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In 1840, one man transformed
travel in Britain.

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His name was George Bradshaw

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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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Starting off in London,
I've embarked on a new journey.

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My Bradshaw's Guide
is going to take me to Kent,

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which was regarded
as a very important county

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because it was the front line of our
defences against continental
enemies.

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It was a rich agricultural area,
supplying food to the capital,

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and of course it was a good habitat
for commuters.

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Almost the whole county was put
within two hours journey of London
by a network of railways.

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In Bradshaw's time,
Kent was the gateway to Europe.

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Its railways provided fast links
to the continent for tourists,
businesses and sometimes armies.

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On this journey, I'll be
finding out how the trains
synchronised time across Britain.

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If you wanted to catch a train and
you had your watch set to local time

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and the trains were running
on London time,

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you needed to know that
or you'd miss your train.

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Daring to follow the Victorian
along the world's first
underwater tunnel...

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People came here in their millions,
but not everyone had the courage
to walk under river.

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I have some sympathy with that.

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..and travelling on a new
generation of high speed lines
that would have delighted Bradshaw.

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Darren, this is very exciting.

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Already you can feel the thing
really thrusting forward.

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On this route, I'll be journeying
east out of the capital,

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before winding around Kent
on some of its many railway lines.

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From the cathedral city of
Canterbury, I'll aim for Whitstable,

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then explore seaside towns
that sit along our closest border
with the continent

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on my way to Hastings.

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Today I'll start in London,
and travel via Greenwich to the
strategic naval port of Chatham.

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My first stop is London Bridge,
the oldest station in the capital.

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My guide says,
"The South Eastern Railway
conveys to and from this terminus

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"the passenger and goods traffic
to and from France
and the north of Europe."

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In Bradshaw's day,
this station provided the gateway
to continental adventures.

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My Bradshaw's Guide
refers to the platforms

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being "spacious and extensive,
the wooden roofs over them are light
and airy, and the plates of glass

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"with which they're covered admit
and defuse sufficient light
to every part of the vast area."

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And I can see the Victorian station
behind me, but many people's
experience of London Bridge

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are the four platforms over there
and this kind of 1970s,
rather horrid station.

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These are very busy. You can see all
the time trains waiting to come

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into the platforms, like planes
being stacked over an airport.

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Over the years, London Bridge has
grown into a hotchpotch of dark
buildings and sprawling platforms.

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Thankfully, now it's undergoing
a billion pound refurbishment.

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And it will sit beneath Europe's
tallest building, the Shard,
which is due for completion in 2012.

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Having caught my connection,
I'm travelling five miles

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along the south bank of the Thames,
following London's first
railway line.

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I'm now travelling to Greenwich
on London's oldest railway.

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Bradshaw says, "There are as many
as 60 trains daily by this
railway, to and from London.

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"The line runs over viaducts
the whole distance,

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"through the populous districts
of Bermondsey and Rotherhithe."

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And it is indeed built on
brick arches, 878 of them.

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Apparently it took 60 million bricks
to build and they were using
10,000 a day,

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causing a brick shortage
all the way through London.

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Imagine how it changed the capital.

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Suddenly you found these railways
in the sky plunged through the place
where you'd been used to living.

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Before the railways,
the Thames provided
the fastest means of travel.

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When the Greenwich line opened in
1836, travellers were reluctant
to exchange the boats for trains.

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But within a short time,
1,500 passengers a day
were using the service.

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Greenwich, with its stunning park,
was transformed from a leafy village

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outside London to one of the
capital's most popular suburbs,
and Bradshaw could see why.

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Talking of Greenwich Park,
Bradshaw says,

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"We cannot but hope that the park
and heath may be preserved
for ages to come

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"as an oasis in the desert, when the
mighty city has spread its suburbs

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"far beyond it, into the hills and
dales of the surrounding country."

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And Bradshaw's wish has come true.
The park and the heath
have been preserved.

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But even George Bradshaw, with his
great imagination about the future,
cannot have anticipated

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the mighty bulk of the structures of
Canary Wharf, which are magnificent.

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In Bradshaw's time, the splendid
historical buildings at Greenwich

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attracted tourists
from across the world.

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Now the naval hospital
and the Queen's House
form part of a World Heritage site,

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which includes the park's crowning
marvel, the Royal Observatory.

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My Bradshaw's Guide says, "The
Royal Observatory occupies the most
elevated spot in Greenwich Park.

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"For the guidance of shipping,
the round globe at its summit

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"drops precisely at 1pm
to give the exact Greenwich Time."

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Oh dear. I'm going to need
a better watch.

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The Greenwich Observatory's Time
Ball has been helping accurately to
set watches and clocks since 1833.

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Hello, Jonathan. Hello, Michael.

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'Jonathan Betts is the
senior curator of horology.'

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The famous ball here.
What is that for, what does it do?

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It was necessary before you left
your home port to set to local time,

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and that's what the Time Ball
was for.

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To enable the ships in the docklands
below to set their chronometers
correctly.

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So they'd be on the ships
with their telescopes, looking up

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and measuring the exact moment
at which the ball fell?

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At 1pm every day,
they were all down there.

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And of course the public regarded it
very much as a time service for them.

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With the dawn of the railway age,
Greenwich assumed additional
importance.

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Until then, time was set locally,
so Bristol was 14 minutes behind
London time and Plymouth 20 minutes.

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That caused havoc
for train timetables.

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Is it really the case that the
railways were the main force

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driving towards having standardised
time in this country?

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Principally it was, yes.
The railways and the electric
telegraph went hand in hand.

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With the introduction of the railways
and the telegraph

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it was realised we needed
one time for the nation.

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If you wanted to catch a train and
you had your watch set to your
local time and they had

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their timetables on London time,
you needed to know that
or you'd miss your train.

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Then eventually Greenwich gets into
the business of telegraphing

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the time to towns and cities
all over Britain?

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Yes, electric clocks had been
created in the 1840s, and we created
here something called an electric

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master and slave system, in which the
master clock sent out electrical time
signals using the electric telegraph

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along the railway lines to virtually
anywhere in the country, to provide
Greenwich Time.

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Towns and villages outside London
instantly received the
Greenwich Time,

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which would be displayed in
public places using signal devices.

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Jonathan has several
Victorian examples.

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Your workshop
is a busy-looking place.

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Yeah. There's plenty going on here.
I've actually got two time signals
out for you to see.

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From the 1870s, this type of
time signal was being used by
subscribers all over the country

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to provide a Greenwich Time service
for their customers.

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In front of jewellers shops,
like Hancocks here in Bond Street,

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you'd find a group of people
with their pocket watches,
waiting to set the time.

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As the moment approached,
there'd be mounting excitement.

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This one is more like your ball
here at Greenwich.

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Very much so. This is a little
miniature version of the Time Ball.

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There were many of these made.

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First of all, this would happen
at about five minutes before 1pm.

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The person receiving the time signal

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would arrange for the ball
to be raised to the top of the mast

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in time for the Greenwich Time signal
to go through.

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Then, with everybody standing
outside waiting with their watches,

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at the moment of the signal,
the ball would drop.

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And there you have it. Wow. That's
magnificent. Isn't that fun? It is.

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It's absolutely wonderful. I've been
thinking about railway time since
I started making these journeys.

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But it's really brought it home to
me today. That really is
fascinating. This is how it worked.

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Precision time-keeping.

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The railways created the need
for standardised time in Britain,
and in other countries, too.

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That gave rise to time zones.

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Since 1884,
time around the globe has been set
by reference to Greenwich.

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One last thing to do
before I leave Greenwich.

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Bradshaw comments that,
"Large quantities of whitebait
are caught in the season.

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"Whitebait dinners form the chief
attractions to the taverns adjacent.

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"And here, Her Majesty's ministers
regale themselves annually
on that fish.

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"The seasons from May to the latter
end of July, when Parliament
generally closes for the season.

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I can tell you that those dinners
aren't just historic.

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When I was a minister, I went to
one of those whitebait dinners
at this very tavern.

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Hi. How many of you? Just one of me.

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Can I have a table, please?

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Follow me. Thank you.
Have you got any whitebait on today?
Of course. Your great tradition.

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Very traditional. It's certainly
a table with a view.
Isn't that fantastic! Thank you.

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I'll have a whitebait
dinner, please. Thank you.

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Famous statesmen from William Pitt
to William Gladstone
enjoyed whitebait suppers.

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So I follow rather eminent diners.

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Thank you very much.
Fresh from the Thames?

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Not any more, unfortunately.
From the North Sea now.

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I believe that this tavern
was particularly associated
with Liberal politicians?

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I'm slightly out of place here.
Well, maybe not in coalition times!
Thank you so much.

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My pleasure. Enjoy. I will.

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As good as ever.

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Absolutely great. Crisp, beautiful.

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I've left Greenwich and made my way
to nearby New Cross,

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and now I'm headed for Rotherhithe
on London's newest railway service.

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Part of the London overground, it
opened in 2010, although a portion

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follows the route of a railway
that dates back to Bradshaw's era.

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In the 1860s,
when it was first built,

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it was known
as the East London Railway.

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I'm travelling just two miles
to my next stop.

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The refurbished East London line
has wonderful new trains.

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They remind me of trains I've seen
in places like Hong Kong.

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You pass from one car to the next.

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With no doors. And the whole thing
is like one long continuous tube.

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'I'm pleased to find that my
enthusiasm for this new rail service

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'is matched or exceeded
by one of its passengers.'

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Hello. Hello. It's terrific,
isn't it, the new service? Yeah.

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Have you been on it before?

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Yeah. I was the first ever person

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to go on the new line from Shoreditch
High Street to New Cross Gate,

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to Dalston Junction and back
to Shoreditch. First ever person?

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Yeah, on 15 April. You wrote in, did
you, or telephoned? I e-mailed in.

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What's so special about
the East London line?

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What's special is the
Thames Tunnel between
Wapping and Rotherhithe stations,

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built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

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Well, we'll be arriving at
Rotherhithe soon. That's where
the tunnel begins, isn't it? Yeah.

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That's where I'm getting off
and I'm going to have a close look
at that tunnel myself. Bye-bye. Bye.

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I'm getting off at Rotherhithe,
where the new line follows

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the original Victorian route, and
takes advantage of one of the 19th
century's most daring achievements.

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So it's London's newest railway
service, but it passes through a
tunnel familiar to Bradshaw.

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"The tunnel from Wapping to
Rotherhithe was commenced in 1805
and opened in 1843

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"by the projector and engineer,
Sir IK Brunel."

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Then he gives all its dimensions
and he says, "It's a double archway,

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"brilliantly lighted, with gas, and
open each day and night with a toll
of one penny for each passenger."

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This tunnel wasn't built
for a railway.

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It was built for pedestrians, and
I'm going to take a walk through it.

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From 1am, the line is closed,
and I'm assured it will be safe
to walk along it.

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I'm meeting Robert Hulse
from the Brunel Museum,

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a keen admirer of this tunnel.

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Hello. Here we are
in the middle of the night.

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We hope all the trains have stopped
when we go into the tunnel.

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It's quite a special tunnel,
isn't it?

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Yes, it is. It's the first tunnel
under a river anywhere in the world,

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and it's the first project that
Isambard Kingdom Brunel worked on.

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So in a way, it's also the origins
of underground railways?

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Yes, this is an international
landmark site as it's the birthplace

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of the Tube, not just for London,
but for everywhere.

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This 365-metre tunnel was originally
built as a fast way to transport
cargo across the river.

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It was engineered by Marc Brunel,
and the work was supervised by
his son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

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For the first time, they would bore
beneath water at enormous risk
and in appalling conditions.

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Was machinery used
to build this in any way?

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No, it's dug by hand.

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It's dug by men working in cages
with short-handle spades,

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showered with Thames water.

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In 1825, when the Thames was the
biggest open sewer in the world,

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it just doesn't bear thinking about
what was showering down

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on these poor unfortunates
as they toiled under the river.

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It took thousands of men, working by
oil lamp, to construct the tunnel.

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Officially, six people
were killed building it,

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00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:24,760
but that doesn't include others
who died from cholera and TB.

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It was a lethal enterprise.
It began just here.

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Now, imagine this as a cage, 36 tiny
cages, a row of 12 along the top.

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Each one of those has a man in it?
Each one of those has a man in it.

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And the method of building it?
Obviously it had to be original?
That's right.

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This is Marc Brunel's
patented method,

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00:16:46,280 --> 00:16:49,760
and modern tunnelling-machines
are based on this principle.

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00:16:49,760 --> 00:16:53,200
Men dug out the earth
four inches at a time,

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00:16:53,200 --> 00:16:57,880
then the exposed flanks
were quickly lined with bricks.

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00:16:57,880 --> 00:17:02,560
But after 18 years, there was
no money to build cargo ramps,

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00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:07,560
so the tunnel was opened
to pedestrians instead,
at the cost of one penny.

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00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:13,880
In the first 15 weeks, there were a
million visitors, but that's only
a million pennies.

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00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:18,360
The tunnel was conceived as a
cargo tunnel that would have got

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00:17:18,360 --> 00:17:22,280
tolls form the shipping agencies,
so they have pennies.

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00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:27,720
They were a huge success as a visitor
attraction, but they have no revenue.

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00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:33,440
So they built the world's first
underwater shopping arcade,

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00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:38,200
to try and make some money. Each of
these little archways was a shop.

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00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:43,360
There's just room for you and
a barrow and table of souvenirs.

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00:17:43,360 --> 00:17:46,000
They sold items like this.

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00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:50,120
They sold Thames Tunnel gin flasks,
Thames Tunnel pin cushions,

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00:17:50,120 --> 00:17:54,240
Thames Tunnel snuff boxes,
Thames Tunnel coffee cups.

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00:17:54,240 --> 00:17:58,840
If they'd had baseball caps,
they'd have sold those.

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00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:04,320
People came here in their millions,
but not everyone had the courage
to walk under the river.

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00:18:04,320 --> 00:18:12,160
And some people walked under the
river very briskly, and broke into a
run at this point, which is halfway.

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Where most people's resolve
failed them.

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I have some sympathy with that.

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00:18:16,280 --> 00:18:19,120
Sadly, what opened
as a shining avenue of light

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00:18:19,120 --> 00:18:25,040
under the River Thames to Wapping
became by degrees a little less shiny

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00:18:25,040 --> 00:18:29,480
and a little less respectable. Oh.
It became a bit seedy, did it?

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00:18:29,480 --> 00:18:34,400
It did. It became a haunt of thieves,
cut-purses and what the books

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00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:39,680
demurely describe as, "Women,
no better than they should be."

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00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:46,760
In fact, there were all kinds of
transactions conducted under the
River Thames in these dark spaces.

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00:18:46,760 --> 00:18:49,840
And so at that point it was
ready to became a railway tunnel?

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00:18:49,840 --> 00:18:56,920
Yes, in 1865, they sold the tunnel
to the railway.

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00:18:58,520 --> 00:19:01,160
The tunnel became part
of the growing rail system

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00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:06,120
and is now the centrepiece
of London's newest train service.

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00:19:06,120 --> 00:19:11,120
I still don't like touching that
electric rail, even if it is off.
Healthy respect!

243
00:19:19,280 --> 00:19:22,720
The next day, I'm heading to
St Pancras station to pick up

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00:19:22,720 --> 00:19:26,880
a very fast train that will carry me
to the heart of Kent.

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00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:32,120
If Bradshaw were still
publishing, he would be lyrical
about this service.

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00:19:32,120 --> 00:19:35,520
This is a very exciting thing
for me, first time I get to ride

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00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:40,400
on a high speed train
on a domestic British service.

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00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:45,640
I bear the scars of this line, as
when I was a Minister of Transport
in the 1980s, we were planning it,

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00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:47,720
and the people of Kent
were up in arms

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00:19:47,720 --> 00:19:51,560
that they'd have noisy, high-speed
trains passing near their villages.

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00:19:51,560 --> 00:19:55,800
What they couldn't imagine then
is that many of them would get
travel times to London

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00:19:55,800 --> 00:19:59,200
that would be a fraction
of what they'd experienced before,

253
00:19:59,200 --> 00:20:03,080
and at speeds that would have
exhilarated George Bradshaw.

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00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:05,400
Oh, and by the way, I get
to ride in the cab, too!

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00:20:09,240 --> 00:20:15,920
Driver Darren Stevens is going to
demonstrate how modern track
allows high speed travel.

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00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:19,040
Darren, this is very exciting,
isn't it?

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00:20:19,040 --> 00:20:22,040
Already you can feel the thing
really thrusting forward.

258
00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:23,960
You will do when we go
into the first tunnel.

259
00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:26,960
I'm looking at a very steep
gradient ahead of us,

260
00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:29,880
these trains can really cope with
steep gradients, can't they?

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00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:34,680
They can, yeah - the route's like
a roller coaster. As you'll see.

262
00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:41,880
This dedicated fast line was built
for Eurostar trains to cut the
journey time to the Channel Tunnel.

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00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:47,000
It opened in 2007 and permits
speeds up to 186 miles per hour.

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00:20:48,600 --> 00:20:53,720
From 2009, it's also carried high
speed domestic services to Kent.

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00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:56,720
This has made a big difference
to journey times, hasn't it? Yeah.

266
00:20:56,720 --> 00:21:00,640
We've had nothing but positive
feedback from passengers.

267
00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:06,920
I think it's made a big difference to
the journey times, it's sliced off
somewhere up to an hour.

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00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:10,400
I spoke to one lady, she was
saving over two hours a day.

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00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:15,000
This new service,
transforming commuting,

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00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:19,440
is reminiscent of the impact that
railways had in Bradshaw's day.

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00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:22,560
Look at your speedometer climb
now, it's going crazy, isn't it?

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00:21:22,560 --> 00:21:26,120
Shooting up to 160,
is it going to get to 160?

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00:21:26,120 --> 00:21:29,440
The acceleration is very good, we're
up to 200 now, maximum line speed.

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00:21:29,440 --> 00:21:32,720
We're allowed to go to 200.
Even here in the tunnel?

275
00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:34,920
Yes. We do get up to 225
in the tunnels.

276
00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:45,320
Wow, this is awesome. This is the
newest tunnel under the Thames.

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00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:49,720
Mr Brunel would be impressed and
Mr Bradshaw would be exhilarated.

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00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:52,640
This is my stop, Chatham.

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00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:54,840
I've really enjoyed the ride.
Thank you so much.

280
00:21:54,840 --> 00:21:57,280
Thanks for being here. Safe journey.

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00:21:57,280 --> 00:22:02,600
In the 19th century, Chatham had
one of the greatest shipyards

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00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:07,680
in the country
which not surprisingly,
features strongly in my guidebook.

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00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:10,520
"The dockyard, to be seen
by application at the gate,

284
00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:16,520
"was commenced by Queen Elizabeth,
following the wise policy of her
father, and is about a mile long."

285
00:22:16,520 --> 00:22:21,640
And I'm going to see what
I think is a really vital part
of British naval history.

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00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:29,560
My Bradshaw's goes on to
describe the vast array of
facilities at the dockyard.

287
00:22:29,560 --> 00:22:34,240
"It contains six building slips,
wet and dry docks,

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00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:41,280
"rope house, 1,140ft long,
oar and block machinery by Brunel."

289
00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:45,160
The list goes on. At the time
of writing, England was still

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00:22:45,160 --> 00:22:50,120
on the defensive against France
in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars.

291
00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:55,360
With fear of European
invasion ever in the air,
and the arrival of new technology,

292
00:22:55,360 --> 00:23:00,480
the dockyard was rapidly expanded,
from 80 acres to over 600.

293
00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:10,480
Well, I've come down now to the
dockyard and I am just very
impressed by the scale, it is huge.

294
00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:14,040
It reeks of history.
Some beautiful historic buildings.

295
00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:20,840
Such an extensive
dockyard in Bradshaw's day
required its own network of tracks.

296
00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:22,480
Hello, Richard.

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00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:27,280
'Richard Holdsworth is the museum
and heritage director at Chatham.'

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00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:30,760
I assume that the place was
so big it needed a railway?

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00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:36,640
It had a huge transport system, the
railway arrived in the dockyard in
1879 and for the next 20 years

300
00:23:36,640 --> 00:23:41,280
the dockyard was building standard
gauge railway lines
across its entire length

301
00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:43,640
and that process went on
until the 20th century.

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00:23:43,640 --> 00:23:47,520
You could bring trains
off the national system

303
00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:50,800
right into the yard? Right into
the yard. They were carrying

304
00:23:50,800 --> 00:23:55,200
the sorts of material needed to build
ships, specialist tools, equipment,

305
00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:56,520
guns, things like that.

306
00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:04,040
The railways were crucial
to keeping Britain at the forefront
of naval engineering.

307
00:24:04,040 --> 00:24:10,080
In the late 1800s, trains hauled in
the materials required
for shipbuilding

308
00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:15,040
and the technology of steam
was used to modernise the vessels.

309
00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:21,920
The Victorians had created a vast
global empire and Chatham supplied
the latest warships to defend it.

310
00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:26,040
HMS Gannet strikes me as a pretty
unusual ship, because it's both
sail and steam.

311
00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:29,040
That's right,
she's transitional period.

312
00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:34,320
Really, the heyday of the dockyard
of the navy in Victorian times

313
00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:37,560
when Britain's navy
is projecting power across the world.

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00:24:37,560 --> 00:24:43,040
These are the sorts of ships
designed to patrol the widest
flung parts of Empire.

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00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:50,360
From about 1892 to 1905, 250,000
tonnes of warship entered the Medway
from the slips behind me

316
00:24:50,360 --> 00:24:55,440
and they were the cream of the
Royal Navy, the envy of the world.

317
00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:59,880
Chatham was at the core of
ship construction and ship repair.

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00:25:01,560 --> 00:25:06,680
The vast new docks
and the new technologies became
a tourist attraction in themselves.

319
00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:11,080
Visitors came to marvel
as up to 2,500 craftsmen

320
00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:16,560
readied the ships for sea
and produced essential
naval equipment like ropes.

321
00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:20,480
It strikes me as ironic that one of
things which survived was the ropery

322
00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:24,760
as when you move form sail to steam,
you'd need fewer ropes?

323
00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:30,800
That's true and from 1866 onwards,
the navy cut down the rope it used,

324
00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:35,000
but in the heyday, it had
four roperies of its own and bought
a huge amount in commercially.

325
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:38,880
When built, the ropery was the
longest brick building in Europe.

326
00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:42,960
It's still used for the same purpose
as in Bradshaw's time.

327
00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:46,360
Nothing prepares you for that,
does it? It's endless.

328
00:25:46,360 --> 00:25:49,120
It's one of the seven wonders
of the world.

329
00:25:49,120 --> 00:25:52,120
This is the oldest rope manufacturer
in Britain.

330
00:25:52,120 --> 00:25:55,280
The building is so long because
the strands of rope had to be

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00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:58,320
laid out to their full length
before being twisted.

332
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:04,920
The length of the room is just
so you can make these enormous
stretches of rope.

333
00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:09,160
The length of the room is designed so
the navy could make rope
in 120 fathoms

334
00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:13,040
and that works out today
as 220 metres.

335
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:17,360
That is the international length
of a standard coil of rope.

336
00:26:17,360 --> 00:26:21,920
Today the ropery makes natural
fibre ropes for theatres and zoos

337
00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:26,600
as well as boats, pleasure cruisers
and the Ministry of Defence.

338
00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:31,520
This scene, I could have seen
at any time in the last 200 years?

339
00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:38,920
It's a process going on today as it
has for a couple of hundred years,
and it's a commercial venture.

340
00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:47,440
Following my Bradshaw's around
Britain, it's useful to remember

341
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:51,800
that the Victorians enjoyed one of
the longest periods of peace
in British history.

342
00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:55,280
Yet the danger posed by France at
the beginning of the 19th century

343
00:26:55,280 --> 00:27:00,280
made them guard fiercely
both homeland and Empire.

344
00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:04,840
It can sometimes be difficult
to grasp the mentality
of Bradshaw's era.

345
00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:10,480
They believed in Empire,
an idea that's passed from fashion,
and just as well.

346
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:12,760
But when I was in
Brunel's Thames Tunnel,

347
00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:17,960
I was struck that we're still using
and adapting Victorian engineering.

348
00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:24,720
The reason is that the same
qualities that inspired the
Victorians to global supremacy

349
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:30,400
were the ones that led them,
those remarkable ancestors,
to build to last.

350
00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:40,760
On my next journey, I'll be hopping
with excitement, Victorian style.

351
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:43,840
I just yank this?
Give it a good pull.

352
00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:50,520
Discovering the secrets of paper
from one of the country's
leading experts.

353
00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:54,200
Would you like to know
where this paper was made?

354
00:27:54,200 --> 00:27:56,400
Don't tell me you can tell that.
I can.

355
00:27:56,400 --> 00:28:01,120
And learning how the trains
transported a very English game
all over the country.

356
00:28:01,120 --> 00:28:06,360
If you look at the map
of expansion of the rail network
around England and Scotland,

357
00:28:06,360 --> 00:28:09,480
cricket follows those lines.

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00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:29,720
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:32,240
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk