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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 a
series of journeys across the length

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

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In recent days I've been using some
of the earliest railway lines built
in Britain or the world.

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I'm continuing my journey around
Northern England using a railway
guide book published in the 1860s.

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And I've found it gives me such
insights into Britain's history
and Britain today that you can

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keep your Fodor's and your Michelin's
and your Lonely Planet guide,

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as long as you leave me
my Bradshaw's.

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It's full of tips for the Victorian
traveller, from opening times for

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banks and libraries to facts and
figures about local industries.

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On this leg of the journey,
I'll be hearing how textile recycling
started in 19th century Yorkshire.

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When the rags came here, thousands
of tonnes from all over the world,

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they were auctioned on a
regular basis here at the station.

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Seeing how the Victorians
made rhubarb grow in the dark.

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Are there any
secrets left in your process?

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I can't tell you unless
we'll have to bury you
under the rhubarb roots.

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And uncovering railway treasures
with a descendant of
George Bradshaw himself.

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Oh my goodness.

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That is so beautiful.

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I started this trip
in North East England,

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and on my journey south travelled on
lines laid down by railway pioneers.

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I'm now in Yorkshire's
industrial heart, and will

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cross into rural Leicestershire,
to end my journey in Melton Mowbray.

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On today's stretch I start in Batley,
and will pass through Woodlesford

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on my way to Sheffield,
the city of steel.

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I'm now on way to town Batley.

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Not a town name that springs to
everyone's lips but in the 19th
century, it was responsible for

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the invention of an industry that
I've always regarded as much more
recent, more modern - recycling.

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Today Batley strikes me as a quiet
place, but in Bradshaw's time
things were very different.

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My 19th century guidebook tells
me that Batley has "Extensive
woollen and carpet manufactures".

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It might also have mentioned that
those industries were based on the
concept of re-using waste material.

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Malcolm Haigh
has been researching the story.

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Hello. Are you Malcolm?
I am, good to see you.

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I'm Michael.
Very good to see you indeed.

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Now I understand Batley has some
claim to have invented recycling?

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What's that based on?
Well, yes, that is a system whereby
a guy from Batley, called him

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Benjamin Law wanted to find a new
means of earning money, expand his
work as clothier here.

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The story goes that
Benjamin Law began to tear up rags
and waste from Yorkshire's

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extensive woollen industry
attempting to make new cloth.

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He mixed these torn up woolen rags
with virgin wool and then was able

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after number of years of trying
to create cloth, fresh cloth.
What did he call it?

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Well, eventually it
became known as shoddy.

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Which sounds a very awful thing to
do, shoddy cloth, I mean everybody

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thinks it's awful but in fact
it comes from Arabic word,

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very similarly sounding
for re-use.

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Recycled shoddy cloth was such a
success that by the 1850s, thousands

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of tonnes of rags were arriving
in Batley station each week.

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I suppose this must have been
quite a station in its day too.

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This was central to
Batley's prosperity.

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The railway companies
who came here didn't

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really bother about passengers,
it was bringing the goods in.

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In those days there were
no less than seven platforms

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and a huge area given
over to warehousing and auctions.

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Because when the rags came here,
thousands of tonnes from all over

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the world, they were auctioned on a
regular basis here at the station.

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Did Batley make a fortune
on the back of this?

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Some people did,

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some people made an awful lot
of money but best of all was that

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from this system lots and
lots of manufactures,
mills were created here

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which meant over years thousands of
people have had jobs in this valley

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and creating things like woollen
cloth, uniform cloth in particular,

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which is why this whole area is
known as a heavy woollen district.

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What would Batley
have looked like heyday?

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If we were standing here,
what might we have seen
across the valley there?

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Well something like, in the
valley, 60 mill chimneys,

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all of them, that's if you could see
them, because they used to throw out

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the dirt every hour on the hour,
so sometimes couldn't see from one
side the valley to the other.

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Shoddy was a massive recycling
industry right into the 20th century,

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but from the 1960s,
the growth of synthetic fabrics
forced it into decline.

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Most of the mills have closed now,
but Batley has become an important
centre for a new kind of recycling.

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I'm meeting Joanne Illingworth to see
how it works in the 21st century.

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What are you actually doing?

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We're textile recyclers. We process
second-hand clothing, we sort it,

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we hand sort it and then we export
the final product, most goes abroad.

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A lot of it goes to eastern Europe,
but the main bulk of the clothing
goes to Africa,

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and some goes to Pakistan as well.

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A small percentage does
stay in this country.

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And where do you get it?

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The main source is charity shops,
off the rails, what they can't sell.

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Is there a benefit to the environment
from what you are doing?
Of course. Anybody that wants

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to throw their old clothing away, if
they just throw it in the bin,
it's going to go to landfill,

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whereas if it comes here
it's all processed and sorted
and all goes for re-use again.

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And what do you do with the stuff
that isn't fit for human wear?

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That will be gone for shoddy and
then there is a very small
percentage that will go to landfill.

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Shoddy is still used is it,
for re-cycling material?
It is, yes.

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We sell to other companies who will
process it into shoddy, so they
do still use that word, yes.

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Although recycling has moved on,
seeing clothes being sorted

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by hand makes me sense a connection
with work in Bradshaw's day.

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So what judgement are you
making, what are you deciding?

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I know that's heavy so I
know that goes straight into there.

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So is that. I can judge straight
away. Light, summery, it goes there.

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Summery there.
It goes to ladies on mill there.

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OK, I guess that's acrylic again,
don't you?

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Feel! I go by feel a lot.

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How long have you been doing this?

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About 25 years. Have you really?

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Yeah.

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I wonder how many bits of clothing
you've sorted in that time?

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I don't know.

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This is heavy enough for Pakistan?

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Pakistan, yeah.
Oh, I'm getting the hang of this.

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As I move on to catch my next train,
I am impressed to think that here in

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Yorkshire, recycling is an industry
with 150 years of history.

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When I've taken stuff into a
charity shop, I've sometimes
wondered whether I'd be embarrassed

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if I bumped into someone
locally wearing my clothes.

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It never occurred to me they might
end up in West Africa or Pakistan

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having travelled via Yorkshire.

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Does the word shoddy
mean anything to you?

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Shoddy? Yes.

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What does it mean?
Poor?

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Poor workmanship?

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Old? Do you know what
the origin of it is?

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No.
Are you from Yorkshire? Yes.

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Well, apparently it's to do with
taking the old cloth and they
would rework it into a new cloth.

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They'd mix it with wool
and make a new cloth and
that was called shoddy.

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Really! That's brilliant.

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Do you think it's a Yorkshire thing
to do? Do save on stuff and make do?

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Yes.
Is that very Yorkshire?

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Knowing my dad.
He's a typical Yorkshireman,
short arms, long pockets.

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I'm now travelling through
what in Bradshaw's day
was Yorkshire's West Riding.

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My guidebook enthuses about the
area's industries, describing,
"Their manifest utility in furnishing

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"employment for a great part of our
population and supplying the comforts
and conveniences of life".

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At my next stop, I want to find out
about a delicious foodstuff produced
grown here in the 19th century.

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This is Woodlesford Station
and it dates back to 1840.

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It was one of the original
stations on George Stephenson's
Derby to Leeds line.

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But I'm not so interested in
the station, I'm looking for
what's in the fields out there.

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In Bradshaw's day, this whole
area was famous for a single crop,
rhubarb.

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In the 19th century, it was grown
in this region by around 200 farmers.

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Janet Oldroyd's family
has been cultivating it
for four generations.

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Lovely to see you. I've never
seen so much rhubarb in my life.

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She's an expert on why it
flourished here in Victorian times.

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I'm guessing there's a connection
with railways there nearly always is?

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There is a great connection.
How else did the growers get their
produce to market very quickly?

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It was collected all the local
stations, taken down, particularly
to old Covent Garden market.

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From mostly Covent Garden
it was sent on into Europe as well.

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And we're talking about
big quantities of rhubarb
travelling by train? Huge amounts.

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Those trains carried nothing but
rhubarb and became nicknamed
the Rhubarb Express trains.

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The railways also brought cheap coal
to Yorkshire's farmers.

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It enabled them to grow rhubarb
in special heated sheds,
a new process called forcing.

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What is forcing?
It's making it grow in the dark

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using it's energy from the roots,
which is done in winter.

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So they were able to produce
rhubarb in winter, indoors?

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Yes, giving the nation

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a vegetable that they ate as a
fruit, which was full of nutrients.

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At one time, Yorkshire's heated sheds
produced 90% of the
world's forced rhubarb.

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Until the 1940s, it was a
staple in the British diet.

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Then rising fuel costs and
changing tastes took their toll.

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There was a major downturn in
popularity, linked with...

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during the second world war.

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This nation loved rhubarb and they
loved sugar and they liked their
rhubarb sweet,

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so with rationing they
couldn't get rhubarb to their taste.

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So eating it very tart,

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giving it to a child, turned the
next generation away from rhubarb.

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The growers were
massively over-producing,

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so many went bankrupt and many got
out of the industry before they did.

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Now there are just
11 producers left here.

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Janet's farm was one of the few to
survive and she grows forced rhubarb
in the original Victorian sheds.

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We had a crop in here.

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The roots now have given all
the energy into production
and they're starting to die.

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When the crop was growing in here,
describe what it looked like.

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Well, pitch black.

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Totally like a mine in here
and so what's happening is the root
is tricked into growth by heat.

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And it grows up looking for light
which it can never find.

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By candlelight,
we harvest the crop, because we
don't want to damage the process.

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Recently, as consumers
have become interested in
traditional British produce,

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forced rhubarb has
again become fashionable.

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Tell me what it tastes like?

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It's less acidic, so it appears
sweeter and it doesn't need as much
sugar as the outdoor grown variety.

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So very, very
popular when chefs today

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want the tart
balance that you would get

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with savoury products particularly.

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You're pretty proud of
your product, aren't you?

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Very proud of my product
and Yorkshire's links to it.

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It's part of the heritage, not just
of Yorkshire but of this country.

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Are there any
secrets left in your process?

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There are a great deal of secrets,
that can't tell you unless we have
to bury you under the rhubarb roots.

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Basically,
it isn't called the secret world of
the rhubarb triangle for nothing.

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It's time to make my escape before
I end up in the rhubarb sheds.

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And I'm now headed
for my hotel for the night.

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I'm lucky to stay in this
beautifully restored Georgian House,

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and the reason I've picked it
is an intriguing reference
in my Bradshaw's guide.

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This gorgeous pile is, according to
Bradshaw's, Waterton Hall,
near Wakefield, and was the seat

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of Charles Waterton,
the great naturalist
and South American traveller.

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Few people today have heard of
Waterton, but he was famous in

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Bradshaw's era and Charles Darwin
once came to visit him here.

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Like Darwin, he travelled the world,

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studying and collecting exotic
animals, and writing books.

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On this estate, he created a safe
haven for wildlife,

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making him one of
the world's first environmentalists.

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Michael Portillo, checking in,
please. It's a lovely hotel.

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I gather Charles Waterton was
quite a character. He was indeed.

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This was the first nature reserve in
the world,

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he designed that, he put the brick
wall around the whole area.

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It started from there.
What sort of animals did he have?

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He was a specialist in birds,
like ducks, everything.

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The whole hotel, you can see there's
baby geese out there. Fantastic.

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Room seven, the first floor and just
in front of you. Do I get a view?

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It's of the front of the island,
and you get lake views.
Thank you very much. Enjoy your stay.

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I've been looking forward
to staying here because

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Waterton, apart from being a
naturalist was also a great eccentric
and he liked to impersonate animals.

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For instance, he would put on
wings and try to fly like a bird.

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Or he'd pretend to be a dog and bark
and go under the dining room table

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and even bite the legs of guests.

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Those are two things I think
I shouldn't attempt tonight.

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Having woken to a beautiful day,
I have to tear myself away from this
delightful estate.

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Though my journey continues
south to a place that's
highly commended in my guide.

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Now which city do you think
Bradshaw's is describing here?

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"Its suburbs spreading mile after
mile in every direction,

211
00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:22,240
hill and dale, and every accessible
point on the slopes between,

212
00:17:22,240 --> 00:17:26,120
"be occupied by houses and
villas in endless variety,

213
00:17:26,120 --> 00:17:29,800
"offer to the stranger new
objects of pleasure at each turn,

214
00:17:29,800 --> 00:17:33,960
"and to residents, prospects of
great extent and beauty."

215
00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:36,920
Well, I'm sure you
guessed it, Sheffield.

216
00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:39,560
Now that's never been
my view of Sheffield.

217
00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:43,320
I remember the
slopes being disfigured
by enormous blocks of flats,

218
00:17:43,320 --> 00:17:47,360
but I'm willing to give Sheffield
another go and look at it afresh

219
00:17:47,360 --> 00:17:49,920
through Bradshaw's eyes.

220
00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:58,160
My recollections are of a
city rebuilt after terrible
bombing during World War II

221
00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:00,880
and suffering from
industrial decline.

222
00:18:00,880 --> 00:18:03,240
Although I've passed
through it many times,

223
00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:10,000
I've not had the chance to explore
since its face-changing regeneration
programme that started in 2001.

224
00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:18,120
From the moment you
step off the train,
there are signs of new life.

225
00:18:22,240 --> 00:18:27,120
Sheffield has had a station since
1845 and this one dates from 1870.

226
00:18:27,120 --> 00:18:34,000
It's recently been given a complete
makeover, and the blend of the old
and the new is very successful.

227
00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:36,440
I absolutely love it.

228
00:18:36,440 --> 00:18:44,000
And this sculpture reminds us,
as Bradshaw did,
that Sheffield is the city of steel.

229
00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:50,880
The 'Cutting Edge' sculpture,
as it's known, is 90 metres long,
and weighs 60 tons.

230
00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:56,880
It's just one of many new
structures that in recent years
have come to grace the city.

231
00:18:56,880 --> 00:19:03,400
It seems 21st century Sheffield is
once again becoming a beautiful city
as Bradshaw described.

232
00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:09,640
Hello. Hello, Michael. Nice to
meet you. Very nice to see you.

233
00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:11,720
Welcome to Sheffield. Thank you.
You're from Sheffield?

234
00:19:11,720 --> 00:19:14,000
I am.
I haven't been here for a while,

235
00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:16,320
I didn't know about
all these new buildings.

236
00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:19,200
Yeah, it's really
changed in the area here.

237
00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:22,360
I mean, you've still got
the old town hall here,

238
00:19:22,360 --> 00:19:26,000
but you've got
the new buildings like the
new hotel there and the cafes.

239
00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:28,560
It's come back into 21st century,
I think.

240
00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:36,520
In Bradshaw's day,
Sheffield became famous for steel.

241
00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:43,240
In the 1850s, Henry Bessemer invented
a cheaper and simpler process for
mass production

242
00:19:43,240 --> 00:19:45,720
and established one
of his first factories in Sheffield.

243
00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:53,200
As steel replaced iron
in everything from railways
to buildings and bridges,

244
00:19:53,200 --> 00:19:54,720
Sheffield's industry
went into overdrive.

245
00:19:54,720 --> 00:19:56,720
Bessemer became a millionaire.

246
00:19:56,720 --> 00:20:04,200
But alongside that heavy industry,
many smaller businesses added to
the prestige of Sheffield steel.

247
00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:09,920
Bradshaw's mentions Sheffield's
fame for "Knives, forks, razors,
saws, scissors, printing type,

248
00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:14,080
"optical instruments,
Britannia metal, Sheffield plate,
scythes, garden implements,

249
00:20:14,080 --> 00:20:19,440
"files, screws, other tools, stoves,
fenders, as well as engines,
railway springs and buffers".

250
00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:23,920
And in those days, much of the
work was done by craftsmen
working in small groups

251
00:20:23,920 --> 00:20:26,680
and I'm here to see what
survives of that tradition.

252
00:20:28,360 --> 00:20:33,040
Specialist items, like knives, were
too intricate to be produced in bulk.

253
00:20:33,040 --> 00:20:38,400
They were made by highly skilled
metalworkers called
"little mesters", meaning masters.

254
00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:44,680
These men were often self-employed,
and worked long hours to
make ends meet.

255
00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:55,240
Today, Trevor Ablett and Reg Cooper
are among the last of the little
mesters still toiling in that way.

256
00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:58,400
Morning, Michael.
Hello. Very nice to see you.
And you.

257
00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:02,040
How old were you when you
started in the business? 14. 14.

258
00:21:02,040 --> 00:21:04,640
Trevor, you're new
to the business, aren't you?

259
00:21:04,640 --> 00:21:07,760
Yeah, I were 15.
You were 15 when you started!

260
00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:13,560
He's ten years in front of me,
he's been in't trade 60-odd
years and I've been in 50-odd years.

261
00:21:13,560 --> 00:21:17,120
1957, I started.

262
00:21:17,120 --> 00:21:23,360
You're both fantastic examples of the
healths of your trade, you
look fantastic for your ages.

263
00:21:23,360 --> 00:21:25,360
You, of course, are retired.
Yeah.

264
00:21:25,360 --> 00:21:27,840
So tell me
how many days you're working.

265
00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:30,120
I work five days a week now.

266
00:21:30,120 --> 00:21:33,000
I come in the morning at seven,
I'm here at seven,

267
00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:35,960
and then I work till
about three or half past three.

268
00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:38,400
Trevor, what's your routine?

269
00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:42,480
Seven while seven in't week, and

270
00:21:42,480 --> 00:21:45,120
Saturday seven while four... er,
seven while six.

271
00:21:45,120 --> 00:21:50,440
I did cut it down to four
but I've got that much work now,
we're back to six o'clock.

272
00:21:50,440 --> 00:21:52,880
Sundays
I knock off at dinner time now.

273
00:21:52,880 --> 00:21:59,160
What would I do if I were at home?
I'd watch telly and fall to sleep.
So I'm doing something I enjoy.

274
00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:04,520
It takes Reg two to three days to
make one of the hunting knives
that are his speciality.

275
00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:08,880
So these are the things that you
produce, beautiful, beautiful blades.

276
00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:13,000
You make that into that.

277
00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:16,320
Yep, as you can see it's
marked out there

278
00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:23,560
and then it has to
be on a bandsaw, we take the shape
out of there and shape it up.

279
00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:29,600
Very pretty, and again
all this beautiful work
you've done along here.

280
00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:34,400
In the early 19th century
demand for hunting knives boomed.

281
00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:42,400
American settlers in particular went
mad for Bowie knives like these, and
the best ones came from Sheffield.

282
00:22:42,400 --> 00:22:44,080
Trevor, your speciality is...

283
00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:46,240
Pocket knives.
Pocket knives.

284
00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:50,280
That's rosewood.

285
00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:53,160
These are very, very fine indeed.

286
00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:57,640
These days, enthusiasts buy the
knives crafted by Trevor and Reg,

287
00:22:57,640 --> 00:23:00,440
and even their machine tools
are collectors' items.

288
00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:04,160
This is 1800 and something.
What do you call that machine?

289
00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:08,200
Gold blocker.
You've never thought
of buying a new one?

290
00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:10,920
No, everybody wants this.

291
00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:17,320
There's a friend of ours,
he's always after it but while it's
working, it's like us two.

292
00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:19,680
If it works, let it carry on!

293
00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:25,320
What it is, you put the letters the
wrong way round so that when you
turn it that way...

294
00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:34,120
And what you do,
make sure all't letters are in.

295
00:23:34,120 --> 00:23:38,520
Isn't that beautiful? Why indeed
would you want a new machine?

296
00:23:38,520 --> 00:23:40,280
You couldn't do it
more beautifully than that.

297
00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:42,320
Yeah. Isn't that a
beautiful piece of work?

298
00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:48,040
Before I leave Sheffield,
I've set up a special meeting.

299
00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:51,080
As I've travelled around Britain
using my Victorian guidebook,

300
00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:54,920
I've become increasingly
keen to learn about
George Bradshaw and his work.

301
00:23:54,920 --> 00:23:59,440
And to my delight, one of his direct
descendants has come to light.

302
00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:03,000
Mary John will see
me in the City Hall.

303
00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:07,080
Do I have the honour of
addressing the great great
granddaughter of George Bradshaw?

304
00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:10,680
Yes, yes, thank you.
This is a very proud moment for me.
Very proud indeed.

305
00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:17,920
George Bradshaw started out mapping
canals, before turning his attention
to the railways in the 1830s.

306
00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:24,160
With each different train company
printing its own timetable,
planning a journey wasn't easy.

307
00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:27,200
In 1840, Bradshaw brought
all that information together

308
00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:32,640
in a single guidebook,
called The Railway Companion,
transforming train travel.

309
00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:39,880
I found this letter, which is
an original letter from George.

310
00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:42,960
And you can read it. It's fantastic.

311
00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:47,920
Yeah. Postmark on the outside and
everything, don't know if you
want to read it.

312
00:24:47,920 --> 00:24:52,600
Manchester, 27 Brown Street, 11...

313
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:55,560
Month seven, 1843.

314
00:24:55,560 --> 00:25:02,880
It says, "Dear friend, I should be
glad if thou wilt be on the lookout
for any new railway works

315
00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:06,240
"which may be making their appearance
about this time.

316
00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:13,520
"I should very much like to know
if there is likely to be
a railway almanac for 1844.

317
00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:16,760
"Perhaps thou wilt make
a little enquiry."

318
00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:21,600
I mean, this is amazing because I
suppose he's seeing whether
there's any competition

319
00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:23,880
to the books that he's producing.

320
00:25:23,880 --> 00:25:30,040
Maybe, there was competition when he
first started out and then he wrote
this really comprehensive guide

321
00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:32,200
that then people bought
instead, yeah.

322
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:34,440
I think that's an
amazing discovery, Mary.

323
00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:37,880
You know, museums and archivists
will be so excited by this letter.

324
00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:41,560
Bradshaw's railway guides became
so successful that he published

325
00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:45,000
monthly updates and later,
an international version.

326
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,280
He's such a big influence,
George Bradshaw.

327
00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:50,960
At one time,
Bradshaw was just a household word.

328
00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:55,200
I know, yeah, but you don't
appreciate it if it's always there,

329
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:57,720
you don't appreciate it,
do you really?

330
00:25:57,720 --> 00:26:03,560
Bradshaw became a noun meaning
railway timetable in the way that

331
00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:06,680
Biro means ballpoint pen,
Hoover means vacuum cleaner.

332
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:10,400
It was just one of those words.
"Go and get the Bradshaw."

333
00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:18,080
This is actually the first edition,
we think, of a map from...1839.

334
00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:20,960
1839? That is early.

335
00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:22,880
But it unfolds,
it's really, really big.

336
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:26,440
I don't know if you want to
open it and have a look.

337
00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:31,920
"Tables of the gradients to
Bradshaw's map of the
railways of Great Britain."

338
00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:34,240
And this whole thing is a map?

339
00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:35,800
Yeah.

340
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:39,920
Oh, my goodness!

341
00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:43,440
That is so beautiful!

342
00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:48,600
And again, it's in
perfect condition. Yeah.

343
00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:55,320
This rare early map
by Bradshaw reminds me how the
major lines grew stage by stage.

344
00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:58,520
This is Brunel's Great Western
Railway running through here.

345
00:27:01,360 --> 00:27:04,160
But it goes as far
as Exeter and no further.

346
00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:09,240
And here's the Southampton railway,
and again there's nothing

347
00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:13,120
beyond Southampton. This is treasure,

348
00:27:13,120 --> 00:27:14,600
this is gold.

349
00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:19,240
Meeting Bradshaw's
great great granddaughter with
her cache of personal effects

350
00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:21,480
has brought the man to life for me.

351
00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:33,640
As I head back to the station, I
wonder whether the railway revolution
that he witnessed in a few years

352
00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:37,520
has been matched by anything
in the many decades since.

353
00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:44,080
On this journey, I've found out what
shoddy means and I've discovered the
beauties of modern Sheffield.

354
00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:47,920
And I've been thrilled
to meet a real life descendent
of George Bradshaw.

355
00:27:49,120 --> 00:27:53,600
He understood that railways
would change society absolutely.

356
00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:58,680
Yet those tracks, stations and trains
are recognisable today.

357
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:04,960
I wonder whether that will be true
of the technologies that are
currently revolutionising our lives.

358
00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:10,480
On the next leg of my journey,

359
00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:14,080
I'll be learning the secrets
of one of the Victorians'
favourite cheeses, Stilton.

360
00:28:15,320 --> 00:28:19,160
You turn that very well. I can't turn
an omelette, let alone that!

361
00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:24,640
Finding out how the
railways transformed a
traditional British sport.

362
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:28,120
Special carriages were
built to take these hunters

363
00:28:28,120 --> 00:28:31,560
from the middle of London right up
to the shires of Leicestershire.

364
00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:36,240
And attempting to mould an authentic
Melton Mowbray pork pie.

365
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:40,080
Oh, dear. Mine doesn't look
like yours but never mind.

366
00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:43,880
Oh, my goodness. It's a good job it's
a three-year apprenticeship!

367
00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:56,840
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

368
00:28:56,840 --> 00:29:00,200
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