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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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For the Victorian tourist,
travelling by train

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was more than just a way of
getting from one place to another.

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Particularly for those people
who lived in industrial cities,

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watching a rural idyll
drifting past the carriage window
would be an education

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and the experience would be all
the more improving if the tourist
referred to his Bradshaw's Guide.

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As I venture deeper into Kent,
I'm appreciating my
Bradshaw's more than ever.

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A modern guidebook can point
the way to historic artefacts
but one a century-and-a-half-old

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unwittingly reveals the values of
a society which modern Britons
both mock and revere.

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Today I'm heading for Romney marsh,
where the railways helped ensure the
success of a special breed of sheep.

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It was quite an important route for
my family. It was the closest station
from where they lived.

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I'll be finding out why
my guidebook compared Kent
to the French Champagne region.

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That south-facing slopes that
we see on the North Downs,

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that Bradshaw would have seen,
is perfect terroir for Champagne.

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And discovering how
the railways led Victorian Britain
into the grip of fern fever.

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The nurseries would use the railways
to send the plants to the customers.

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So this amazing craze was helped on
by the railways.
Oh, yes, definitely.

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I'm almost at the end of my journey
from London, travelling 175 miles

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in a circuit through Kent,
enjoying the county's rich history.

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Having followed the coastline
to Folkestone,

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now I'm making my way west,
just over the border into Sussex.

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The final stretch
starts in Westenhanger before

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passing through Ashford and ending
at the seaside resort of Hastings.

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In the 19th century, the railway
line snaking along the coast

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allowed hundreds of city dwellers to
discover the rural villages of Kent.

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I'm alighting at Westenhanger,
not much more than a tiny hamlet
in Bradshaw's day.

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Having travelled around Kent,
I feel like one of those Victorian

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urban tourists myself, because
I've always lived in the metropolis.

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Of course, I have visited Kent, but
I've never given it a proper tour,
and I've found that it's not only

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a county of great natural beauty
but fundamentally important
to British history.

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Westenhanger is just my gateway
to a remarkable English ecology,

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a windswept landscape of salt
flats and shingle, Romney Marsh.

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Since the 11th century,
settlers have attempted to tame
this wild terrain.

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This spectacular panorama
is Romney Marsh

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and Bradshaw says that it extends
along the coast for 20 miles,
including about 60,000 acres,

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which within the last few years
have been successfully drained
and cultivated.

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In fact, the land and sea have
battled over this terrain
for hundreds of years

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but now, with the provision of a sea
wall and with constant drainage,
the marsh is stable.

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Reputedly a fearsome climate.

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In the 1700s, the marsh was
shared between smugglers
and malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

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Life expectancy was a mere 35 years.

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But the Victorians
finally built sea walls strong
enough to keep the waters at bay.

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The marsh may never have welcomed
human life but a more hardy animal

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has thrived here,
Romney Marsh sheep.

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Paul Boulden's family has been
rearing them since the 1880s.

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Paul. Morning. What a fantastic
vista over the marsh, isn't it?

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It is, it is. It looks today
like quite a gentle place,

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but it has a bit of a reputation,
doesn't it, for being a bit spooky?

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Yes, most definitely.
The mist comes in very quickly,
just a run across the field.

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It looks quite eerie.
The superstitious type would
think it's full of spirits!

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This leads down to the sea
and it's completely flat.

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It's all been reclaimed at one time?

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Yes, predominantly.

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Everything you can see here's
been reclaimed over past centuries.

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And what sort of a soil has
that given us down there?

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It's a rich, alluvial silt, really.

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Pretty fertile? Yes, very fertile.

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Hence the amount of crops down
there now, not so much grass.

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Have you any idea how long the
Romney Marsh sheep has been here?

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It's been on the marsh
for over 1,000 years.

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I believe the Romans probably
brought them in initially.

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As time's gone on, they've evolved,
really, to what they are today.

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Good for wool and for meat?
Yes, a dual purpose breed.

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Being resistant to disease and
able to feed on the boggy pasture,

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these sheep are well adapted
to the damp, harsh conditions.

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Their meat is particularly
sought after as it picks up
a salty flavour from the marsh.

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The railway arrived at Smeeth
in 1852.

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By the 1890s, Paul's family
was using it on a weekly basis.

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It was quite an important route
for my family.

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It was the closest station

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from where they lived.

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They were living on the end of the
marsh and from there on to the marsh.

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Paul preserves a Victorian farming
diary kept by his great grandfather.

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It's just sort of day-to-day
jobs of what they were doing
on the farm.

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But there's references, which are
very apt, to the railway station
nearby.

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This one here, Jan 14th 1895.

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"100 trusses straw
to Smeeth station for a Mr Hook."

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There's one here,
"31st January, 1894.

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"One horse to Smeeth station
for coals."

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It really shows sheep farming has
been going on here quite a while,

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but the farmers were adapting
pretty well to using the railway
to keep themselves supplied?

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Very much so. They cut a lot miles,
I suspect.

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Trains could carry sheep
to markets all over the country.

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By the second half of the 19th
century, the breed had become

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so popular that it was exported
to most of the world's continents.

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Today, 70% of New Zealand sheep
are descended from Romney Marsh
specimens.

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What are their main
physical attributes?

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They're are a strong-bodied sheep,
strong on the legs.

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They've got good, sound feet. That's
one of the main characteristics
coming off the Romney Marsh.

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It's a traditionally wet landscape,
so they've got good tolerance to
foot rot, living in wet mud, really.

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Your family's been farming sheep
here for a long time.

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Would your great-great grandfather
recognise these sheep?

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Yes, very much so. They've probably
got a bit less wool on their head.

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They'd have been more woolly
140 years ago or so.

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In Bradshaw's day, Romney Marsh had
an unusual system of freelance
shepherds called "lookers".

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They lived out on the marsh in tiny
brick huts for weeks at a time,
keeping a close eye on the flock.

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These days,
Paul checks on the sheep himself.

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Catch a good one, one that's...
I recommend you catch a small one!

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If I can get near it!
They're going to be a bit lively!

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Oh, Lord!

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So, first catch yourself a sheep.
Yes.

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You're rather good at catching sheep
because you would get the sheep
like this to shear?

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Something like this.
And you shear a sheep,
where's that wool destined for?

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Well, all our wool goes through

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the British Wool Marketing Board,
it goes into the local wool growers

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in Ashford, and then it's graded
there and then it's sold on the wool
exchange at Bradford.

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But Romney Marsh wool,
still pretty highly regarded?

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Yeah, for its versatility, really.

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Although the historic exchange
is no longer used for trading,

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the wool is still regularly
auctioned in Bradford.

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And just as in Bradshaw's day, it's
mainly used in carpets and clothes.

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This sheep is destined
for quite a nice life.

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Once a year, it's got to put up
with the indignity of being sheared,

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got to produce a fair number
of lambs, but that's it.

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That's not too bad, is it?
No, that's right.

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We'd like to try to rear 1.5 lambs
from the sheep,

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although on average it's 1.3.
Per year? Per year.

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Are you ready to have 1.3 lambs?

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Yeah, I think she's all set.
Good, good.

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It's time for me to bid farewell
to these distinguished sheep

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and return to Westenhanger Station
to catch my next train.

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I was hoping to see a Eurostar
rush by on the special tracks

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on the other side of this barbed
wire fence, but none has passed.

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I shall be moving closer
to Victorian speed.

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I'm travelling 11 miles to Ashford.

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The line runs parallel to the high
speed route to the continent,
but a century-and-a-half

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before the channel tunnel was built,
my guidebook was already
reminded of France.

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Bradshaw's describes this part of
the line, between Ashford and the

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coast, as "swerving slightly to the
south east and having on each side
a delightful Champagne country."

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Now, it must be because it
reminded him of Champagne

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in France, because as far as I know,
in Victorian times, they didn't
grow grapes here for sparkling wine.

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But now they do, so Bradshaw's
was clairvoyant. Spooky.

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Although vines have been grown in
England since Roman times, Britain

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last attempted wine-making on a
commercial scale in Bradshaw's era.

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Wealthy Victorians returned
from their rail tours of Europe

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inspired by continental viniculture
to try their hand.

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'We will shortly be arriving
at Ashford International.'

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But their efforts fizzled out before
World War I and only in the 1950s

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did a successful British
wine industry emerge.

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I'm come to the most beautiful
setting of a vineyard.

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I suppose it could be France but
the treeline is entirely English.

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Wine producer Fraser Thompson
is just weeks away from harvesting
this year's growth.

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What a very beautiful place.
Thank you.

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My Bradshaw's guide compares this
terrain to Champagne, but I guess

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there were probably no vineyards
around when that was written
in the 1860s.

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Very few. In fact, English wine's
really gone through something of

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a revolution in last 30 to 40 years.

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Is there anything about the terrain
to remind a Victorian of Champagne?

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Very much so. The first thing you
see, of course, when you come into
England is this great mass of chalk.

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And to a Frenchman arriving, thinking
about champagne, chalk, well that's
manna, that's terroir for champagne.

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And of course, this great seam
of chalk goes up through the North

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Downs, and it turns to be facing
broadly southwards, and south facing

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slopes that we see on the North
Downs, that Bradshaw would have seen,
is perfect terroir for Champagne.

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Kent is just 220 miles away from
Champagne in France, so it's not

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so surprising that there are
similarities between the regions.

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The cooler English climate actually
works in the wine grower's favour,

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producing sharper, refreshing,
less-alcoholic wines

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to suit tastes which have evolved
since Bradshaw's day.

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Back in the Victorian era and perhaps
earlier in the 20th century,

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we'd have been experiencing and
wanting bigger, warmer, fleshier,

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more alcoholic wines,
with different flavour profiles,
different sweetnesses.

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Now, of course, people want
acidity, freshness

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and low-alcohol, and that's exactly
what English wines can provide.

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These grapes here, what are they?
This is chardonnay, grown in England.

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It'll go towards making great
blanc de blancs sparkling wine.

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Do you want to try one?
At this stage, what you'll get
is mainly acids.

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You can get some other
fruit in there, though.

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That acidity is what is going to make
your mouth water.

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That's what we're going to need
to make great sparkling wine.

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That's the very wine in fact
that England's won one of
world's greatest wines for.

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Blanc de blancs? Yeah.

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In fact, one of our competitors did
a fantastic job and produced

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a blanc de blancs sparkling wine
in 2006,

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and it's beaten all competition from
all over the world to make the
best sparkling wine in the world.

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Including French?
Including French, New Zealand,
everywhere else in the world.

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Hopefully, if Bradshaw was to write
a book in 200 years' time,

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he'll say perhaps compare somewhere
else to the great vineyards
of south-east England.

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It would be wonderful.

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What distinguishes champagne
and other sparkling wine
is that it's fermented twice -

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once in the vat and again in the
bottle, which creates the bubbles.

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Dom Perignon is often credited
with inventing the process.

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In fact it was first
documented in the 1660s

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by an Englishman,
Christopher Merrit, in a paper
for the Royal Society.

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So the wine's arrived here,
the final part of the journey for
a bottle of sparkling wine.

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It has arrived here upside-down,
as the French call it, sur pointe.

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At sur pointe, all the yeast used
to make the bubbles and the extra

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alcohol used to make the sparkling
wine is condensed into a little
crust at the bottom of the bottle.

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So it's upside down and, by the
time we enter the machine here,

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it comes off the other end
a perfect bottle of sparkling wine.

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Corked and caged, the wine bottles
are then cleaned and labelled,

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and I'm curious to know
what remains to be done.

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How long after that before you can
actually drink it? Straightaway.

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The moment it comes off this
machine behind you it's drinkable.

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There's some debate about whether
a month or two of cork age will do it

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any good, but essentially it's very
drinkable - very, very drinkable -
the moment it comes off this machine.

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Very drinkable, you say.
Shall we put it to the test?

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More sparkling wine is sold here
than in France and, for the first

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time, England is competing seriously
in the international wine stakes.

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That's what I call a picnic basket!

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Well, let's hope
you like the contents. Cheers.

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Cheers.

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Wow! Powerful taste of fruits. Mmm.

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It's a bang-on mouthful of flavour.

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Yeah. What am I getting?

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Apple certainly.
You're probably getting some apple.

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You're almost certainly getting
some wild strawberries and maybe
even a little bit of shortcake.

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00:16:03,040 --> 00:16:07,360
I don't think my sample was quite
big enough for me to get
all the flavours.

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00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:09,760
Shall we just
top you up with a little bit more?

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00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:12,280
Thank you.

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00:16:12,280 --> 00:16:14,200
I even like the noise.

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00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:16,040
Cheers again!

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00:16:18,080 --> 00:16:22,160
Nicely stimulated by my glass
of English fizz, I'm ready to

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00:16:22,160 --> 00:16:26,760
find a hotel for the night,
and my guidebook has a suggestion.

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00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:31,800
Time for bed
and, thanks to my Bradshaw's,
I can continue the champagne life.

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00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:39,400
He recommends Eastwell Park,
this fantastic pile, which was
the seat of the Earl of Winchilsea.

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00:16:39,400 --> 00:16:43,320
He tells me it's the place where
Richard Plantagenet, the last

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00:16:43,320 --> 00:16:46,880
descendant of that royal household,
breathed his last.

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00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:52,520
The story is that the boy
was told by his father,
Richard III, just before

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00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:58,840
his death at the Battle of Bosworth,
to keep his identity a secret, so
that he wouldn't face persecution.

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00:16:58,840 --> 00:17:02,600
Bradshaw tells me
that Richard Plantagenet

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00:17:02,600 --> 00:17:09,080
"died in obscurity as a bricklayer
to the family who lived here
in 1550".

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00:17:09,080 --> 00:17:11,680
Well, it's a good story.

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00:17:11,680 --> 00:17:14,880
This may or may not be
the last resting place

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00:17:14,880 --> 00:17:20,800
of Richard III's illegitimate son,
but it'll do splendidly
as a resting place for me.

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00:17:20,800 --> 00:17:23,320
Good evening. Mr Portillo.
Welcome to Eastwell Manor.

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00:17:23,320 --> 00:17:25,520
Very good to see you.
Have you got a room for me?

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00:17:25,520 --> 00:17:27,520
Indeed. We have Broderick for you.

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00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:30,440
I was hoping for Plantagenet.

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00:17:30,440 --> 00:17:34,840
It's a much nicer room on
the grounds side of the manor.
Thank you.

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00:17:36,960 --> 00:17:40,600
Oh, yes! Suitably grand...

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00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:49,400
And a vista over the formal gardens.

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00:17:49,400 --> 00:17:52,720
One of the prettiest views in Kent.

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00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:05,800
The next morning I'm moving on
to the last leg of my journey.

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00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:10,960
So it's back to Ashford
to catch my final train.

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00:18:10,960 --> 00:18:17,120
For the first time since I began
my trip, I am on a diesel,
not electric, train.

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00:18:17,120 --> 00:18:21,800
I'm quitting Kent for Sussex,
headed for one of the best known

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00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:28,000
places on the British coast,
Hastings, famous for 1066
and all that.

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00:18:30,040 --> 00:18:36,200
I'm heading about 25 miles
along the line towards the sea.

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00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:38,360
'Now approaching Hastings.'

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00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:55,600
Hastings.
This was one of the first towns,
along with Eastbourne and Ramsgate,

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00:18:55,600 --> 00:19:02,240
to offer a service early on a Monday
morning, so that London workers
could get back to their offices.

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00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:07,480
That gave rise to a new kind
of holiday, from Saturday
to Monday morning.

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00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:12,160
It wasn't until 1870 that
the Oxford dictionary recognised

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00:19:12,160 --> 00:19:18,240
a new phenomenon, and entered for
the first time the word "weekend".

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00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:22,360
In the second half of
the 19th century,

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00:19:22,360 --> 00:19:26,400
weekend breaks by train became
popular with middle-class
Victorians.

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00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:32,720
Hastings grew from a small fishing
town to a lively seaside resort.

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00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:35,600
"The openness of the coast"
says Bradshaw, "and the smoothness

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00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:39,440
"of the beach have long made
Hastings a favourite resort.

254
00:19:39,440 --> 00:19:45,280
"The water's almost limpid and of
that beautiful sea-green hue
so inviting to bathers.

255
00:19:45,280 --> 00:19:48,800
"A very efficient substitute
for a trip to Madeira."

256
00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:52,160
So scrap the package holiday
and buy a train ticket.

257
00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:56,800
The railways didn't boost
tourism alone.

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00:19:56,800 --> 00:20:03,160
In the 1860s, as trains conveyed
fresh herring to London,
fishing flourished too.

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00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:10,240
I'm heading to a famous area of
the Hastings beach called The Stade
to meet fisherman Budd White.

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00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:13,920
Hello, Budd! Hello, there.

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00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:16,360
Not interrupting? No, not at all.

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00:20:16,360 --> 00:20:20,640
I go around using this 19th-century
railway guide book.

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00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:23,840
Your great-grandfather, your
grandfather - do you think they

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00:20:23,840 --> 00:20:26,680
were using the railways
to send their fish elsewhere?

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00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:29,400
They certainly were.

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00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:35,320
I'm not certain
of the dates - probably late 1800s -
directly the rails were

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00:20:35,320 --> 00:20:37,280
up and running to London

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00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:40,320
they could get their mackerel
from here to London

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00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:43,840
early enough to get to market -
I presume Billingsgate -

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00:20:43,840 --> 00:20:47,200
and they got a much better price
for several years.

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00:20:47,200 --> 00:20:50,920
My great-grandfather
did very well indeed.

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00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:55,960
There's no harbour here so, on their
return from fishing, the boats
must be hauled onto the beach.

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00:20:55,960 --> 00:21:00,840
From necessity, they tend to
be smaller than elsewhere,
as are their catches.

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00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:04,320
People these days are very
worried about sustainability.

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00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:08,440
So your small catches
presumably mean you're
quite respectful of the fish stocks.

276
00:21:08,440 --> 00:21:15,040
Absolutely. Over the years,
you're brought up with the fact that
all the small fish is your future,

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00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:17,560
so you get it back in
the sea as quickly as possible.

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00:21:17,560 --> 00:21:24,320
All the fish we return to the sea,
with the exception of a very small
percentage, is alive and survives.

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00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:30,080
Your boats on the beach are part
of what makes Hastings distinctive -

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00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:32,280
picturesque.

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00:21:32,280 --> 00:21:35,760
The other thing are the net
lofts behind. Tell me about those.

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00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:39,240
They were used originally
for drying nets.

283
00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:42,320
When the likes of my
great-grandfather and grandfather

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00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:49,560
were fishing, for each type of fish
they were catching, herrings, sprats,
there was a different size mesh.

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00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:54,680
They used to use the different floors
of the sheds for particular nets.

286
00:21:54,680 --> 00:22:00,120
They'd have mackerel nets on the
first floor, herring nets on the next
floor, sprat nets on the next floor,

287
00:22:00,120 --> 00:22:04,040
because it wasn't that easy
to tell one net from the other.

288
00:22:04,040 --> 00:22:08,920
These days, wider mesh nets are
used to catch only mature fish.

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00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:14,560
That's earned Hastings
a sustainable fishing certificate
from the Marine Stewardship Council.

290
00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:19,200
Hello, there! Hello, Michael!
What lovely-looking fish.

291
00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:21,000
Thank you very much.
What's local, then?

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00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,680
Skate, plaice fillets, whiting...

293
00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:26,440
All local? All local, yeah.

294
00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:28,000
Tell me about public taste.

295
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:31,000
Is there a change in public taste
over the years? Definitely, yes.

296
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:32,600
What are they into now?

297
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:39,360
When I came and worked here
with my mum and dad at 16,
it was cod, haddock, plaice.

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00:22:39,360 --> 00:22:41,160
That was the majority of it.

299
00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:44,680
Now, with people travelling so much,

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00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:48,800
they see different things abroad,
and they realise they can
get it here in the UK.

301
00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:51,200
They realise that,
see it on the counter,

302
00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:55,200
and are willing to try it, so we
sell more and more of that stuff.

303
00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:58,480
Would you say Hastings was a pretty
good place to buy and eat fish?

304
00:22:58,480 --> 00:23:05,800
Definitely. Yeah.
A shop like ours - ten paces from the
boat that caught a lot of this stuff.

305
00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:10,000
Hastings has a lot to offer
fish-wise. We get such a variety
down here.

306
00:23:12,360 --> 00:23:16,680
Before I leave Hastings, I'm
setting out along the cliffs to

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00:23:16,680 --> 00:23:21,200
a place that became hugely popular
with the Victorians, Fairlight Glen.

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00:23:21,200 --> 00:23:25,520
It inspired a lyrical
description in my guidebook.

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00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:28,320
I wish I had more time here.

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00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:35,040
Bradshaw says, "A week may be
delightfully spent exploring the
fairy-like nooks around Fairlight

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00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:40,960
"Glen, situated in a sweet
umbrageous spot, down which,
by narrow, winding

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00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:47,400
"steps, hewn out of the solid rock,
one only can descend at a time."

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00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:49,400
I'm here to discover

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00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:53,440
a Victorian craze.

315
00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:57,800
My guidebook displays symptoms
of fern fever, an obsession with

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00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:02,040
feathery green plants that gripped
the Victorians for several decades.

317
00:24:02,040 --> 00:24:08,840
Fairlight Glen, with its secret
forests and abundant ferns,
captured the Victorian imagination.

318
00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:13,840
I'm meeting garden historian Dr
Sarah Whittingham to discover why.

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00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:16,240
Sarah, hello!

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00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:20,240
Hello! Why did the Victorians
have such a passion for ferns?

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00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:23,120
It was the heyday of natural history.

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00:24:23,120 --> 00:24:27,880
If they weren't hunting for ferns,
they were out tapping rocks with
hammers, trying to find fossils,

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00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:31,640
or catching butterflies or looking
into rock pools, that sort of thing.

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00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:35,960
It was first time you got
the middle classes, who had villas

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00:24:35,960 --> 00:24:41,880
and houses in the centre of town
with a small garden they wanted to
fill with plants and flowers.

326
00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:46,880
Ferns were seen as magical plants
with, some believed, the power
to make you invisible.

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00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:51,880
Books identifying almost 2,000
varieties were published

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00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:54,720
to aid the fern-mad Victorians.

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00:24:54,720 --> 00:24:57,880
The craze even had a name,
pteridomania.

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00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:00,320
The railways enabled
amateur collectors to widen

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00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:05,800
their hunt for specimens and a fern
by mail order business developed.

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00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:08,200
The light really is pretty and
I can just imagine Victorians

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00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:12,640
getting on the railways and coming
to remote-ish spots like this,
looking for their ferns.

334
00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:15,720
That's right, but they didn't
have to come out to these places.

335
00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:18,160
They could just buy
their ferns from nurseries.

336
00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:21,800
The nurseries would use the railways
to send plants to the customers.

337
00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:25,840
So the middle classes
could buy whatever they needed
for their gardens?

338
00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:30,960
They could. They could buy ferns
from a professional fern tout,
and they certainly used the railways.

339
00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:35,680
They would come out to places like
this. They'd ransack the countryside.

340
00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:40,760
They'd send up huge amounts of ferns
in hampers, up to the towns.

341
00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:46,400
They'd follow them up
and then tout them door-to-door
or sell them on street corners.

342
00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:50,880
So this amazing craze was helped on
by the railways. Oh, yes.

343
00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:54,920
Definitely. But all those Victorians
hoping to recreate a slice of

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00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:59,680
country life in their urban houses
found it to be harder they thought.

345
00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:04,160
So when Victorians take all
their ferns back to their gardens,
do they thrive

346
00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:07,360
in the city?
No - that was the major problem.

347
00:26:07,360 --> 00:26:10,200
Of course Victorian cities
were very polluted.

348
00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:14,640
Luckily, a doctor in the east end of
London, Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward, who

349
00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:19,760
was a very keen fern grower, found
a way of successfully growing ferns.

350
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:23,600
He invented the Wardian case.

351
00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:27,280
Which was what?
A little kind of conservatory?

352
00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:31,400
That's right. Like the terrariums
popular in the in the 1960s and '70s.

353
00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:35,360
They came in all shapes
and styles, all sizes.

354
00:26:35,360 --> 00:26:39,680
It became the thing to have in
your drawing room in the 1850s.

355
00:26:39,680 --> 00:26:43,080
Fern fever took root,
and feathery leaves made their

356
00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:46,960
appearance on wallpaper,
tea cups and chamber pots.

357
00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:51,200
Even in architecture
they adorned columns and railings.

358
00:26:54,880 --> 00:26:58,520
It's now time for me to leave
the enchanted forest and Hastings.

359
00:26:58,520 --> 00:27:01,200
I've reached the end of
the line for this journey and

360
00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:06,440
my trusty guidebook supplies me
with a suitable way to say goodbye.

361
00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:10,760
Bradshaw's commends the view
"reaching from Beachy Head

362
00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:17,640
"to Dover Cliffs, between 70 and
80 miles apart, and stretching
out to the heights of Boulogne.

363
00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:20,920
"The best time for seeing it
is in the afternoon.

364
00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:27,000
"Upon favourable atmospheric
influences, it is a view
never to be forgotten."

365
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:32,240
As I look back on my journey,
I thank George Bradshaw for guiding

366
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:36,320
me from the heart of London to
the cliff's edge,

367
00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:40,400
from the nation's capital
to the end of England.

368
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:43,640
On my next journey,
I'll be travelling up the West

369
00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:47,920
Coast of Scotland on a railway
voted the world's most scenic.

370
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:49,920
Along the way, I'll
be discovering how the

371
00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:55,080
Victorians built a weather station
atop Britain 's highest mountain.

372
00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:57,920
People having to go up there
and take the readings?

373
00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:00,800
They didn't have to go up there,
they had to live up there.

374
00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:04,760
Finding out how the railways
spread the word about whisky...

375
00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:08,360
This is from pretty much the exact
time the railways arrived in Oban.

376
00:28:08,360 --> 00:28:12,160
I can see the railway here.
Here's the station, here's
a train puffing along.

377
00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:17,680
And crossing a pioneering viaduct,
one of Britain's most spectacular.

378
00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:24,280
Somehow the wheels gripping
the wet rails and now we're on
the wonderful Glenfinnan viaduct.

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00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:35,960
Subtitles by Red Bee Media

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00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:38,960
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk