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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,

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what to see and where to stay.

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'Now, 170 years later,

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'I'm making a
series of journeys across the length
and breadth of the country'

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to see what
of Bradshaw's Britain remains.

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I'm embarked on a journey from
the heart of rural England to join

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the railway line
that the Victorians built

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along the north Welsh coast
to speed links with Dublin.

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Today, my Bradshaw's guide,
published in the 19th century, will
help me to criss-cross the border

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between England and Wales, to find
out more about traditional foods,
about the industrial revolution

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and about aristocrats, and about
how each of those responded to the
coming of the railways.

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Along this route, I'm following
an important railway line to Ireland
designed to carry the mail.

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Each day, I'll cover another
stretch of track,

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visiting places described
in great detail

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in my Bradshaw's guide and meeting
the people who live there today.

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On this leg of the journey,
I'll be exploring the
world's first iron bridge...

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Where would I have to go to see it?
Just down the bottom.
It's amazing! You'll love it.

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..visiting a place where
the railways weren't
initially welcome...

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My ancestor at the time of the
railway was particularly disenchanted
with the idea of a railway

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being built across his land,
so he tried very hard
to disrupt the surveyors.

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..and discovering
the secrets of good cheese.

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It's just exactly as my
great-grandfather would recognise.

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I've already covered the first 64
miles from Ledbury to Shrewsbury

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and now I'm heading east
before I travel on to Chester

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and make my way along
the coast to Llandudno.

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From there I'll explore Snowdonia,
before crossing the Menai Straits
towards Holyhead.

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My first stop is Telford,
then on to Chirk and Wrexham.

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Today, I'm headed
for the very heart of things.

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Firstly to a town named Telford,
named after one of greatest
civil engineers of all time.

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And then to Ironbridge, THE iron
bridge, the first iron bridge,

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without which the development of our
railways would have been impossible,

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the development of railways
anywhere in the world
would have been impossible.

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And the first iron bridge happened
in Shropshire.

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In Bradshaw's day, Shropshire
was one of the most important sites
of nascent industrial activity

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and the birthplace
of technologies that
led to the first modern railways.

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How are you doing? Are you all right,
guys? Yes, thank you very much.
Nice to meet you.

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Very nice to meet you. How are you?
I'm very well. Yourself? Yeah. Lovely
day for travelling, isn't it?

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Gorgeous. We're going to visit the
iron bridge. Oh, it's very nice.

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It's rather important
for railwaymen to know about
the iron bridge, isn't it?

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It was the precursor
to all the engineering that
made the railways possible.

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Oh, it is, yeah. And it's fantastic.

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The structure itself of the bridge,
for its time, is just...

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You can't imagine it, that they
would have been able to produce
something as fantastic as that.

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'The next call will be Telford
Central, Telford Central next call.'

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'I'm getting off at Telford and
moving a few miles on to the village

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'of Coalbrookdale, to understand why
the bridge creates such excitement.'

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In Bradshaw's day, Coalbrookdale was
already noted for its role in the
development of the iron industry.

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Bradshaw writes, "Several important
processes in the manufacture
of iron have originated here.

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"About 1768, iron rails were
laid down on the tramways.

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"In 1779,
the first iron bridge was made.

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"This still stands in substantial
repair, at a point where it crosses
the Severn with a single arch."

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The Ironbridge, as beautiful
as it is historic, is a famous
symbol of industrial progress.

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I've come to see John Challen,
who works at the Ironbridge Museum.

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John, Hello.

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All right? I must say, I'm very
excited to be on this bridge.

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You should be! It's wonderful.

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No, cos I know its historic
significance is enormous.

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I mean, Coalbrookdale, obviously,
was well established
as a place where iron was made.

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Bradshaw says that there was
nowhere like it - for producing

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and mass-producing artefacts
in iron, this was the place.

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It's where it all started.
Abraham Darby came here to make iron,
to make cooking pots.

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The technology he bought,
which was smelting iron with coke

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and casting iron into sand moulds,
he did it in just the right place.

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Until the 18th century,
charcoal was used to smelt iron.

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Because it used so much wood, iron
could be made only in small amounts.

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Then Abraham Darby substituted coke
from the local coalfields,

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inventing a technique
that's been used ever since.

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It meant that cast iron could be
made cheaply and in huge quantities.

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The company quickly went on from
making cast-iron cooking pots
to the first iron wheels,

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the first iron cylinders
for steam engines

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and of course the bridge itself.

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They even went on
to build the world's first
steam locomotive in 1802.

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What gave them the confidence
to make a bridge out of iron?

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They were pushing it. They knew they
could cast almost anything out of
iron. Make a mould and you can do it.

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And this was a real show piece.

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Is it true that Coalbrookdale
makes some claim to having
the first iron rails?

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Yeah. What year are they, then?
1760s.

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It's just so long before
passenger railways, isn't it?

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These first cast-iron rails,
used for horse-drawn wagons

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in mines and quarries, were the
forerunner to modern railways.

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And the techniques used in the iron
bridge were copied for some of the
earliest railway bridges.

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What strikes me about the bridge,
as a first iron bridge,
is how beautiful it is.

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In other words, that they not only
got the engineering right first time

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but they got the style, the
aesthetics of it right first time.
That's amazing.

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Well, it is, and on the other hand,
it shows how far they'd got

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with casting, cos, you know,
a stone bridge is a stone bridge.

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With an iron bridge, you had
a lot more freedom in design.

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All those components were cast
off-site to a design and then
brought to site and assembled.

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It's like a giant kit of parts.

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If this technology hadn't been
mastered, the whole history

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of railway building afterwards
would have been different.

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Before coke smelting,
iron was a very expensive material.

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It was just used
for fixings and nails and tools.

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To have so much iron that you can
use it as a construction material
was a completely different way.

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So, if you think of the sheer tonnage
of iron in a railway, you couldn't
have done that without coke smelting.

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The technology progressed rapidly.

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Rails made of cast iron
were soon replaced by wrought iron,

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and by the 1860s, all railway
tracks were made from steel.

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But the first iron bridge in the
world still draws admiration.

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What do you think of your
iron bridge? I love it. Do you
still look at it ever?

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Yes. I think, when you live here,
you do become a little bit jaded
to how good it is,

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but when you actually sit down
and look at it, it is amazing.

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There is something in the bridge,
which I don't know if you know about.

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Abraham Darby's face is
in the bridge. Really? Mm-hm.
Can I see it from here?

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No, but I'll show it you.
Where would I have to go to see it?

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Just down the bottom. It's amazing!
You'll love it. You'll be amazed.

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I have to go down the bottom? Yeah!
OK. Now, I'm just going
to show you this.

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You see the centre locking pin
in the middle? I do.

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Now, look at the one the other side,
and you see there's a silhouette
of a man's face. Oh, my goodness.

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Is it architectural brilliance
or pure fluke?

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It certainly looks like a face.
Legend has it that Abraham Darby
cast himself into the bridge.

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That's beautiful.

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By the mid 19th century,
Coalbrookdale's iron industry
was in decline,

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but the arrival of the railway in
the 1860s brought new industries.

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Businessman Henry Dunnill
was passing through on a train when
he spotted a rundown factory.

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He returned and transformed it
into a new tile works.

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Hello, Adrian. Hi.

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'Adrian Blundell works for
Craven Dunnill Jackfield tiles.'

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This looks like an amazing piece
of industrial archaeology.

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It is, in actual fact,
a real working factory still.

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It's not just a piece of archaeology.
Craven Dunnill,
the company I work for,

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actually built this
purpose-built model factory in 1872.

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And I had a feeling,
as I was coming up here,
that this is an old railway.

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Is that right?
This is the old track? Yeah, it was.

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We brought in materials from
Devon and Cornwall, and shipped
to Manchester and Birmingham

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finished material, which would
have left the factory at the far
end here through the weigh bridge.

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We had our own sidings at the
side there and our own liveried

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carriages that we used to use
for transporting everything around.

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It meant the world was opened up.
So you've got access to the States,

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access to, basically,
the British Empire.

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Craven Dunnill
became one of the most successful
tile producers in Britain.

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Their decorative tiles were
laid in churches, houses, pubs

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and railway stations,
including the London Underground.

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Today, the tiles are made
in much the same way
as they were in Bradshaw's time.

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The original process was developed
from making buttons, ceramic buttons,

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and obviously the patent and idea
was actually then expanded
into other types of products.

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So what we've got is ground clay,
you've got a very large press that
presses at about 15 tonnes

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total pressure,
compressing the clay into a cake
that you can actually handle.

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So you are using a Victorian
machine to make those?

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They've never bettered them.

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At its height, the factory made
millions of tiles each year.

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Today's tiles are still hand-
finished using the same glazes and
colours as in the Victorian era.

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And some look very familiar to me.

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What you've got here are a number
of designs that are actually from
the Palace of Westminster.

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I know that, I know that. I spent
20 year surrounded by these tiles.
I recognise them.

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May I take that down? Yes,
of course you can. Fabulous.

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High Victorian tiles,
and you are making them again?

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We are. And if you would like to have
a go at having a tile manufactured

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for the Palace, as we are actually
in the middle of doing a major
restoration project with them...

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A signed Portillo tile.
A signed Portillo tile.

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These heritage tiles
are made by highly skilled craftsmen
like Chris Cox.

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This is a typical palace tile, this
is a lion from St Stephen's Hall,

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which you'll probably be
familiar with. Yeah, I've walked on
those many, many times.

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But never had a go at making one,
I'm sure! So this gives you
the opportunity to do that.

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So our plaster mould
sits inside the box.

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So if you take that, tear off little
grape-size lumps and actually
feed them into the pattern there.

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It's not as easy as it looks.
MICHAEL LAUGHS

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How do you make it stick down?
Once you've got one bit
started, you're OK.

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'I feel like a kid with play dough.
It's very hard to do.

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'But Chris can make 40 tiles
per day.'

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Pick another bit and you can
kind of feed off that
and just keep working your way out.

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I fear these tiles probably
don't come cheap, do they?

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No, they don't,
not with the amount of work.

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Of course, in the Victorian period,
they weren't particularly cheap
either,

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but labour was, so you could afford
to have lots of people doing this.

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'Once the pattern is filled in, the
mould is topped up with more clay.'

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Straight down in the middle.
Fantastic.

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'Having bashed it into shape...'
Push down. '..the tile is
eased out of its mould.'

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Wow. There it is. 'The next step
is to add the distinctive red glaze
that brings out the pattern.'

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This is very satisfying.

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'Once the tile has dried,
the excess glaze is scraped off.'

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Beautiful.

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Chris, I have walked over these
countless times and never given them
much thought, apart from the fact

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that they were very beautiful,
but I had no idea it was such
hard work and such craftsmanship.

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Thank you. It's been a real
privilege doing that.
You're welcome. Thank you.

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'As I leave Coalbrookdale to travel
on to Chirk, I wonder whether
my efforts will one day grace

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'the Houses of Parliament or, more
likely, end up in the seconds bin.'

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Just before we come into Chirk,
we're going to pass over a viaduct

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mentioned by Bradshaw
as very special.

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But as we pass over the viaduct,
we'll be looking down
at an earlier aqueduct

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on the right-hand side.

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And that was built
by Thomas Telford.

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Telford was one of the greatest
civil engineers
of the industrial revolution,

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building roads, canals
and bridges all over the country.

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The aqueduct at Chirk
was one of his finest achievements.

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'We will
shortly be arriving at Chirk.'

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'Both the aqueduct and the
viaduct are worth a closer look.

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'But, of course, in his railway
guide, it's about the viaduct
that Bradshaw has most to say.

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'He writes, "Chirk Viaduct
is considered a beautiful
engineering gem

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' "and discloses through its arches
the lovely vale of Ceiriog." '

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Now, that is really beautiful.

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I mean, an unspoilt valley,
you know, that's...

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a gorgeous thing.

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But a valley enhanced
by the artefacts of man,

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that's even better, isn't it?

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The juxtaposition of nature,
the grazing sheep,

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and the engineering skills
of those wonderful men

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of the 18th and 19th century -
what a fantastic combination.

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At that time, aqueduct
water channels were built
of stone lined with clay.

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But Telford drew on the technology
developed at Coalbrookdale,

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and Chirk is one of the earliest
to employ a cast-iron trough.

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Henry Robertson came later
with his railway viaduct,

205
00:15:36,320 --> 00:15:38,400
and it's as though the later man

206
00:15:38,400 --> 00:15:41,200
is paying tribute,

207
00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:42,840
imitating the style,

208
00:15:42,840 --> 00:15:48,720
snuggling his structure as close
to the other as he possibly can.

209
00:15:56,680 --> 00:16:02,600
These days, the railway line
and the canal snake through
peaceful, rolling countryside,

210
00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:06,280
and it's easy to forget that this
border was once a battleground

211
00:16:06,280 --> 00:16:08,720
between the English and the Welsh.

212
00:16:08,720 --> 00:16:13,120
But all along the route are castles
to remind us of that strife.

213
00:16:13,120 --> 00:16:17,360
One of the most beautiful
and complete stands at Chirk.

214
00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:21,840
Behind me is Chirk Castle,
and Bradshaw writes,

215
00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:26,720
"This noble-looking edifice
has been preserved from ruin,
and may be regarded

216
00:16:26,720 --> 00:16:32,600
"as a perfect model
of the time-honoured castles
of the ancient lords of the soil."

217
00:16:34,440 --> 00:16:41,520
Although the castle is perched
a few miles distant, strangely,
its gates have ended up here.

218
00:16:41,520 --> 00:16:43,160
Are these gates ever open?

219
00:16:43,160 --> 00:16:47,680
No, I don't think they are. These
gates were moved, cos they used to
be on the north front of the house.

220
00:16:47,680 --> 00:16:51,440
These are early 18th-century gates.
Very beautiful, aren't they?
And white wrought iron.

221
00:16:51,440 --> 00:16:52,760
They are. They are beautiful.

222
00:16:52,760 --> 00:16:57,160
And the story is that they were
moved here in 1888

223
00:16:57,160 --> 00:17:02,480
because Queen Victoria used to pass
on a train on her way somewhere,

224
00:17:02,480 --> 00:17:06,120
and they wanted Queen Victoria
to be able to see these
beautiful gates from the train.

225
00:17:07,760 --> 00:17:10,760
Wow. Good story, isn't it?
That is a good story. Is it true?

226
00:17:10,760 --> 00:17:12,240
I don't know.

227
00:17:14,760 --> 00:17:16,920
'Tomorrow,
I'm hoping to enter the castle,

228
00:17:16,920 --> 00:17:21,480
'but for tonight,
I've been relegated
to the gamekeeper's cottage.'

229
00:17:35,880 --> 00:17:39,200
Oh, dear, a rather wet morning
in the Welsh Valleys,

230
00:17:39,200 --> 00:17:43,320
but then they didn't get this green
without a bit of rain.

231
00:17:43,320 --> 00:17:50,560
Bradshaw mentions
that the castle is the seat of
R Myddelton-Biddulph Esq.

232
00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:53,840
And the Myddeltons are still there,
and I'm off to see them
this morning.

233
00:17:56,200 --> 00:18:03,040
Chirk Castle was built in the 13th
century by the Marcher Lords,
some of the king's most trusted men,

234
00:18:03,040 --> 00:18:06,680
whose task was to guard
England's border with Wales.

235
00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:11,080
According to Bradshaw,
it's, "a remarkably interesting
and ancient mansion"

236
00:18:11,080 --> 00:18:13,440
and a magnet for visitors...

237
00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:15,600
that's if I can get past the guards.

238
00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:21,280
Hello, gentlemen. Hello, sir.
Are you happy in your work?
Damp but very happy.

239
00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:23,720
Yes, it is a little bit damp today.

240
00:18:23,720 --> 00:18:25,920
Are you wearing real chainmail,
real helmet?

241
00:18:25,920 --> 00:18:27,760
Yes, sir, would you care
to feel the weight of this?

242
00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:35,360
It is very heavy. To get the full
impression, would you care to...? Oh!

243
00:18:35,360 --> 00:18:37,520
Goodness, do you wear
this all day? Yes, sir.

244
00:18:37,520 --> 00:18:40,240
You must have very developed neck
muscles, I think, by now.

245
00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:42,000
I didn't before I started this job.

246
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:45,240
That is very heavy.
And then you wear that...

247
00:18:45,240 --> 00:18:47,000
Well, this weighs
even more than the hat.

248
00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:51,000
Well, it's weighty work
you're doing, and thank you
very much for it.

249
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:54,400
My pleasure.
I take my helmet off to you.

250
00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:57,080
Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

251
00:18:58,360 --> 00:19:00,320
Not everyone could see the benefits

252
00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:03,960
of the railways as they spread
across Britain in the 19th century.

253
00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:08,200
Some landowners, like the
Myddeltons, were positively hostile.

254
00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:11,800
Guy? Hello, Michael.
What a fantastic place.

255
00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:17,120
'Guy Myddelton and his family
have lived at Chirk
castle for 14 generations.'

256
00:19:17,120 --> 00:19:21,240
I came here on the train
and I was quite surprised
there's a station called Chirk.

257
00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:23,760
You've got your own station.
How did that come about?

258
00:19:23,760 --> 00:19:26,720
Well, we're lucky, aren't we,
to have our own station?

259
00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:31,760
This is really because my ancestor
at the time of the railway
was particularly

260
00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:36,040
disenchanted with the idea of a
railway being built across his land.

261
00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:39,680
He was involved in the canal
that runs adjacent to the railway,

262
00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:43,560
and I think he saw the railway as
a great threat to that enterprise.

263
00:19:43,560 --> 00:19:48,240
So he tried very hard to disrupt
the surveyors.

264
00:19:48,240 --> 00:19:52,840
Once he'd realised that he
couldn't stop it any further,
he then, I think, negotiated

265
00:19:52,840 --> 00:19:54,520
the best settlement he could,

266
00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:58,360
and part
of that was, of course, to ensure
that Chirk had its own station.

267
00:19:58,360 --> 00:20:02,240
And, of course, they had their own
mines here, coal mine particularly.

268
00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:05,080
And, of course, the railway would
have been a great facilitator

269
00:20:05,080 --> 00:20:08,920
of being able to move that particular
product about.

270
00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:12,920
The railway line also brought
tourists to Chirk.

271
00:20:12,920 --> 00:20:20,160
My Bradshaw's guide details
for each station the country houses
and their owners close by.

272
00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:23,680
And just like today,
visiting them was a popular pastime,

273
00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:28,080
although the procedure
was a little different then.

274
00:20:28,080 --> 00:20:30,480
In Bradshaw's time,
in the Victorian era,

275
00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:33,920
I'm sure visitors would have come
to the castle on the train as well.

276
00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:36,560
But those visitors would
not have necessarily have
been the general public -

277
00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:38,280
they'd have been by appointment.

278
00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:42,440
They'd have made an appointment
with the housekeeper of the day

279
00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:46,720
and they would have then come on the
train, come to the castle, been
received by the housekeeper,

280
00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:51,720
shown just the main rooms
of interest, seen the castle
in all its glory,

281
00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:54,920
and probably been
given a memento on the day,

282
00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:59,280
a small pamphlet just outlining those
things that they'd seen on that day.

283
00:20:59,280 --> 00:21:05,160
Having free rein in a house as vast
as this one is every child's dream.

284
00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:08,840
I can't imagine
growing up in a castle.

285
00:21:08,840 --> 00:21:12,560
Well, it's wonderful,
and I'm very lucky, I know that.

286
00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:15,280
When I learnt to ride a bicycle,
for example,

287
00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:18,600
I was able to do it inside the house,
in the long gallery.

288
00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:21,920
I hope you got a thick ear for that,
did you? I didn't, actually.

289
00:21:21,920 --> 00:21:24,360
I was encouraged by my grandparents.

290
00:21:24,360 --> 00:21:26,080
You weren't busy mowing
down the Chippendales?

291
00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:29,360
No,
they were well protected, roped off.

292
00:21:29,360 --> 00:21:31,400
So no damage done.

293
00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:35,400
Or perhaps a little bit
of "country house condition",
I think that's what we call it.

294
00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:44,960
I'm leaving Chirk for the last leg
of my journey today, travelling
nine miles to the town of Wrexham.

295
00:21:47,840 --> 00:21:53,760
All along the way, the route is
adorned by outstanding viaducts
that span the Welsh valleys.

296
00:21:53,760 --> 00:21:56,720
It's impressive to see how well
they've survived

297
00:21:56,720 --> 00:22:00,200
a century and a half of pounding
by heavy locomotives.

298
00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:07,440
The Victorians were innovators in
everything, not just engineering -

299
00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:10,280
in agriculture too, for example.
And Bradshaw writes that,

300
00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:14,800
"The famous Cheshire pastures were,
at one time, almost worn out

301
00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:20,560
"when they were
renovated with bone dust and made
five times as valuable as before."

302
00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:24,640
The crushed bones of animals
were rich in phosphates, a great
fertiliser,

303
00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:29,040
and that's produced
the famous Cheshire cheeses,
which I'm hoping to sample now.

304
00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:38,000
In the 19th century,
chemists began to identify the
key ingredients of good fertiliser.

305
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:41,080
'Cheshire became the centre
of an important experiment

306
00:22:41,080 --> 00:22:44,600
'to improve the grass using
bone dust, and it worked.'

307
00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:48,080
Bye-bye, then. Thank you. Have
a good trip. Thanks very much.

308
00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:49,800
All the best. Bye-bye.

309
00:22:49,800 --> 00:22:53,880
'I'm getting off at Wrexham to visit
the famous Cheshire pastures.'

310
00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:59,680
Over the next 100 years,
this area became the great
centre of the dairy trade.

311
00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:03,640
Milk travelled on the trains
to nearby cities like
Liverpool and Manchester,

312
00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:07,920
and most of the 500 farms
in the area made cheese.

313
00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:14,280
These days, few farmers use
bone meal as a fertiliser,

314
00:23:14,280 --> 00:23:19,960
and there aren't many who still
make traditional Cheshire cheese.

315
00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:23,520
Good morning, John. Morning,
Michael. Yes, Michael.

316
00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:26,120
Good to see you. What a pleasure.
Welcome to The Bank.

317
00:23:26,120 --> 00:23:28,680
Thank you very much. It's a
beautiful spot. Isn't it lovely?

318
00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:31,680
'John Bourne's family
began making Cheshire cheese

319
00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:36,720
'in the 1700s,
by which time it had already
been sent as far as Canterbury.'

320
00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:39,560
So even before railways,
it got around all over the country?

321
00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:41,560
Absolutely. But the railways
must have made a difference.

322
00:23:41,560 --> 00:23:44,640
Do you have any memory
of cheeses going up by the railway?

323
00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:48,920
The railways took over from
the canals, of course, which
themselves were very important.

324
00:23:48,920 --> 00:23:53,560
But the railways enabled
larger volumes...moved more quickly,

325
00:23:53,560 --> 00:23:57,640
and that enabled the London market
to develop for Cheshire cheese.

326
00:23:57,640 --> 00:23:59,880
Did you have a station here
where you could send it to?

327
00:23:59,880 --> 00:24:02,320
Malpas station
was our nearest station.

328
00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:04,720
No longer there, that station.
No longer there, sadly.

329
00:24:06,360 --> 00:24:09,920
In 1845,
Cheshire farms were producing

330
00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:14,880
12,000 tonnes of cheese every summer
when the pasture was at its best.

331
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:20,160
Thanks to the railways, by 1900,
it was almost 30,000 tonnes.

332
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:24,280
Nowadays, it's rare to find
a small-scale producer like John.

333
00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:26,880
You're just in time
to catch the end of the milking.

334
00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:30,040
The milk that we use for cheese
is produced on the farm.

335
00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:35,640
So in one place, you are grazing
cows, you are milking cows
and you're producing cheese.

336
00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:38,160
Is that now quite unusual
that it all happens in one place?

337
00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:44,760
Yes, it's difficult for people
with our sort of turnover to survive
in the supermarket world, really.

338
00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:49,640
You've got be
quite specialised and market
cheese in a particular fashion.

339
00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:55,120
Right, Michael, we've seen
the milking, now we need
to get back to the cheese dairy.

340
00:24:55,120 --> 00:24:57,080
We don't want
to be late for that process.

341
00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:02,840
'John's Victorian ancestors would
have processed the milk immediately,

342
00:25:02,840 --> 00:25:05,920
'as there was no way
to refrigerate it.

343
00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:09,760
'John still works in traditional
ways that make his products special,

344
00:25:09,760 --> 00:25:12,880
'compared to the cheeses
that are mass-produced.'

345
00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:16,440
Because we're trying to imitate
the sort of old-fashioned process

346
00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:20,720
and make cheese which is sort of
more akin to what my grandfather
would be making -

347
00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:25,160
what Father would describe
as knocking the curd about -
it needs to be very gentle.

348
00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:28,440
If you were starting afresh,
could you make from Cheshire milk

349
00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:34,560
a Camembert or a Gorgonzola, or is
it just pre-ordained what you have
to make? No, it's not pre-ordained.

350
00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:38,280
I mean, milk is milk,
and you can turn it
into all sorts of lovely things.

351
00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:40,640
We make Cheshire because we're
in Cheshire, and that's what we do.

352
00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:42,560
But I can show you a soft cheese
there,

353
00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:47,960
which will turn
into a most lovely soft blue,

354
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:51,800
quite out of this world. Quite out
of this world and quite out of...

355
00:25:51,800 --> 00:25:56,080
of our perception of what
a Cheshire cheese is going to be.
Oh, yes, absolutely.

356
00:25:56,080 --> 00:26:03,280
'The type of cheese that emerges
depends on the fat content of the
milk and how the curd is cut.'

357
00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:06,040
Nice cheesy smell developing.

358
00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:10,880
'For his Cheshire cheese,
John uses full-fat milk
and breaks up the curd by hand.'

359
00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:13,360
It's like trying to rip
a sponge apart, really.

360
00:26:13,360 --> 00:26:16,760
It's quite tough to tear apart,
and I'm very aware that
John doesn't want me to...

361
00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:19,040
Ah, that one's much better.

362
00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:25,200
'Once the curd is milled,
it's put into moulds to be shaped
into large cheese cylinders.

363
00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:30,520
'The process must be done quickly
and carefully, but the flavour
depends on leisurely maturing.'

364
00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:31,920
Keep your head down.

365
00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:36,280
'The cheeses won't be ready
until they've been stored in the
cellar for up to six months.'

366
00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:40,320
John, what a beautiful sight.
What a beautiful sight.

367
00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:41,960
Isn't that fantastic? Yeah.

368
00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:44,880
It's actually a beautiful smell,
isn't it? Well, I think so.

369
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:50,080
It's just exactly as my
great-grandfather would recognise.

370
00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:54,800
Wooden shelves,
proper cheese, cloth-bound,
really in the old fashioned way.

371
00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:57,200
'Finally, the moment
I feared might never come.'

372
00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:02,400
Right, here we are.
Now we're going to taste some of
the finest cheese in the world.

373
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:05,840
We're going to cut a piece off here,
and you are going to taste that

374
00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:08,840
and you are going to tell me
it is absolutely amazing.

375
00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:15,240
It's absolutely amazing. Am I right?

376
00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:17,200
Mmm. Honestly? Mmm.

377
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:20,600
You're not making it up, are you?
No, I'm loving it. It's fantastic.

378
00:27:22,360 --> 00:27:26,200
It's worth every week of the six
months of maturing, isn't it? Mmm.

379
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:29,080
That really is a great cheese.

380
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:35,400
As I leave the farm, I'm greatly
encouraged that there are still
people like John,

381
00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:41,080
upholding the skill
and craftsmanship passed down
to them through the generations.

382
00:27:41,080 --> 00:27:44,680
The railways transformed
everything they touched,

383
00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:47,800
whether it was tile making
at Ironbridge

384
00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:50,400
or the Myddelton family
at Chirk Castle

385
00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:53,200
or dairy farming in Cheshire.

386
00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:57,560
But the nature of the changes
that they brought were as different

387
00:27:57,560 --> 00:27:59,720
as Chirk and cheese.

388
00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:12,160
'On my next journey,
I'll be exploring one of the
country's oldest streets...'

389
00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:17,920
This is stunning, Paul.
Basically what you've got here
is a medieval shopping mall.

390
00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:22,560
'..uncovering a
hidden chemical weapons factory...'

391
00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:28,360
We're probably looking at the Second
World War's most secret building
in Britain, would that be right?

392
00:28:28,360 --> 00:28:32,320
In 1942-43, there was nowhere
more secret in the world than this.

393
00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:35,120
Out it goes!

394
00:28:35,120 --> 00:28:38,200
'..and raking for mussels,
Victorian-style.'

395
00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:41,760
I think I've got nothing at all.

396
00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:44,240
Absolute empty set.

397
00:28:57,600 --> 00:29:00,600
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

398
00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:03,600
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk