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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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I'm continuing my rail journey
into the West Country,

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using this
150-year-old Bradshaw's Guide.

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The arrival of the
Great Western Railway
made it easy for tourists to visit

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resorts like Weston-super-Mare,
and the guide commends the mildness
of the climate in these parts.

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But I'm also hoping to discover
how the combination of railways

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and good weather enabled Somerset

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to export a little bit of sunshine
to the rest of Britain.

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All this week, it's helping me plot
my journey along the holiday route,

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the Great Western Railway line
reaching down
to the South West of England.

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Today, I'll be finding out
how the railways created
a national delicacy.

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The train was perfect.
You could put a strawberry on there
and it was so smooth.

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It would go all the way to
the north without being damaged.

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I'll be asking what our
ancestors got up to in Cheddar.

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The bones of three adults
and two children with cut marks,

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to drop the jaw out,
is all evidence of cannibalism.

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And I'll be exploring
one of Britain's oldest piers.

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The other thing with piers in their
early days was that it was somewhere
where you could promenade.

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In other words, you could be seen.

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My journey this week
takes me from Swindon to find out

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how the railway transformed
many small coastal villages

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into bustling seaside resorts.

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After passing through Devon,
I'll head for Cornwall

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and end my journey
on the rugged headland of Penzance.

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Today, I'm leaving Bristol
and travelling 18 miles to Yatton

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and the Cheddar Gorge
before reaching Weston-super-Mare.

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The Great Western Railway main
line takes me into Somerset,

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which changed forever
when the railways arrived.

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This is Yatton.

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A nice enough station,
but my Bradshaw's Guide dismisses it

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as a place of no importance
except as being a junction.

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What wasn't known
when this was written

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was that in 1869,
a new line would be added here

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which would make Yatton really
rather important after all.

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When the new branch line was opened,
Yatton became the centre of a

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booming strawberry industry which
continued right up to the 1950s.

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Mike Lyle started working
on the trains in his teens.

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Good morning, Mike.
Good morning, Michael.

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Thank you for meeting me.
Not at all.

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I think you know Yatton
station quite well, don't you?

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Yes, I came here as a boy
at the age of

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approximately 15...
and it really was a hive of industry.

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The new railway meant that,
for the first time,

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huge quantities of fresh local
Cheddar Valley strawberries

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could be whisked around the country.

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It was quickly nicknamed
the strawberry line.

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I was invited to go down,
load fruit onto these massive great
wagons - they were called siphons -

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and I suppose, if my memory is
correct, they were about the length
of two double-decker buses.

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We would load all the trains
through the afternoon and evening.

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The smell of the strawberries
was absolutely overwhelming.

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I would catch the last strawberry
train back to a station which
was handy for me to cycle home,

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and then I would throw my bike out

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and I would follow the bicycle out of
the guard's van and then cycle home.

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You and your bike were both
leaving a moving train?

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Yes. Every minute counted.

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Every single minute counted.

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If it lost its connection,

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then the fruit wouldn't be
in any shape or form

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to be eaten at the other end.

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With the industry in decline,
the strawberry line and its workers

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became the victims of the massive

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British Railways closures
in the 1960s.

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When you heard that branch line
was closing, what did you feel?

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I wondered what I was going to do.

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It was quite shocking news.

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It was national news.

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It affected every branch line and
I was quite in despair at the time.

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50 years on, many of the disused
lines have become footpaths

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crisscrossing Britain's countryside.

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So I'll be continuing the next
part of my journey on foot.

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Good morning. I see you're
walking the strawberry line. I am.

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Do you think it's a good way
to see country, walking along an
old railway line? Definitely.

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You see them dotted around when
you're driving around
and they're normally banked up,

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nice and flat, easy to walk on,
easy to cycle on, so, yeah.

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And it gets you really in touch
with the greenery and the country,
doesn't it? Plenty to see.

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Lots of birds around, wildlife.

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It's good, yeah.

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There's always something sad
about a disused railway line,

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and I'm old enough to remember
tracks that I used to use
being closed in the Beeching cuts.

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It was inevitable, I suppose.

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The railways grew
topsy-turvy in a Victorian era
when people didn't have cars.

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The cheery thing is that today
we don't talk about lines closing
but new ones opening,

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and there's a lot of talk that the
future of travel is high-speed rail.

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But for today at least I'll be
ambling to the other end
of the strawberry line.

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In its heyday, there were
250 strawberry growers here.

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Only four remain today, including
fruit farmer Andrew Seagers.

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Why are strawberries grown here?

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What's special about
the land or the water here?

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I think it's because of the slopes
of the Mendip Hills, the climate

94
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and the minerals in the water -
it gives it a good flavour fruit.

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How long in the year are
you getting strawberries?

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We start picking about 15th April
and we will finish in that greenhouse

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again with another crop of
strawberries by 15th November.

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That's a pretty long
season you have now.

99
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I imagine that's much more
than would have been 100 years ago.

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Yes, we would be lucky
to get probably more than
four weeks, five weeks.

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Now, we take it for granted that we
can eat strawberries all year round.

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But in Bradshaw's time, strawberries
were a special seasonal delicacy.

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For a few weeks of the year,
they were picked and transported

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to market each Friday,
the day after people were paid.

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As we're moving down here,
we're beginning to see

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some strawberries now that are
getting towards ripeness.

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Do you mind if I try that one?
No, course you can.

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Mm...beautiful.

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It's absolutely fabulous.

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There's just no substitute
for taking it straight off
the plant, is there? Mm-hm.

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I suppose the railways made it
possible for this

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massive amount of strawberries
to be grown in Britain.

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Yes. But I suppose it's
the airlines now that are
killing it off in Britain.

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Yes. What happened was, you could
send a strawberry to anywhere in
the North of England on a train,

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and the strawberries were much softer
than these, so the train was perfect

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because you could put a strawberry on
there and it was so smooth

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and it would go all the way to the
north without being damaged.

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'The railways were pivotal for the
strawberry growers, but they also

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'kick-started another Cheddar Valley
industry - tourism.'

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Before the railways, only rich
tourists would have been able to

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enjoy the wonderful spectacle
of the Cheddar Gorge.

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When the railways arrived,
thousands of ordinary day-trippers

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began to enjoy the splendour
of this magnificent area.

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Reaching 500 feet in places,
the sides of the ravine

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boast the highest inland cliffs
in the country.

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My Bradshaw's Guide tells me
that the cliffs of Cheddar
are well worth visiting,

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and says the area has achieved
"some notoriety from the discovery
of two caverns in the vicinity,

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"one called the Stalactite and the
other the Bone Cave."

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And it comments on the very large
number of visitors now coming
to the area.

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But no Victorian could have imagined

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the tourist magnet
that it's become today.

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'Cheddar Gorge now attracts
half a million visitors a year.

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'Many of them, like
archaeologist Hugh Cornwell,
come to marvel at the caves.

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'They were discovered by eccentric
sea captain and showman
Richard Gough.'

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Hugh, after my long trek,
I find you. What a beautiful cave.

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When Richard Gough discovered this
in November 1898,

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he came through the tunnel there
and he saw this

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and he called it St Paul's Cathedral

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because of the whispering gallery
at the top.

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And this is very pretty.
This is almost too good to be true.

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This is a Richard Gough invention.

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It's a mirror pool.

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He's dammed the water, just a little
skim of water, and you can see

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the stalactites reflected
on the surface of the water.

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Do you approve of
this manipulation of nature?

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Yes, I do. It's very low-intensity
human interaction with it,

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and...Gough's reason was to show

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the amazing complexity and beauty of
nature, and I think he's succeeded.

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Ah! I thought you'd
be more disapproving.

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'The Victorians poured in to
experience this underground
labyrinth,

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'the first cave in Britain
to be lit with electric light.

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'Before Gough turned them into
a tourist attraction,

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'the caves had been home
to something else.'

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You can probably guess
from the smell that we've now
arrived at the cheese cave.

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I'm glad you mentioned that, Hugh.
I wondered if we had a problem!

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Now, the cheese is here.

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Is this a necessary
part of its maturing process,
or is this a kind of touristy thing?

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No, this is really genuine.

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These are truckles of cheese

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and they're the only really genuine
Cheddar cheese in the entire world,

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because these cheeses are
made from unpasteurised milk from

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cows on the Somerset Levels,
very close to Cheddar.

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They're made by hand in the Cheddar
Gorge Cheese Company in Cheddar

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and they are stored here
in Gough's Cave,

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and this is genuine
cave-matured Cheddar cheese.

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Oh, it sounds wonderful. I can't
wait to get my hands on some.

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As more and more areas of the cave
were opened up to cater

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for the tourists, some important
archaeological discoveries
were made.

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And this is Cheddar Man,
9,000 years old, the oldest complete
skeleton ever found in Britain.

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That is a fantastic sight.

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This intact skeleton was
found here, was it? Yes.

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'When the skeleton was studied
in detail, it revealed
an extraordinary life and death.'

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The story behind it, we believe,
is that Cheddar Man as a teenager

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was hit in head with an axe,

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which created a major wound
in his forehead.

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That probably affected him
for the rest of his life,

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but he died, we believe,
in his early 20s.

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And we think that, during that
period, the effect of the blow

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to the head made him anti-social,
dysfunctional,

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that sort of thing,
so that when he died,

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the members of his tribe didn't deal
with him in the normal way of burial

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but put him in a twilight zone here

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so that his spirit couldn't depart

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to the ancestors and couldn't
roam amongst the living either.

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'Recent research has produced
more sinister revelations

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00:13:18,360 --> 00:13:21,080
'about the people who lived
in these caves.'

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I hear there's evidence
of cannibalism that's been
discovered in these caves.

188
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Yes, that's true. The bones of three
adults and two children with cut

189
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marks, to drop the jaw out, to get at
the tongue and to invert the skull,

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and cut marks on the long bones and
the breaking of long bones is all

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evidence of cannibalism and the bones
are scattered across the cave floor

192
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and mixed with horse bones.

193
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So cannibalism did take place here,
but long before Cheddar Man.

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I'm pleased to see people have
turned from cannibalism

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to cheese-eating in this part
of the world. This is only recent.
Only recent!

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'The researchers also took
DNA from Cheddar Man

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'to see if they could find any of
his descendants in Cheddar today.

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00:14:10,280 --> 00:14:12,800
'And guess what?
They found a match.'

199
00:14:12,800 --> 00:14:14,400
Adrian. Good evening.

200
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Let me get a good look at you.

201
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Nice to meet you, Michael.
Any resemblance to Cheddar Man?

202
00:14:20,360 --> 00:14:22,840
Probably vaguely.
I can't see it exactly.

203
00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:25,360
Come on in. Thank you very much.

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'Local teacher Adrian Target
was helping to organise

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'the experiment when he was also
roped in to giving a sample.'

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So I was arranging to have
my students' DNA tested and some of

207
00:14:37,880 --> 00:14:39,280
them were a bit apprehensive,

208
00:14:39,280 --> 00:14:42,920
and so I said, "It'll be OK. I'll
show you there's nothing involved.

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00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:44,600
"I'll have mine done as well."

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00:14:44,600 --> 00:14:49,280
One of the things that they obviously
wanted to know

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was how much like
Cheddar Man I was, and so they did...

212
00:14:55,520 --> 00:15:01,640
..a reconstruction of Cheddar
Man's head based on what
they had from the skeleton.

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00:15:03,240 --> 00:15:05,400
Adrian, this is spooky!

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Such a strong resemblance.

215
00:15:08,480 --> 00:15:11,440
I mean, obviously you don't wear
your hair the same way

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00:15:11,440 --> 00:15:13,840
they did 9,000 years ago,
but otherwise...

217
00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:17,760
It's always other people who can
see the resemblance, isn't it?

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00:15:17,760 --> 00:15:21,880
'Almost as bizarre
is Adrian's other secret.'

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You know who this is, don't you?

220
00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:27,320
Yes, it's a Bradshaw
Handbook, a Bradshaw Guide.

221
00:15:27,320 --> 00:15:30,040
And how do you know that?

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00:15:30,040 --> 00:15:33,680
Probably because I'm
a railway nut, I suppose,

223
00:15:33,680 --> 00:15:38,000
a bit of an anorak, and I've
collected mainly the timetables

224
00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:39,760
rather than the guides.

225
00:15:39,760 --> 00:15:42,000
Adrian, that is to be
a serious anorak

226
00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:45,840
to collect the timetables
of trains that ran 150 years ago.

227
00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:49,200
Yes, I suppose so. Sherlock
Holmes always had a Bradshaw

228
00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:50,800
to the left of his fireplace.

229
00:15:50,800 --> 00:15:53,200
Well, I do have some just here.

230
00:15:55,560 --> 00:16:00,080
'I suppose it was only a matter
of time before I met another
Bradshaw enthusiast.

231
00:16:00,080 --> 00:16:05,280
'It wasn't long ago that
they were an essential item
for every train traveller.'

232
00:16:05,280 --> 00:16:08,680
Must give you a lot of interesting
bedtime reading, that.

233
00:16:08,680 --> 00:16:10,320
Thank you. That's lovely.

234
00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:17,120
'It's almost time to leave Cheddar,

235
00:16:17,120 --> 00:16:21,760
'but there's one thing I need to try
before I go.' Good evening.

236
00:16:21,760 --> 00:16:24,920
Oh, that looks serious!

237
00:16:24,920 --> 00:16:26,480
Are these all from Cheddar?

238
00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:29,280
They are all from Cheddar.
This is the one from the caves?

239
00:16:29,280 --> 00:16:32,720
It is indeed.
That's the one I have to try.

240
00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:36,240
Lovely big taste.

241
00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:38,360
Mmm, really mature and...

242
00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:42,320
..fresh and tangy.

243
00:16:42,320 --> 00:16:45,240
Thank you so much.
I'm glad you're enjoying it.

244
00:16:49,560 --> 00:16:50,960
'Early next morning,

245
00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:55,200
'I'm ready to pop along the coast
to Weston-super-Mare.' Morning.

246
00:16:55,200 --> 00:16:56,720
Morning.

247
00:16:59,840 --> 00:17:01,280
Morning.

248
00:17:04,040 --> 00:17:07,800
Running on time on a Sunday morning.
That's very good. Yeah, we try to.

249
00:17:10,240 --> 00:17:16,080
The building of the Great Western
Railway made it possible for there
to be long-distance tourism,

250
00:17:16,080 --> 00:17:20,840
like railway workers
from Swindon spending a week
by the seaside in Devon.

251
00:17:20,840 --> 00:17:26,000
But it also led to growth
of day-tripping and weekend visits,
so that people from

252
00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:31,040
Bristol and Exeter could spend time
by the sea in the Bristol Channel.

253
00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:38,800
Weston-super-Mare, perhaps
above all other seaside resorts,

254
00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:40,960
grew rapidly thanks to the railway.

255
00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:46,600
In 1822,
it had a population of just 735.

256
00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:50,840
By the end of the century,
it had shot up to over 20,000.

257
00:17:54,120 --> 00:17:59,160
'Clearly, they weren't put off
by what Bradshaw had to say.'

258
00:17:59,160 --> 00:18:01,320
Weston-super-Mare.

259
00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:05,320
My Bradshaw's Guide is not entirely
polite about Weston-Super-Mare,

260
00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:07,480
so I'm intrigued to see
what I'm going to find.

261
00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:14,040
Bradshaw writes that, "The receding
of the tide leaves

262
00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:16,680
"a disfiguring bank of mud
along the beach,

263
00:18:16,680 --> 00:18:20,520
"which is a great drawback
to the enjoyment of bathing".

264
00:18:20,520 --> 00:18:25,360
It says about Weston-Super-Mare,
at low tide Weston is disfigured
by this bank of mud.

265
00:18:25,360 --> 00:18:28,280
What do you think of that?
I think it's right.

266
00:18:28,280 --> 00:18:29,840
Do you think that
is a bit disfiguring?

267
00:18:29,840 --> 00:18:31,760
I think it's the stones and stuff.

268
00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:33,480
Do you not like that so much?

269
00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:35,480
It can look very dirty and polluted,

270
00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:39,440
but today it actually doesn't look
that polluted, but sometimes it does.

271
00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:41,360
Good afternoon. Hello.

272
00:18:41,360 --> 00:18:44,520
Are you visiting Weston-super-Mare
or do you live here? We live here.

273
00:18:44,520 --> 00:18:50,360
I'm following a very old guidebook,
150 years old, and he makes what
I think is a rather catty comment.

274
00:18:50,360 --> 00:18:53,200
He says the best reason to stay
a long time in Weston-super-Mare

275
00:18:53,200 --> 00:18:55,960
is because of the
attractive places around it.

276
00:18:55,960 --> 00:18:58,320
What do you think of that?
Do you think that's a bit unfair?

277
00:18:58,320 --> 00:19:01,520
Well... Yeah, the Weston-super-Mare
central is lovely.

278
00:19:01,520 --> 00:19:03,680
I thought you'd say that.

279
00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:07,080
And the other thing he says
is that he thinks

280
00:19:07,080 --> 00:19:11,280
the bank of mud that's left
at low tide is disfiguring.

281
00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:15,160
Would you use that word?
No, it's a natural thing, surely.

282
00:19:15,160 --> 00:19:19,280
You can't have lovely Cornwall
beaches everywhere, can you?

283
00:19:19,280 --> 00:19:24,480
And if it's a natural thing,
you shouldn't call it disfiguring?
No, course not. It's part of Weston.

284
00:19:24,480 --> 00:19:28,160
Everybody knows it's like that
down here but everybody still
comes down here.

285
00:19:28,160 --> 00:19:30,000
You really are
loyal to your town.

286
00:19:33,880 --> 00:19:40,360
At least Bradshaw is more positive
about one local attraction,
Birnbeck Pier.

287
00:19:40,360 --> 00:19:44,280
He says, "The bay sweeps
a flat sandy beach to Worle Hill,

288
00:19:44,280 --> 00:19:48,560
"having beyond it the Rock, or
island of Birnbeck, across which

289
00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:52,520
"a new pier has been made
with a landing stage for steamers."

290
00:19:54,360 --> 00:19:57,480
The pier was still
bustling 50 years ago.

291
00:19:57,480 --> 00:20:01,280
But severe damage from storms
in 1990 made it unsafe

292
00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:04,120
and it was
closed to the public in 1994.

293
00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:09,000
The only way to appreciate
it is by water.

294
00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:13,840
'So I've tagged along with the RNLI,
who used to have a base on the pier.

295
00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:17,680
'Nigel is one of 24 local
volunteers.'

296
00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:20,920
You've got an RNLI slipway there.

297
00:20:20,920 --> 00:20:23,440
You use that sometimes?
We don't any more.

298
00:20:23,440 --> 00:20:29,480
That got condemned a while back,
just falling into disrepair, really.

299
00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:32,920
So we now operate on
the north side, using a new method

300
00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:36,680
with tractors and trailers launching
on a shingle beach.

301
00:20:36,680 --> 00:20:39,840
Does it make you sad to see it
in this dilapidated condition?

302
00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:42,480
It does, yes. It's quite an old pier.

303
00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:45,640
I just about remember it
from when I was a wee lad.

304
00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:48,880
And to see it like it is now is
devastating, really.

305
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:53,840
But my visit to the pier is
cut short by a real emergency.

306
00:20:53,840 --> 00:20:57,720
You have to get the guys back
on here. They want number two.

307
00:20:59,960 --> 00:21:01,000
Thank you.

308
00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:03,720
Swansea Coastguard from Weston...

309
00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:05,800
There I was...er...

310
00:21:05,800 --> 00:21:08,600
out in lifeboat number one

311
00:21:08,600 --> 00:21:13,160
and a call came through.

312
00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:16,040
Luckily, we had lifeboat number two
alongside us,

313
00:21:16,040 --> 00:21:18,400
but they have been called
to an emergency.

314
00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:21,080
Somebody is drifting in a raft.

315
00:21:21,080 --> 00:21:24,800
It's quite a long-distance job, so
they've got to take the bigger craft

316
00:21:24,800 --> 00:21:27,800
and luckily we had
the smaller boat alongside.

317
00:21:29,360 --> 00:21:32,680
Hello. Hi, Michael.
Welcome aboard number two.

318
00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:35,120
Thank you very much indeed.
Thank you, guys.

319
00:21:35,120 --> 00:21:39,440
'With all that excitement, I'm glad
to get my feet back on dry land.'

320
00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:41,240
That was great.
Thank you very much indeed.

321
00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:43,440
Take it easy. Bye. Thank you.

322
00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:52,400
This old pier may be very down on
its luck today, but it was still

323
00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:55,960
a massive tourist attraction
until the late 1950s.

324
00:21:57,560 --> 00:22:01,320
Pier archivist Stan Terrell
remembers how popular it was

325
00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:03,600
and has traced its history
back to Bradshaw's day.

326
00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:09,520
Stan, why do you think
the Victorians were
so crazy about piers?

327
00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:14,320
The very fact that they so enjoyed
going on boats, but with a pier

328
00:22:14,320 --> 00:22:18,520
you could be on a boat as it were,
and you felt safe.

329
00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:20,320
You had the water underneath you.

330
00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:22,040
I think they loved that.

331
00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:26,520
The other thing of course
with piers, especially in their

332
00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:29,280
early days, was that it was
somewhere where you could promenade.

333
00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:33,480
In other words, you could be seen
and you could see others.

334
00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:38,360
One of the reasons the pier was
such a hit was that it was the

335
00:22:38,360 --> 00:22:43,000
nearest spot for Welsh people
to get a drink on Sundays.

336
00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:48,760
Cardiff tourists poured in
from the steamers into the bars
on the first "booze cruises".

337
00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:53,000
Paint a picture for me.
At the height of the Victorian era,
people arriving by steamers.

338
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:55,280
What would it have been like
on the pier?

339
00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:56,960
Bags of excitement, I guess.

340
00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:01,400
As many as 13 steamers queuing
up to discharge their passengers.

341
00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:04,880
When they would have
eventually got on the island,

342
00:23:04,880 --> 00:23:08,640
enjoying themselves with all the
amusements, the helter-skelter.

343
00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:12,800
I've heard it said the town business
people didn't like it really,

344
00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:16,040
because all the business was coming
into the old pier

345
00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:18,720
and very little of that
came into the town.

346
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:22,960
Stan, one history of the pier
is about pleasure and steamers.

347
00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:26,760
Another history of the pier is
to do with warfare. Is that right?

348
00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:34,920
Quite correct. In 1942, the Admiralty
took this pier over.

349
00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:40,040
It became then known as HMS Birnbeck,
and they staffed it with scientists.

350
00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:42,560
They developed the bouncing bomb,

351
00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:48,240
but it was only the theoretical work
that was done in that instance.

352
00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:49,800
I have to stop you there.

353
00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:54,120
You're telling me that the bouncing
bomb was developed on a pier?

354
00:23:54,120 --> 00:23:59,200
Yes, it was. The idea apparently
for choosing the pier

355
00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:02,560
to put their scientists on was that,
first of all,

356
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:07,200
you've probably noticed how secluded
we are, away from prying eyes.

357
00:24:07,200 --> 00:24:11,400
And secondly, we have
the third highest rise and fall

358
00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:13,120
of the tide in the world.

359
00:24:13,120 --> 00:24:16,200
So one of the objects
was to develop weapons

360
00:24:16,200 --> 00:24:20,240
that they could fire into
very deep water and they wanted

361
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:23,840
to be able to examine
those explosives on low tide.

362
00:24:23,840 --> 00:24:27,120
So those are the two reasons
it was chosen.

363
00:24:27,120 --> 00:24:32,360
So, actually,
Birnbeck Pier has a rather important
part in the history of World War II.

364
00:24:32,360 --> 00:24:34,040
Oh, yes, I'd say so, yes.

365
00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:53,160
It's a really beautiful day.

366
00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:55,280
The sun's been out.

367
00:24:55,280 --> 00:24:57,440
There's a breeze off the sea.

368
00:24:57,440 --> 00:24:59,520
You can see for miles.

369
00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:05,280
This is the British
beach holiday at its best.

370
00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:09,800
I think Bradshaw must have seen it
on a rainy day, because

371
00:25:09,800 --> 00:25:12,760
Weston-super-Mare has lots to offer,

372
00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:16,720
including one very traditional
British seaside attraction.

373
00:25:16,720 --> 00:25:20,800
Kevin Mager's family
has run the donkey rides here

374
00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:22,800
for more than 100 years.

375
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:26,200
Tell me about
Weston-super-Mare in its heyday.

376
00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:30,480
It was for touring, donkey rides.
People used to come from the station.

377
00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:32,400
It used to be packed all the way
down the road

378
00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:36,400
and there'd be lines of them coming
in the mornings.

379
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:38,440
What was the beach
like in those days?

380
00:25:38,440 --> 00:25:42,040
We used to have to keep a track
for the donkeys to walk along.

381
00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:45,160
The people used to be all sat
in their deckchairs and they'd

382
00:25:45,160 --> 00:25:47,800
sit on the track and we used
to have to try and move them.

383
00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:49,480
It's a wonderful beach, isn't it?

384
00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:53,480
It's a lovely beach, Weston.
It's nice and flat. They're safe.

385
00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:55,720
The tide doesn't come in...

386
00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:57,560
It comes in twice a day.

387
00:25:57,560 --> 00:26:00,280
How did your family get
into donkeys, do you think?

388
00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:04,120
Well, years ago, everyone had
coal businesses.

389
00:26:04,120 --> 00:26:08,840
They were coal merchants and then,
in the summer, cos there was no coal,

390
00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:11,040
they went to doing donkey rides.

391
00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:15,400
That's how I think it happened,
cos we did it as well. Many years
ago, we had a coal business.

392
00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:17,640
So the two businesses
go together perfectly?

393
00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:19,280
Yes. Winter and summer.

394
00:26:19,280 --> 00:26:22,040
Is this your first time on a donkey?

395
00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:24,600
Did you enjoy it? Yes.

396
00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:29,200
Was he nice and gentle and safe?
Nice and gentle and safe. Yeah.

397
00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:48,920
'By the 1970s, Weston-super-Mare
was in decline, thanks to cheap
package holidays abroad.

398
00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:50,120
'These days,

399
00:26:50,120 --> 00:26:53,760
'visitor numbers are back up to
around six million a year.

400
00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:58,080
'Perhaps the eco-friendly trend
towards holidaying in Britain

401
00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:01,040
'is again boosting
the town's popularity.'

402
00:27:11,360 --> 00:27:16,280
When I remember childhood summers,
I think of strawberries

403
00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:20,080
and beaches and piers and boat rides

404
00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:23,680
and, yes, the occasional donkey,

405
00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:27,480
and these were the things
mentioned in Bradshaw,

406
00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:30,280
largely invented by the Victorians,

407
00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:32,800
and made possible by the railways,

408
00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:37,680
and they're at the heart of the
British seaside holiday even today.

409
00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:47,520
Tomorrow, I'll be discovering

410
00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:51,240
why Torquay became a magnet
for Victorian invalids.

411
00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:54,040
You've got 3,000 miles' worth of the
Atlantic Ocean on your doorstep,

412
00:27:54,040 --> 00:27:57,960
nice clean air for most of the year
coming in off the Atlantic, so
that's good for your lung disorders.

413
00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:01,720
I'll be fishing for salmon
on the beautiful Dart estuary.

414
00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:06,480
I tell you, Nick, these city hands
have not done work like this
in their lifetime.

415
00:28:08,360 --> 00:28:12,640
And I'll be spending
Britain's first local currency.

416
00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:17,280
When you shop in a supermarket,
80% of that money leaves
Totnes the next morning.

417
00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:19,680
This is a currency
that can't leave Totnes.

418
00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:34,680
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419
00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:37,640
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