
Nicholas Grimshaw.

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00:15:27,280 --> 00:15:30,480
But I suppose it's kind of
the modern interpretation

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of what it's been like
to take the waters in Bath
over many centuries.

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'People are drawn here
by the warm waters all year round,

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'just as they were in Bradshaw's
day, over 150 years ago.'

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It's fantastic to be in
such a warm bath, isn't it?

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Yes. And I think somehow
to know that it's natural...

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It's hard to get your head
around that bit. That it's come from
the earth at this temperature? Yeah.

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But talk about a pool with a view!

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Look at this! That's half
the attraction. It's fantastic.

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You've been when
it's been raining, haven't you?

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Yes. And it's still open, still warm.

220
00:16:07,880 --> 00:16:12,840
What is the etiquette?
Nobody's swimming up and down,
doing lengths. What's the etiquette?

221
00:16:12,840 --> 00:16:16,240
It's a sort of wallowing etiquette.
A wallowing etiquette.

222
00:16:16,240 --> 00:16:19,000
These things are great
for wallowing. Yes.

223
00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:21,040
I could think of various...

224
00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:25,160
You could deliver a nasty blow
to someone with one of those.
I guess so!

225
00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:29,760
I do feel rejuvenated by that bath.

226
00:16:29,760 --> 00:16:34,920
But I think it was...not just
the warm water but also the sun

227
00:16:34,920 --> 00:16:39,400
and that wonderful,
unforgettable view of Bath.

228
00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:47,600
When the wealthy came
to take the waters here
in the 18th and 19th centuries,

229
00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:49,960
they also needed a place to stay.

230
00:16:51,520 --> 00:16:53,960
The Royal Crescent, Bath.

231
00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:56,360
Magnificent.

232
00:16:56,360 --> 00:17:00,040
Don't you love its grandeur,
its elegance, its open spaces?

233
00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:02,120
This amazing view.

234
00:17:05,200 --> 00:17:10,040
The Royal Crescent never changes.
It was like this
when I was last here, I think.

235
00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:16,560
But I was quite a bit smaller
and, of course, your memories
are never exactly right.

236
00:17:16,560 --> 00:17:21,040
I don't remember it being so open.
I don't remember the greenery.

237
00:17:21,040 --> 00:17:24,280
It's magnificent.
You don't tire of it.

238
00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:32,440
The Duke of York lived here
in the middle of the Royal Crescent
in the 18th century,

239
00:17:32,440 --> 00:17:36,200
and, luckily for me, his house
has been turned into a hotel.

240
00:17:36,200 --> 00:17:41,360
Welcome to the hotel. Thank you
very much. I have come to stay.
Only one night, I'm afraid.

241
00:17:41,360 --> 00:17:43,200
I'm sure we can talk you into more!

242
00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:48,040
'Head concierge, Mark Hanks,
has worked at the hotel
for the last 22 years.'

243
00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:51,080
And is this really
the Grand Old Duke of York's? Yes.

244
00:17:51,080 --> 00:17:55,720
The Grand Old Duke of York
frequented Bath and actually stayed
in this house for some time.

245
00:17:55,720 --> 00:18:00,520
The one who marched his men to
the top of the hill? Yes, the hill
that we can see from your room.

246
00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:03,440
Oh! It's really lovely,
thank you. Absolute pleasure.

247
00:18:03,440 --> 00:18:05,160
I'll just place the case for you.

248
00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:10,000
Thank you. Do enjoy your
stay and if there's anything else
you need, please give us a call, sir.

249
00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:11,800
Thank you very much. Pleasure.

250
00:18:13,360 --> 00:18:15,040
I've hit the jackpot.

251
00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:25,000
After a night's sleep in a bed fit
for a king, or a duke at least,

252
00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:27,000
I'm off on the third leg
of my journey.

253
00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:32,440
Today I'm following my Bradshaw's
Railway Guide from Bath to Bristol,
just 12 miles away.

254
00:18:37,400 --> 00:18:40,920
These days, it's easy
to plan your route by train,

255
00:18:40,920 --> 00:18:45,040
but when Bradshaw was first writing,
there was a real difficulty.

256
00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:50,600
If this were before 1840,
I would now be resetting my watch,

257
00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:57,320
because the time in Bristol
is 10 minutes different from London,
being that much further west.

258
00:18:57,320 --> 00:19:01,680
For Brunel,
with his fast-moving steam trains,
this was a real problem.

259
00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:05,120
How do you create a timetable when
every city is on a different time?

260
00:19:05,120 --> 00:19:08,720
And so he introduced
a standardised time, railway time,

261
00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:12,800
so that notionally
the time in Bristol and London
would be the same.

262
00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:16,800
The origins of the time zones
that we have today.

263
00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:26,360
Bradshaw used railway time, also
known as London time, when compiling
his timetables in the 1840s.

264
00:19:26,360 --> 00:19:32,480
He convinced all the other
railway companies to follow suit.

265
00:19:32,480 --> 00:19:37,480
Within 10 years, the whole country
was in a single time zone.

266
00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:40,520
Bristol Temple Meads
is a fantastic station.

267
00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:46,120
It's got this enormous span.
It's classic Victorian
railway architecture.

268
00:19:46,120 --> 00:19:49,600
You see it all over Britain. You
see it all over the world, really.

269
00:19:49,600 --> 00:19:52,160
But this isn't
the original station at Bristol.

270
00:19:52,160 --> 00:19:55,400
Brunel's terminus, the one
Bradshaw would have arrived at

271
00:19:55,400 --> 00:19:58,640
and the model for many future
designs, is just next door.

272
00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:00,720
I can't believe this.

273
00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:07,560
One of the great wonders of railway
architecture, of historic
railway architecture,

274
00:20:07,560 --> 00:20:11,760
is behind this
really unimpressive door.

275
00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:20,560
And just look at this.

276
00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:24,200
Built in the 1830s.
This enormous span.

277
00:20:24,200 --> 00:20:29,040
This was technology beyond belief,
to build a span like this.

278
00:20:29,040 --> 00:20:36,960
The first time that passengers and
trains had been put together under
a single roof, under a single shed.

279
00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:42,360
'The design, known as hammer beam,
is supported by beams on each side
rather than pillars.

280
00:20:42,360 --> 00:20:50,000
'That leaves the floor space clear
to allow for the free flow of crowds
and, in this case, trains.'

281
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:56,160
It's quite funny for me, because
apparently this is the widest
hammer-beamed roof in the world.

282
00:20:56,160 --> 00:20:59,320
But I'd always been told the widest
one was in Parliament,

283
00:20:59,320 --> 00:21:03,640
and actually it does look like
the roof in the Westminster Hall
in Parliament.

284
00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:05,280
It's built in the same manner.

285
00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:10,160
You can see where the trains
would come in and where people
would stand on the platform.

286
00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:14,320
They had to climb down from
the platform and wander
across to the other lines.

287
00:21:14,320 --> 00:21:17,120
You didn't get
a platform for every train.

288
00:21:17,120 --> 00:21:20,000
It's an absolutely fantastic
piece of architecture.

289
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:21,600
But nobody gets to see it.

290
00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:26,400
Brunel's passenger shed
is the oldest surviving

291
00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:30,480
railway terminus in the world,
but now it's sadly neglected.

292
00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:35,520
I'm looking at the front
of Brunel's engine shed

293
00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:39,480
and it was clearly
once a terrific facade.

294
00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:41,200
It's, of course, fake Gothic.

295
00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:45,160
But the building
has completely gone to pot.

296
00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:49,160
It's like seeing an old relative
in an old people's home or something

297
00:21:49,160 --> 00:21:53,040
It's really sad,
abandoned, neglected.

298
00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:55,760
I don't suppose anybody
ever gives it a second look.

299
00:21:55,760 --> 00:22:00,920
And yet it's a really important
piece of national heritage.

300
00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:03,000
Very upsetting.

301
00:22:06,120 --> 00:22:13,440
The Bristol of my 1860s guidebook
was a global city with trade links
throughout the Empire.

302
00:22:13,440 --> 00:22:17,040
Goods made here were exported
from the man-made inland docks

303
00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:21,240
as far afield as North America
and the West Indies.

304
00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:24,920
So, Bristol was clearly
a very important port

305
00:22:24,920 --> 00:22:29,320
but Bradshaw also lists,
as he always does for cities,

306
00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:31,120
what was made here.

307
00:22:31,120 --> 00:22:35,080
And Bristol, obviously,
was quite important in manufacturing

308
00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:43,000
"The chief manufacturers..."
it says, "..are engines, glass,
hats, pottery, soap and brushes."

309
00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:46,600
Well, most of those industries
have gone by now. Long since gone.

310
00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:50,400
One trade, though, has been revived.

311
00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:54,640
Bristol blue glass.

312
00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:57,480
James? Hello. I'm Michael.

313
00:22:57,480 --> 00:23:02,880
'James Adlington and his family
started their blue glass company
20 years ago

314
00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:05,160
'in a bid to bring back
the lost art.'

315
00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:09,320
Why is Bristol
associated with blue glass?

316
00:23:09,320 --> 00:23:12,440
William Cookworthy
discovered cobalt in Germany,

317
00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:16,120
and the Bristol Merchant Venturers
bought the monopoly on the cobalt.

318
00:23:16,120 --> 00:23:21,400
And one of the class makers
grabbed some cobalt and threw it into
the lead glass. With a great result.

319
00:23:21,400 --> 00:23:23,920
With a great result -
a really vibrant blue.

320
00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:27,680
And these are what? These are
rolling pins. They're friggers.

321
00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:31,600
They'd sell them to the sailors
who were going off in the ships

322
00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:35,560
They would give them to their wives
who would hang them in the window.

323
00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:39,440
A lucky charm? A lucky charm to
make sure they'd come back safely.

324
00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:42,440
And this stuff is still blown,
is it? Yes.

325
00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:44,480
Do you mind if I have a look?
Of course.

326
00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:50,440
'It can take up to seven years
to learn how to make glass
as the Victorians did,

327
00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:53,800
'so James is showing me
how to make a simple tumbler.'

328
00:23:56,080 --> 00:24:00,120
You go and sit down and
I'll bring that back to you.
Pick up your tools again.

329
00:24:00,120 --> 00:24:03,640
Which one? This one? Yes. That's it.

330
00:24:03,640 --> 00:24:06,800
'The furnaces reach
volcanic temperatures.

331
00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:11,480
'They're used to make
the molten glass, which can then
be gathered onto the blowpipe.'

332
00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:12,600
A good, hard blow.

333
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:17,080
That's it. Sorry about that.

334
00:24:17,080 --> 00:24:18,760
Don't put it all in there.

335
00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:21,080
Just let it...get it on to the pick.

336
00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:24,320
And let it fall on centre again.

337
00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:26,960
Voila.

338
00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:34,520
So I put it into an oven
until about 5 o'clock tonight
when it gets turned off

339
00:24:34,520 --> 00:24:37,000
and it's allowed to
cool down overnight.

340
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:39,800
What would happen if
the glass cooled immediately?

341
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:44,200
If you just left it on the side,
it would just crack. Would it? Yeah.

342
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:48,320
The cooling process would be too
brutal for it. I really enjoyed that.

343
00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:50,880
Thank you very much.
I'm very, very impressed.

344
00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:53,120
I've got to be honest, I really am.

345
00:24:53,120 --> 00:24:55,280
Truly impressed.

346
00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:02,720
In Bradshaw's time, it wasn't
just glass passing through the docks

347
00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:04,960
Working with
the Great Western Railway,

348
00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:08,720
Brunel developed an integrated
international travel service.

349
00:25:10,040 --> 00:25:15,760
Passengers could take the train from
London to Bristol, then continue to
New York on the company's steamship,

350
00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:19,800
the SS Great Britain,
also designed by him.

351
00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:26,360
Hi, you're Tom? Yes. Good to see
you. How are you? Very good, thanks.

352
00:25:26,360 --> 00:25:30,960
'Ferry operator Tom Axon
is taking me to see it.'

353
00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:33,520
How far is it from
Temple Meads station to the dock

354
00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:36,520
from which the transatlantic
steamers would have left?

355
00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:41,720
Well, there's just over a mile to
where the SS Great Britain was built.

356
00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:50,680
In 1843, the SS Great Britain
was constructed in the dockyards
of the Great Western Railway.

357
00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:56,120
Brunel's design was the first
steam-powered ship in the world.

358
00:25:56,120 --> 00:26:03,600
He persuaded the bosses to invest in
a super ship made out of wrought iron
to cross the ocean.

359
00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:05,560
That was unheard of.

360
00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:09,000
Are we going to see
the SS Great Britain in a moment?
That's it there.

361
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:15,440
'The SS Great Britain
was built for the transatlantic
luxury passenger trade,

362
00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:20,640
'carrying just 252 travellers
in first and second class.

363
00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:23,040
'But the service didn't make money.

364
00:26:23,040 --> 00:26:30,080
'She was eventually converted
to carry three times that number
on emigrant runs to Australia.'

365
00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:33,800
So the SS Great Britain,
it's an iron-built ship,
it's got propellers,

366
00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:37,080
but it's also got six masts.
Why? For efficiency.

367
00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:41,640
If there's a high wind blowing,
you need to harness that as well.

368
00:26:41,640 --> 00:26:45,000
Because it wouldn't be able to get
to Australia from Britain...

369
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:46,920
With the fuel. ..with its own power.

370
00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:50,400
So it's a hybrid.
It's what we'd call a hybrid today.

371
00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:56,240
It uses carbon fuels and it uses
natural resources as well. Yes.

372
00:26:56,240 --> 00:27:01,240
Thank you very much indeed.
It's been a pleasure. A real pleasure
for me, thank you. Bye.

373
00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:10,400
Seeing the scale of industry here
is a reminder of what
an important port Bristol was.

374
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:15,560
Up until the late 19th century,
the city had routes to India,
the Americas and Australia.

375
00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:18,840
I'm really impressed by
the Victorians' ambition,

376
00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:23,280
with their vast stations and
steamships and exports to the world.

377
00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:25,040
But when Bradshaw was writing,

378
00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:27,320
the British Empire
was near its peak.

379
00:27:27,320 --> 00:27:29,760
Much of the world map
was coloured pink.

380
00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:32,600
No wonder
the Victorians thought globally.

381
00:27:37,360 --> 00:27:42,840
Bradshaw's handbooks documented
a new era in British travel.

382
00:27:42,840 --> 00:27:47,000
The infrastructure
built by the Victorians
we still use massively today,

383
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:53,840
but the position that they gave
Britain in the world has slipped
away gradually in the decades since.

384
00:27:56,240 --> 00:28:00,840
Tomorrow, I'll be finding out
how the railways created
a national delicacy.

385
00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:04,600
The train was perfect.
You put a strawberry on there
and it was so smooth,

386
00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:09,000
it would go all the way
to the North without being damaged.

387
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:12,160
I'll be asking what our
ancestors got up to in Cheddar.

388
00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:14,920
The bones of three adults
and two children

389
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:19,320
with cut marks to drop the jaw out
is all evidence of cannibalism.

390
00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:23,480
And I'll be exploring
one of Britain's oldest piers.

391
00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:28,920
The other thing, of course,
with piers in their early days was
it was somewhere you could promenade.

392
00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:31,280
In other words, you could be seen.

393
00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:56,760
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

394
00:28:56,760 --> 00:28:59,720
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