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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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Using Bradshaw, my 19th-century
guide to the railways,

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today I'm headed towards Birmingham,
at the heart of England,

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Britain's second largest city,
the metropolis whose growth during
the industrial revolution

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astonished the Victorians. But the
changes in Birmingham since have
perhaps been more remarkable still.

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On today's journey,
I'll be heading to the centre
of the leather-making world.

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Walsall had a very
distinctive stink?

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You could say it had a tinge,
it had its own aroma.

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I'll be travelling to
Birmingham's Balti Triangle.

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Pakistan is like my motherland,
and I call England my adopted mother.

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Try and make this quite elegant...

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Very good, sir.
Very good for the first try.

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And I'll be visiting
Bournville, which some say is
the happiest place in Britain.

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Very pleasant. Very nice. I wouldn't
want to live anywhere else.

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I'm now almost halfway
through my journey from Buxton,

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along one of the earliest
railway routes in England.

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Each day, I'm stopping at towns
and cities recommended by
Bradshaw's guide,

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until I reach the
end of the line in London.

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Today's route takes me
35 miles through the West Midlands,

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via Walsall to Birmingham
and on to Bournville.

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In Bradshaw's day, a
third of Britain's metalwork

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came from around here, and much of
it was carried to London
on the railways.

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My first stop is in a
town famous for, as Bradshaw notes,
"its buckles, spurs and bits".

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Well, here I am in Walsall.
Er, a place I've been to before.

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But according to Bradshaw, this
is a place that makes saddles.

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And that takes me into a world of
horses and riding, which I must say,
is a foreign country to me.

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Despite the growth of the railways,
there was still a huge demand

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for leather goods for
horses in the 1840s.

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Walsall became the place to go
for high-quality saddles,
stirrups and bridles.

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And it still is today.

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I've come to the historic factory
of the Saddler to the Queen.

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And here, I'm due to meet Cliff.

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Good morning.
Good morning, Michael. Welcome to the
old building of Jabez Cliff & Co.

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Wow! Ha-ha!

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It's not exactly in mint condition,
is it? No, it isn't.

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We were here for 130 years.

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And we moved out two months ago.

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You've got a new place?
We have a new place, two miles away.

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Why did saddlery become
the trade for Walsall?

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Well, you have the River Tame
for a ready supply of water.

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You actually need limestone
to cure the hides.

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So you had a ready supply of that.

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We're on the edge
of the Black Country,

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so you had all the bits, stirrups,
and all the other metalwork.
Because you always had iron ore.

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You always had iron ore,
so everything was there.

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At one time, then, the town
must have been full of tanneries.

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Oh, yes.
I know to a fact that we had five.

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And years ago, when a child wasn't
eating well, they used to take the
child outside, and they used to...

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the tan pit doors used to be open,
and the child used to get a whiff
of all the tan liquors,

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and it was the belief that
it actually helped improve the...
made the child eat quicker.

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And so at one time, Walsall had
a very distinctive stink, did it?

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You could say it had a tinge.

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It had its own aroma.

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It's still a saddlery town, isn't
it? It is still a saddlery town.

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There's about 50 saddlery businesses
left in the town.

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Would you like to come and see
the remnants of our old factory?
I'd love to.

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The dreadful smell was perhaps a
small price to pay

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for Walsall's reputation for having
the best saddlers.

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British leather was in
particularly high demand because
it was made with English oak.

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This was slower at tanning than
other woods and produced a softer,
stronger leather.

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This is where the cutting room
and saddle shop used to be.

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Wow! What did this look like in
its heyday? It must have been
buzzing with activity.

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I have an old photograph here,
taken in about 1908.

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And if you can see... Of this room?

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Of this room. You can see a
man there in a bowler hat.

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And what were these people actually
doing in here? They are all actually
preparing saddles.

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So this is not a production line.
No, no, it is piecework.

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Quality in those days
was unbelievable.

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A century ago, how many saddles
might you have been making?

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One man might make two or
three saddles a week.
That's pretty good, it seems to me.

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During the Victorian era,
Cliff's saddlery could produce
around 500 saddles a month.

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Today, in the company's new factory,
that number is very similar.

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Interestingly, the same system is
still used - one person makes each
saddle from start to finish.

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But modern technology like the
sewing machine means they can be
made more quickly by fewer people.

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We're talking about valuable
products here, aren't we?

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Oh, yes, but in those days... I know
I have some photographs somewhere,
where in an advert,

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I think a saddle was selling for,
trade price, I might add, was going
for about 42 shillings. And today?

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It's a lot more than that.

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It was feared that the saddle
industry would be destroyed

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as trains replaced
horses for transport.

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Even in late Victorian times,
there were still over
3 million horses pulling cabs,

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working on farms and in the cavalry.

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It wasn't until
after the First World War,
when cars became popular,

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that saddlers were
forced to diversify.

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As trade changed,
we actually started making footballs.

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We started making golf bags.

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In the First World War,
we were actually making

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torpedo cases, in leather,

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that they could actually lower
the torpedoes into the submarines.

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For which side?
For the English side, of course.

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For the winning side.

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This item here
is actually what they used to knock
the seams on of the footballs.

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These are the old
footballs with the laces?

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These are the ones
that when they played...

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Weighed an awful lot.
When it got wet...

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If you headed it, you'd get a very
nasty injury. Oh, yes, very nasty.

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And it was all done on that.

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How many generations of your family?

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We are now seven.
I am generation number six,
with a brother and a cousin.

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And I have two nephews
who are now in the business.

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One being the MD.

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The transfer of skills
through the generations

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and the saddle industry's
willingness to embrace change

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have ensured that it
is still successful today.

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Just as in Bradshaw's day, Walsall
still has a reputation for providing
quality saddles at luxury prices.

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Now, I've got a train to catch
to my second destination.

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Time to get on. On to Birmingham.

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I'm on the next leg of my
journey to Britain's second city,
just ten miles away.

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Birmingham is a city I know well.

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I once tried to get into Parliament
for Birmingham Perry Barr.

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And was unsuccessful.

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Of course Bradshaw devotes pages
to Britain's second largest city.

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And in particular,
he was excited by New Street,

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the vast railway station
at the centre of the city.

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"These structures are entitled
to rank among the most stupendous
architectural works of the age.

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"Notice the turmoil and bustle
created by the excitement of the
arrival and departure of trains.

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"The tramping of crowds and
passengers, the transfer of luggage,

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"the ringing of bells and the
noise of 300 porters and workmen.

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"An extraordinary scene,
witnessed daily at
Birmingham Central Railway Station."

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Just the way it is today.

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Sadly, the roof that Bradshaw
so admired was destroyed,

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along with much of the city,
during the Birmingham Blitz
of World War II.

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Today's station, built during
the 1960s, is to me a somewhat
dark and depressing construction.

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Do you ever use New Street Station?

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Yes, I do. What do you think of it?
I mean, the look of it.
It does need improvement.

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Looking at it from here, it strikes
me as one of the ugliest frontages
to a station

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I can think of anywhere.
What you think of it?

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Yeah, I do agree with you.
But at the same time,
I have seen worse stations.

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You have? Where? Let me know. Erm...

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London? Euston used to be horrible.

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It did, I agree with that.

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There are plans to redo this,
do you know anything about that?

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Yes, that's probably
going to be about seven years.
Have you seen the plan? Yes.

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It looks very nice, but
I don't know when they're going
to start doing it.

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The town planners are replacing
some of the uglier buildings

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that were hastily put up
after the war.

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The infamous Bullring shopping
centre, also built in the 1960s,
came to be regarded as an eyesore.

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It was rebuilt in 2003.

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Maybe few people think of
Birmingham as a Victorian city,

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but amongst this redevelopment,
there are some hidden gems
from Bradshaw's day.

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Well, Birmingham in the 19th
century was, for the first time,

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a great city. And it
established great public buildings.

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And mainly with the Victorians
you associate very heavy buildings,

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or you think about Victorian Gothic,
buildings like Parliament,
where I spent so much of my life.

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But here is,
to me, a somewhat unusual building,

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because it's a neo-classical
Victorian building.

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The Town Hall of Birmingham.

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And this lay derelict
inside for many years.

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It has recently been restored. I
addressed public meetings there,
and it's absolutely beautiful.

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In fact, Birmingham is renovating
much of its Victorian legacy.

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As well as the Town Hall and the
Council House in Victoria Square,

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there are almost
2,000 listed buildings in the city.

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One senses that Birmingham,
in many places,

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is trying to get rid of that hideous
redevelopment of the 1960s,

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of which railway station
was a conspicuous part.

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Bradshaw's guides
contain city maps.

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And they are now
extremely interesting.

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For instance, the one of Birmingham.

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Right now, I'm over in Broad Street.

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Interestingly, that's
pretty much at the edge
of the city, as Bradshaw knew it.

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Here, very clearly, is New Street.

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Even when Bradshaw thought it was
a huge, imposing city,

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it was actually just a tiny fraction

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of what we know as Birmingham today.

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Birmingham is Britain's
second largest city,
with a population of over a million.

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And the people of Birmingham
have changed in a way that Bradshaw
could never have imagined.

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Today, Birmingham is fast becoming
Britain's first majority
non-white city.

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The largest ethnic group here
are Pakistanis, who've made their
homes around Ladypool Road.

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After the Second World War,
Birmingham began recruiting people
from the former colonies

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to work in factories
when labour was in short supply.

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Large-scale immigration,
like that from Pakistan,

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provided the workforce
for Britain's growing industries.

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Kamran Ishtiaq's family
moved here in the 1950s.

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Why did your grandfather
leave Pakistan?

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For a better future for us. If it
wasn't for him, I wouldn't be giving
this interview to you,

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and standing
in such a successful business.

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And do you know
why he chose Birmingham?

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Birmingham was a city
which attracted a lot of Asians.

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But there was not much for
Asian community, regarding food.

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And Ladypool Road was one of the
prime locations for Asian people.

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So, it's like a landmark to the
Pakistani community in Birmingham.

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Do you ever go to Pakistan?

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Frequently.

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Would you rather live
in Pakistan than Birmingham?

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No, that's a difficult choice.
Because I love Pakistan.

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Pakistan is like my motherland,
and I call England my adopted mother.

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So you can't make a choice between
your mother and your adopted mother.

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Very nice to talk to you.
Thanks very much.

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As the Pakistani community grew,
restaurants and takeaways sprang up

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to serve Asian food
to Asian families.

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They quickly became popular
with the English, too.

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All along Ladypool Road
there are delicious smells tempting
you into all the restaurants.

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I've stumbled across what looks like
a party for another new restaurant.

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Nice to see you, hello.

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Nice to see you, hi.

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Here we are.
My goodness, very smart indeed.

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Michael,
this is just opening now today.

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What, opening today?

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Yes. Really? Yes.

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How are you? How are you?

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Congratulations on your opening.

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Very good.

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Sweet and salty and yoghurt.

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Yes, the choice is yours.

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Anything, you can't refuse!

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Delicious.
You will remember the Birmingham now.

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I will. I shall remember Birmingham.

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The area is nicknamed the
Balti Triangle, because the
balti curry was invented here.

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Now, there are more than
50 balti restaurants serving
the local speciality.

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These people have had
to do a lot of adapting
to a very different way of life.

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I feel a kind of empathy, because
my own father came from Spain,

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a much shorter distance
to travel, but had to do
a lot of adapting, too.

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And as the people have adjusted to
life in Britain, so has the curry.

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00:15:57,840 --> 00:16:03,120
Many of the most popular dishes were
created here to suit British tastes.

219
00:16:03,120 --> 00:16:07,480
But I'm also pleased to find a place
serving more authentic Asian food.

220
00:16:09,320 --> 00:16:13,400
Hi, great to see you.
What a beautiful restaurant.
Thank you very much.

221
00:16:13,400 --> 00:16:19,320
Raj Rana owns Itihaas,
a restaurant aiming for, well,
something a little more Indian.

222
00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:25,240
Do you get cross with
British people who have
preconceptions about Indian food?

223
00:16:25,240 --> 00:16:30,680
The problem is when it is expected
to be in the direction of a balti
or a chicken vindaloo or Madras.

224
00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:33,040
All of these things
don't exist in India.

225
00:16:33,040 --> 00:16:36,200
They're all Westernised dishes,

226
00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:40,080
pretty much created in Birmingham
as part of the curry revolution.

227
00:16:40,080 --> 00:16:46,400
Where we differ from the balti
restaurants is, we are not operating
from two- or three-base sauces

228
00:16:46,400 --> 00:16:49,960
that make up the curries and the
baltis from there on.

229
00:16:49,960 --> 00:16:53,960
Because baltis work on the conception
of convenience.

230
00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:56,880
Everything here is prepared
individually.

231
00:16:56,880 --> 00:17:00,120
So sauces are individually
prepared to the dish.

232
00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:04,120
If you're doing individual sauces,
you need excellent chefs,
and do you have them?

233
00:17:04,120 --> 00:17:08,080
I've got a fantastic team.
I'm very lucky to have them.
How did you get them?

234
00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:10,840
I travelled to India.
I held talent competitions.

235
00:17:10,840 --> 00:17:13,400
It was as if I was Simon Cowell,
and they were coming in,

236
00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:17,960
all proving their talents,
and I ended up with the 19
that operate the restaurant.

237
00:17:17,960 --> 00:17:21,800
And one of them is going
to show me how to do some
cooking, is that right?

238
00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:26,320
Absolutely, yes. I guess it's
through there? Absolutely, let me
take you through. Thank you.

239
00:17:26,320 --> 00:17:29,880
Raj held his own auditions in
India to staff his restaurant.

240
00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:33,280
But he'd like to train the
next generation of chefs here.

241
00:17:33,280 --> 00:17:36,280
His next big plan is to open the
first curry school in Britain

242
00:17:36,280 --> 00:17:40,200
to teach the art of
bona fide Indian cuisine.

243
00:17:44,360 --> 00:17:45,720
I'm his first pupil.

244
00:17:45,720 --> 00:17:47,040
Come into my kitchen.

245
00:17:48,320 --> 00:17:53,280
This is Kapel, who will teach me how
to cook. Thank you so much. I warn
you, I don't know what I'm doing.

246
00:17:53,280 --> 00:17:56,040
Just add some mustard seeds, please.

247
00:17:56,040 --> 00:17:58,200
Right.

248
00:17:58,200 --> 00:18:01,200
Some mustard seeds, like that? Yes.

249
00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:05,560
'Kepal's showing me
how to make a king prawn curry
from Kerala in southern India.

250
00:18:05,560 --> 00:18:09,360
'A traditional dish that
uses curry leaves and turmeric.'

251
00:18:09,360 --> 00:18:11,640
Could you stir it
with your spoon, please?

252
00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:16,520
Faster, you have to move it faster.
It will burn otherwise. Right, OK.
As if you're telling somebody off.

253
00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:19,680
Right. There you go.
Beautiful prawns.

254
00:18:19,680 --> 00:18:23,320
It feels like everything's
moving very fast, you know?

255
00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:25,880
Like I'm not really in control.

256
00:18:25,880 --> 00:18:30,520
Put some coriander and we
can take off the dish, please.
Put some coriander... There we go.

257
00:18:30,520 --> 00:18:32,560
That's done. Beautiful.

258
00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:34,880
That's done? If you
carry the wok over to here...

259
00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:37,640
This is a wok on the wild side now.

260
00:18:37,640 --> 00:18:40,400
There's a plate for you.
You can put your prawns there.

261
00:18:42,360 --> 00:18:45,360
Shall I try and make
this quite elegant? Yes.

262
00:18:46,760 --> 00:18:49,600
Kapel, we're going
to let you be guinea pig.

263
00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:51,840
Thank you very much. God bless you.

264
00:18:53,520 --> 00:18:57,440
Very good, sir. Very good for
the first try. For the first try!

265
00:19:00,640 --> 00:19:03,800
It's nothing to do with me,
but that is fantastic.

266
00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:05,560
You like it? I love it.

267
00:19:06,720 --> 00:19:11,400
It's very relishing, it's very fresh,
and the spices don't hit you.

268
00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:15,720
It's not spicy spicy. It's
flavourful with things, you know?

269
00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:17,240
That's what I meant to say!

270
00:19:20,520 --> 00:19:25,560
If Raj's chef school is a success,
it will ensure that the traditional
Indian curry

271
00:19:25,560 --> 00:19:29,240
is preserved in Britain
for the next generation.

272
00:19:31,360 --> 00:19:38,280
As for me, having spent the night in
inner city Birmingham, it's time to
leave the multicultural metropolis

273
00:19:38,280 --> 00:19:39,880
for my next destination.

274
00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:44,560
Which way is 11B, please?

275
00:19:44,560 --> 00:19:46,800
Thank you.

276
00:19:52,800 --> 00:19:55,840
The third and final leg
of my journey takes me

277
00:19:55,840 --> 00:19:59,800
to the southern edge of Birmingham,
five miles away to Bournville.

278
00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:06,640
So I'm chugging out along
the suburban railway line in
Birmingham towards the south-west,

279
00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:11,280
towards a place whose name
became synonymous with chocolate.

280
00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:16,920
Not mentioned in my Bradshaw's guide
because the railway station didn't
open here until 1876

281
00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:20,400
and then it was known
as Stircheley Street.

282
00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:25,840
Then Cadbury established
their factory here
and in those days French chocolate

283
00:20:25,840 --> 00:20:31,680
was thought to be the best in the
world, so they tried to give it a
French flavour, so they called it

284
00:20:31,680 --> 00:20:34,000
Bourne Ville.

285
00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:37,120
Ever since then it's been known
as Bournville

286
00:20:37,120 --> 00:20:41,720
and the railway station now bears
the name of the Cadbury's factory.

287
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:47,560
The Cadbury family chose to set
up shop here because of the railway

288
00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:51,800
and the other great transport link
to the rest of the country.

289
00:20:53,160 --> 00:20:56,000
Already, Bourneville Station
feels rather special.

290
00:20:56,000 --> 00:21:01,680
I can't think of any other
where the canal runs right parallel
with the railway platform.

291
00:21:05,880 --> 00:21:09,640
As the chocolate business rapidly
expanded, George and Richard Cadbury

292
00:21:09,640 --> 00:21:14,280
ploughed the profits back into the
newly named village of Bournville.

293
00:21:14,280 --> 00:21:18,960
They built new houses
and designed a model community
for the people of Birmingham.

294
00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:28,920
At Bourneville, the whole
station is purple, it's just
all one big chocolate wrapper.

295
00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:34,160
Bournville has recently been voted
the best place to live in Britain.

296
00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:36,760
I'm heading towards
the factory to see why.

297
00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:41,600
Hello. Mr Portillo? Yes.
I'm Alan Shrimpton, I'm your
guest in Bournville. Welcome.

298
00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:44,320
How very nice to see you,
I didn't realise it was you.

299
00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:47,960
'Alan Shrimpton works for
the Bournville Village Trust.'

300
00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:50,720
Tell me, first of all, why did
they put a factory here?

301
00:21:50,720 --> 00:21:55,360
They needed, critically, to have
a railway link and a canal.

302
00:21:55,360 --> 00:21:58,640
And the canal, why?
The canal was used to bring milk in.

303
00:21:58,640 --> 00:22:04,560
The railway brought
chocolate beans and the sugar
and took their finished product away.

304
00:22:04,560 --> 00:22:08,880
So when I was at Bournville
Station and I saw the railway track
and canal side by side,

305
00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:11,120
that's critical to why this place
is here? Vital.

306
00:22:11,120 --> 00:22:14,760
If it hadn't been for the railway,
there would be no factory here.

307
00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:17,160
No factory here,
no Bourneville estate.

308
00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:28,200
Soon there were three trains,
each of 60 cars, leaving the factory
every day full of chocolate.

309
00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:33,200
Cadburys had six miles of
internal railway lines and
even ran its own engines.

310
00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:39,200
The drivers often shared a cup
of hot chocolate crumb with their
colleagues on the main line.

311
00:22:39,200 --> 00:22:44,640
Many of the workers
lived on the Bournville estate,
a short walk from the factory.

312
00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:49,120
We're just a few yards from the
factory and already it's very
green, very suburban.

313
00:22:49,120 --> 00:22:51,120
That was what George
was trying to do.

314
00:22:51,120 --> 00:22:55,320
The idea was to take the
convenience of the town and the
benefits of the country,

315
00:22:55,320 --> 00:22:59,680
put the two together,
without the drawbacks of either,
in a model community,

316
00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:02,920
but not just for his workers,
this was for ordinary working people.

317
00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:06,600
Anybody would be here, owner,
occupiers and tenants side by side

318
00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:10,480
with all the facilities you could
possibly want in a model community

319
00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:14,000
with of course the one exception,
there was no public house.

320
00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:22,480
George Cadbury and his elder
brother, Richard, were both Quakers.

321
00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:26,600
The brothers saw alcohol as
the root of many social problems.

322
00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:30,800
They argued that providing good
living conditions, job security

323
00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:35,440
and places to exercise would create
a happy, healthy, working community.

324
00:23:35,440 --> 00:23:39,920
To the present day,
no pub has ever been built here.

325
00:23:39,920 --> 00:23:42,440
And how big is it?
How many souls live here?

326
00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:47,280
In the whole of Bournville,
we're talking about 1,000 acres,
8,500 homes, about 25,000 people.

327
00:23:47,280 --> 00:23:49,440
It's big, isn't it? It is big.

328
00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:52,560
I'm surprised that there is such a
variety of styles of house.

329
00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:54,600
I thought I would come
to a model village

330
00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:58,080
and find the same sort of
house replicated again and again.

331
00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:02,440
No, what we've got is
Arts and Crafts style, which
reflects the age of the village.

332
00:24:02,440 --> 00:24:07,280
Even then, the variety of properties
and the way they're grouped
together is quite interesting.

333
00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:12,200
Every house had a generous garden.

334
00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:16,000
Building was controlled so that
no green space was overshadowed.

335
00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:22,360
And tell me, do you
see this whole thing here
at Bournville as historic,

336
00:24:22,360 --> 00:24:25,640
or do you see it as some
kind of model for our generation?

337
00:24:25,640 --> 00:24:28,920
It's very important to see it
as a model for future generations,

338
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:31,520
particularly for things
like the eco-towns.

339
00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:35,760
This is an example
of a model village,
a sustainable community that works.

340
00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:38,680
Anybody contemplating doing
anything on a large scale

341
00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:42,040
has to come to Bournville and
take those lessons away elsewhere.

342
00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:49,320
I can see why, for some,
Bournville might just be the
best place to live in Britain.

343
00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:53,200
Michael, this is a resident and
shopkeeper in the area, Phil Davies.

344
00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:55,640
Hi, Phil. Hi. Very good to see you.

345
00:24:55,640 --> 00:24:57,680
How do you find life in Bournville?

346
00:24:57,680 --> 00:24:59,800
Very pleasant, very nice.

347
00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:03,480
I wouldn't want to live anywhere
else. How long have you lived here?

348
00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:05,680
Nearly 40 years.

349
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:09,840
And does it have any of that
ethos of the original establishment
of this model village?

350
00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:12,160
Yes, I think it still does.

351
00:25:12,160 --> 00:25:19,000
I think the culture of what it was
started out to be is still imprinted
in a lot of people in the area.

352
00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:21,440
Thank you. May the next
40 years be as good for you.

353
00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:24,080
I hope so. When are you
going back into Parliament?

354
00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:28,200
No, I'm not.
You're not. Have you had enough?
Enjoying myself too much.

355
00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:31,120
BELLS CHIME

356
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:39,600
In Bournville,
even the bells are used to
create a sense of community spirit.

357
00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:43,040
This village, with its suburban,

358
00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:47,600
idyllic neatness,
is not everybody's cup of tea.

359
00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:53,680
But, for many people who live here,
it's close to perfection. And it is
impressive that a concept created

360
00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:59,480
a century ago by a
public-spirited industrialist
is now being thought of

361
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:03,880
as a model for sustainable
communities of the future.

362
00:26:06,120 --> 00:26:09,640
'Even getting a cup of
coffee for my onward journey

363
00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:12,800
'brings me face-to-face
with contented residents.'

364
00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:15,560
This is meant to be a very
special place, Bournville?

365
00:26:15,560 --> 00:26:19,160
People are supposed to be very
happy here and to love living here?

366
00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:23,400
Do you find that? Yes.
Bournville is an amazing area. Why?

367
00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:25,720
I mean, George Cadbury
built Bournville.

368
00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:29,320
All the properties had
a certain-sized garden.

369
00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:34,880
The idea behind that was so that
everybody could be self-sufficient
and grow their own vegetables.

370
00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:39,440
And consequently the children
in Bournville are amongst the tallest
throughout England.

371
00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:42,880
You're not serious? That's quite
surprising. No, that's a fact.

372
00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:46,400
It's run with Quaker traditions.

373
00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:48,400
So there's no licensed premises.

374
00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:52,360
It's quite a caring community.

375
00:26:52,360 --> 00:26:55,440
It's just as well I didn't
ask you for a Scotch, isn't it?

376
00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:58,560
Well, it might have been difficult.
I don't have any!

377
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:02,400
'The attraction of Bournville
must be infectious.

378
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:05,840
'I've been so captivated,
I think I'm about to miss my train!'

379
00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:09,760
It's OK, it's not mine. It's OK.

380
00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:19,000
Goodbye, purple world.

381
00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:32,560
Birmingham is a wonderful example of
how cities change and change again.

382
00:27:32,560 --> 00:27:34,920
They're always dynamic.

383
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:39,080
Some of the old industries still
exist, like saddlery and chocolate,

384
00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:44,040
but, for the future, the vibrancy of
Birmingham comes from its diversity

385
00:27:44,040 --> 00:27:49,200
because its Asian community is
now almost as big as its white one.

386
00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:52,760
A concept that would have been
unimaginable to Bradshaw.

387
00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:57,720
'On tomorrow's journey I'll be
reliving the Coventry Blitz.'

388
00:27:57,720 --> 00:28:01,720
You could pick the
sound of the German planes up.

389
00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:07,200
Their engines were, vroom, vroom,
a humming, humming noise.

390
00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:10,680
I'll be ruffling some
feathers in Aylesbury.

391
00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:12,960
Your family's been
in the business a while?

392
00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:14,920
1775 that we know of.

393
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:17,440
No! Oh, absolutely, continuously.

394
00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:23,120
And I'll hear how the railways
saved thousands of lives
during World War Two.

395
00:28:23,120 --> 00:28:26,720
This was the largest station where
the evacuations took place from.

396
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:30,320
And how an earth we found our way
onto the right train I'll never know.

397
00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:37,840
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

398
00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:40,640
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk