In 1 840, one man transformed travel In BrItaIn.
HIs name was George Bradshaw
and hIs raIlway guIdes InspIred the VIctorIans to take to the tracks.
Stop by stop,
he told them where to travel,
what to see and where to stay.
Now, 1 70 years later,
I'm makIng a serIes ofjourneys across the length and breadth of the country
to see what of Bradshaw's BrItaIn remaIns.
Using my Bradshaw's GuIde,
I get a good idea of how the raiIways speeded up communication
in a way that both excited and beiIdered the Victorians.
We, who Iive in an age of information technoIogy,
can understand just what it was Iike.
I'm followIng that VIctorIan superhIghway
through the south of England to dIscover how the IndustrIal RevolutIon
was carrIed deep Into the countrysIde.
Today, I'll be tastIng a VIctorIan superfood...
You've got a basket of the stuff here. That IoveIy tangy, mustardy taste.
..dIscoverIng an IndustrIal process unchanged sInce Bradshaw's day...
So aII of that is happening by a process that started ith the water wheeI?
- (man) Yes. - BriIIiant.
..and experIencIng lIfe as a 19th-century traIn drIver.
I Iove that rhythm of the steam engine.
- The engine is taIking to you. - AbsoIuteIy.
So far, I've explored the royal county of BerkshIre
and now I'm headIng south
towards some of the VIctorIans' favourIte holIday spots
and my fInal destInatIon, the JurassIc Isle of Portland.
ThIs stretch starts In ReadIng and takes me across the county border
to explore the raIlway's Impact on rural HampshIre,
fInIshIng up In the market town of Alresford.
To reach my fIrst stop, I'm travellIng on the Great Western RaIlway,
famously buIlt by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
As a frequent traveIIer from Paddington to pIaces west,
I'm often frustrated that nearIy every train stops at Reading.
I ask myseIf, ''Why Reading?''
WeII, today I have an opportunity to find out
I'm going to aIight at Reading.
The Great Western maIn lIne was the fIrst raIlway to reach ReadIng In 1 840.
It was quIckly joIned by other lInes
and by the tIme my guIdebook was wrItten,
ReadIng was well on the way to becomIng the busy junctIon town that It Is today.
MIllIons of people pass through thIs statIon every year,
but at one tIme, these raIls were famous for a partIcular cargo.
So, Reading.
My Bradshaw's GuIde says that this is the home of the manufactory
of HuntIey & PaImers biscuits.
I seem to remember those from chiIdhood times.
Wasn't there a rhyme,
''HuntIey & PaImers make them Iike biscuits used to be''?
So now I'm off to see what remains of that manufactory.
ReadIng StatIon today holds few clues to the town's IndustrIal past.
But for over a century, arrIvIng here, you knew you'd come to the bIscuIt town.
Thanks to the raIlways, ReadIng was home to the bIggest
and best-known bIscuIt manufacturer In the world.
In the town centre,
there are rows of red-brIck terraces buIlt for the factory workers.
But are today's resIdents In touch wIth theIr bIscuIt herItage?
(MIchael) Good morning. How do you Iike Iiving here?
I'd Iived her aII my Iife and I Iove Reading.
And did you have any connection ith the biscuit worId?
Yes, my husband used to work for the associated deIiveries
but my father-in-Iaw worked for HuntIey & PaImers.
Did your famiIy teII you anything about working at HuntIey & PaImers?
No, but when you Ieft schooI,
girIs went to work at HuntIey & PaImers.
As a chiId, I went to HuntIey & PaImers to see the conveyor beIts working
ith the schooI and everything.
But it didn't faII to you
- to work for the biscuit company? - No, no.
Morning, sir.
(chuckles)
I wondered what you couId teII me about the history of these houses.
(man) I think they were initiaIIy buiIt for the workers in the biscuit factory.
Reading is sometimes caIIed the biscuit town, does it stiII keep that name?
I don't think so.
It's been such a Iong time since the biscuit factory cIosed.
The footbaII team used to be caIIed ''The Biscuit Men'' years ago
but now they're caIIed ''The RoyaIs'', RoyaI County of Berkshire.
I don't think many peopIe now regard it as a biscuit town.
- The biscuit connection has gone soggy. - It has.
- Thank you again. - OK, no probIem.
In Its heyday,
the bIscuIt factory covered an area of 30 acres In the heart of ReadIng.
But extraordInarIly, today,
all that remaIns Is the old recreatIon buIldIng now converted Into flats.
I'm meetIng curator Brendan Carr at the town museum
to hear the story of one of BrItaIn's fIrst global brands.
Good to see you. Is this either HuntIey or PaImer?
This is George PaImer MP.
Yeah, a very important figure in Reading's history.
Biscuits are absoIuteIy fundamentaI to Reading, aren't they?
EssentiaI to the town's deveIopment in fact.
George PalmerjoIned forces wIth Thomas Huntley In 1 841
and set about transformIng the famIly fIrm.
He buIlt a state-of-the-art factory
rIght alongsIde the Great Western maIn lIne
and quIckly realIsed that the raIlway ItseIf
could be a gold mIne for the canny entrepreneur.
In the very earIy days of the raiIways, there wasn't any catering carriages
and HuntIey & PaImers cottoned on to that straightaway
and reaIised it was an opportunity to market their biscuit factory in Reading
by handing out sampIes of their biscuits to the first-cIass passengers
and saying, ''Have a Iook on your Ieft-hand side as you go through,
you'II see the big biscuit factory.''
So they were pioneers in aII sorts of ways.
Before long, the factory was runnIng Its own locomotIves
along prIvate raIlway sIdIngs to the maIn lInes,
exportIng mass-produced bIscuIts across the country.
To keep them fresh In transIt,
the fIrm had the braInwave of usIng specIally desIgned tIns.
The forerunners of our modern bIscuIt tIns.
This is the average tin you wouId find.
You'd go into the grocer's shop and this...
- You can see through it. - ExactIy. This contained digestives.
Did these fit niceIy on the raiIway?
WeII, in fact, they did.
They were speciaIIy shaped as sIightIy off-square
so that they couId fit neatIy into the carriages.
- You're quite right. - To use as much space as possibIe.
Not quite square.
ThIs clever packagIng and the growIng raIlway network
meant the bIscuIts could be exported further and faster than ever before.
And they soon became a symbol of empIre.
(MIchael) So how far afieId did HuntIey & PaImers' biscuits go?
It's extraordinary.
There's a story that when the first Western traveIIers reached Tibet,
they were greeted ith HuntIey & PaImer biscuits.
- (laughs) What? - (Brendan) It was extraordinary,
but what we do know is they did reach as far as the South PoIe.
This is a Ietter from Captain Scott to the HuntIey & PaImer biscuit factory
acknoledging receipt of the suppIy of biscuits,
bemoaning the fact that some of the biscuits had broken.
''We find, on opening the tins of Antarctic And Emergency Biscuits,
that the biscuits are considerabIy broken.''
AbsoIuteIy amazing, isn't it?
It's reaIIy quite moving to have these artefacts here.
At the start of the 20th century,
the bIscuIt factory employed 5,000 people.
But by the 1970s,
the need to modernIse meant that productIon was moved to LIverpool.
The ReadIng factory produced Its last bIscuIt In 1976.
But Brendan's baked me a VIctorIan recIpe
to gIve me a taste of ReadIng's past.
This is exactIy the sort of biscuit
that George Bradshaw wouId have known, I expect.
- Yes. Try one of those. - Thank you very much.
- So baked to an 1860s recipe. - The Long Jamaican.
The Long Jamaican.
It's very pIain and Iacking in sugar compared ith modern biscuits.
- That's right. - It's very nice actuaIIy.
I Iike that.
But no, it doesn't have that manufactured sweet taste
- that our modern biscuit has. - That's it.
Different Victorian paIate.
I lIke to ImagIne VIctorIan passengers nIbblIng one of those
as they thumbed the pages of theIr ''Bradshaw's GuIde''.
And now It's tIme for me to catch my next traIn.
I'm back at Reading Station, a pIace weII known to Queen Victoria,
who gave her royaI patronage to HuntIey & PaImers.
I'm gIad I got off at Reading.
I know now know that through its raiIways,
this town exported biscuits
and, just as importantIy, tins to the worId.
(blows whIstle)
I'm now leavIng the bustle of ReadIng behInd
and headIng south towards a much more rural landscape.
To get to my next destInatIon, I have to change traIns at BasIngstoke
and take a lIne through stunnIng countrysIde.
(announcer) Next stop on this seRVice, MicheIdever.
I've crossed the border into Hampshire and my Bradshaw's GuIde is enthusiastic.
''The surface of Hampshire is beautifuIIy varied
ith gentIy rising hiIIs, fruitfuI vaIIeys and extensive woodIands.''
And as I gIimpse it through the trees, so it appears to be.
In Bradshaw's day, thIs landscape was beIng transformed
as new raIlway lInes radIated out from London.
And Isolated vIllages were suddenly wIthIn easy reach of the capItal.
I'm leavIng the traIn at the tIny statIon of MIcheldever.
It only gets a passIng reference In my ''Bradshaw's GuIde''
but thanks to Its posItIon on the Southampton to London lIne,
thIs stop played a starrIng role In BrItIsh Transport hIstory.
George Bradshaw began by mapping the canaIs
which were suppIanted by the raiIways.
I've come to MicheIdever to Iook at a technoIogy
which wouId eventuaIIy Iead to the cIosure
of vast amounts of that Victorian raiI network.
Throughout the 19th century, the raIlways contInued to spread.
But even before they had reached theIr zenIth,
the fIrst motor cars had started to appear on BrItaIn's roads.
What an unbeIievabIe machine.
I'm meetIng vIntage car enthusIast ChrIs Loader
to see how MIcheldever StatIon
sped the arrIval of thIs new threat to the raIls.
This is beautifuI. What is it?
It's a Peugeot.
It was owned by Sir David SuIIivan of BroomhiII in Tunbridge WeIIs.
- What age? - 1898.
- And it's on the road? - It's on the road, yes.
What is MicheIdever's significance in motoring?
(ChrIs) The first car journey made in a petroI-driven car
was taken from this station.
(MIchael) In 1 895, a motorIng pIoneer called Evelyn EllIs
had a custom-buIlt automobIle Imported from France
and delIvered by raIl from Southampton to MIcheldever StatIon.
The trIp he took In hIs new horseless carrIage changed travel forever.
So 1895 is the first recorded car journey in this country?
(ChrIs) Correct.
Where did he traveI to?
He traveIIed to his home in Datchet, which is just next to Windsor.
So a totaI distance of about 56 miIes.
- Remember, no Tarmac. - No.
And peopIe must have been astonished as he went aIong his way.
- Yep. - Can we take a ride in it today?
Love to drive you.
AccordIng to the records,
Evelyn EllIs rolled out of thIs statIon at 9.'26am on 5 July 1 895...
(ChrIs) Here we go.
..and took over eIght hours to reach hIs fInal destInatIon.
ChrIs Is takIng me out In hIs vIntage vehIcle, buIltjust three years later,
to gIve me a flavour of that ground-breakIng journey.
You imagine, if he had broken down in any shape or form,
no AA, no RAC to pick him up.
No petroI stations.
I beIieve peopIe actuaIIy, in order to get petroI, you had to go to a chemist.
(MIchael) Imagine it's on that first journey.
We'd be passing horses and bicycIes.
PeopIe wouId be stopping in their tracks to have a Iook at us.
Yep. I beIieve on that actuaI trip,
there were about 133 horses which they passed
- which is about three horses per miIe. - Yeah.
And out of that,
there was onIy a coupIe of horses which were terrified by it.
Which wasn't bad reaIIy.
So the horses took the arrivaI of their rivaI quite caImIy.
Yes. I don't think there were much probIems at aII.
Evelyn EllIs's experImental trIp was such a success
that by the end of the year,
20 automobIles had already been brought Into the country.
Have you ever thought of the paradox that EveIyn EIIis's car
was deIivered to MicheIdever Station by train...
By train.
I think they were known in those days as road Iocomotives, these things.
And of course, as peopIe bought more and more of them,
that wouId see off many of the raiIway Iines.
Once one person had a car Iike this, they aII wanted them.
Chris, Iook at this. Now we are in the open.
It's absoIuteIy gIorious. We're in a 19th-century horseIess carriage.
I think this is bIiss, don't you?
It's easy to see how thIs new and excItIng mode of travel
captured the ImagInatIon of those motorIng pIoneers.
But In Bradshaw's day, the traIn was stIll kIng.
My guIdebook doesn't say much about WhItchurch, my next stop,
but It too was touched by the IndustrIal RevolutIon.
To my surprIse, thIs sleepy HampshIre town on the London to SalIsbury lIne
Is home to a VIctorIan sIlk mIll that's stIll In full workIng order.
Stephen.
- It's a wonderfuI pIace. - WeIcome.
This is cIearIy your water wheeI. Is that ancient?
That's a Iater wheeI that dates to the 1890s,
but this miII has aIways been powered by water power.
Back to what time?
- Back to 181 7. - 181 7?
- Yes. - And this is stiII operating the miII?
(Stephen) Yes, it's Britain's oIdest working siIk miII
in its originaI buiIding.
MId-19th century BrItaIn had a flourIshIng sIlk Industry
whIch at Its peak employed 130,000 people.
The fIrst water-powered mIlls were set up In the MIdlands,
but as they proved successful, ImItators followed theIr lead.
By the 1 830s, there were sIlk mIlls lIke thIs In 20 countIes In BrItaIn.
And the fast-flowIng RIver Test made WhItchurch a perfect spot.
(MIchael) This is a fantastic site.
This hugeIy powerfuI wheeI transferring its power through this axIe.
Then causing these wheeIs to turn in a horizontaI pIane.
(Stephen) Yes.
- Then that transfers the power here. - Yes.
- How does aII this reIate to siIk? - (laughs)
WeII, it Iooks very coarse, doesn't it?
This is the amazing thing about siIk.
The machinery is reaIIy very industriaI.
Gives you a great sense of the IndustriaI RevoIution
but deaIing ith something incredibIy fine.
The contrasts are extraordinary.
So the wheeI I saw turning the other side
now transfers the power through this Ieather band.
(Stephen) That's right. To the shaft here.
(MIchael) And that in turn deIivers it to a shaft.
It's Iike foIIoing a thread of cotton through a buiIding.
(Stephen) Yes, it is. Yes.
- That goes aII the way... - Yes.
AbsoIuteIy fantastic imagination.
Ah. Now aII of these things are spinning too.
(Stephen) Yes.
So aII of that is happening by a process that started ith the water wheeI.
- Yes. - That's briIIiant.
BriIIiantIy effective.
The raIlways connected provIncIal mIlls lIke thIs
wIth new markets and brought skIlled workers from the capItal
tojoIn the local workforce.
And when you Iook back at the Census, it's very cIear that there were cousins,
sisters and brothers aII working here.
How many peopIe?
At one time, there were 100 peopIe here.
(Stephen) Their age ranges were enormous.
- From 13 up to 90. - (MIchael) Thirteen.
In those days, chiIdren couId work in factories.
The late 19th century saw the Industry declIne
due to cheaper foreIgn Imports, but WhItchurch mIll survIved.
The machInery Is unchanged sInce Bradshaw's day
and Is stIll makIng VIctorIan textIles for everythIng from costume dramas
to hIstorIc buIldIngs.
This isn't just here as a museum.
- You are stiII producing siIk. - We are indeed.
Very often you are having to recreate something that was done, Iet's say,
- in Victorian times. - Yes.
And we might onIy receive a smaII fragment of the originaI fabric
because it's so precious.
And have to work out how it was aII set up,
the type of yarn used and the coIours, of course, used to create it.
So there's a bit of detective work invoIved.
Some years ago, we reproduced some fabrics
- in Queen Victoria's raiIway carriage. - ReaIIy?
(Stephen) Yes.
ObviousIy, I find that very thriIIing. And George Bradshaw wouId too.
(laughs) Yes.
It's remarkable to thInk that In Bradshaw's tIme,
even thIs peaceful corner of the country was a hIve of Industry.
Day two of thIs leg of my journey
and I'm one another of the many lInes that connected thIs regIon
wIth the capItal In Bradshaw's era.
My route passes through the rollIng chalk hIlls of the HampshIre Downs.
ThIs pretty countrysIde became a major source of wealth
when It was used to grow one of the VIctorIans' favourIte foods.
I'm leavIng the traIn at Alton to fInd out more.
(announcement) ..parcels unattended anywhere on the statIon.
AIton, what a deIightfuI station.
It's painted in the oId green and cream coIours.
It's reaIIy oId-fashioned.
It reaIIy takes you back.
In the 19th century,
thIs whole area was famous for a sIngle crop, watercress.
ThIs aquatIc plant has always grown well
thanks to HampshIre's mIneral-rIch sprIngs.
But It was the arrIval of the raIlways In the 1 860s
that transformed thIs Into the outstandIng watercress area In BrItaIn.
- HeIIo, there. - How nice to see you.
I've come to meet farmer Tom Amery on Manor Farm In nearby Alresford.
(MIchael) It is a fantastic sight, aII these watercress beds.
(Tom) It is quite unique. Not many pIaces in the country that have
such a Iarge array of watercress beds in one Iocation.
And farmed Iike this, how far does this go back in time?
A Iong way.
Watercress beds Iike this have been farmed for about 120 or 150 years.
- (MIchael) That makes them Victorian. - It does indeed.
It was that deveIopment in the Victorian era that reaIIy set the standards
for how watercress has been grown and is stiII grown today.
In the 19th century, BrItaIn's IndustrIal cItIes were growIng fast.
Urban workers desperately needed fresh vegetables from the countrysIde,
and watercress was cheap to grow.
Demand soon skyrocketed.
Pre-Victorian period, watercress wouId have been grown
in Iots of Iocations in smaII voIumes.
And what was happening was ith London deveIoping
and obviousIy Iosing the area that you couId grow watercress,
they started Iooking for Iocations that naturaIIy had a Iot of spring water.
That may be down in Dorset where we have farms as weII, and aIso around here.
ThIs was the Ideal locatIon
for IndustrIal-scale watercress productIon.
But fIrst, the growers had to solve a major problem.
What was very important, it had to be transported fresh and quickIy.
It's one of those products that is naturaIIy quite perishabIe.
- They had to move it fast. - By raiIway I assume?
AbsoIuteIy. The watercress wouId be haRVested on these farms
and then pIaced into what we caII icker fIats,
then sent up to London or whichever city or town it wouId be
and then it was made into bunches and soId.
In the 19th century, It was thought that watercress could cure everythIng
from hIccups to freckles.
And thanks to the traIns,
cIty dwellers now had an abundant supply of thIs superfood
delIvered to theIr doorstep.
The Victorians beIieved it to be very heaIthy. Were they right?
(Tom) They were indeed.
The heaIth benefits derive from the spring water.
That water contains a Iot of vitamins and mineraIs,
high in caIcium for instance.
And that caIcium is then taken up by the crop,
so it's fuII of vitamin C, caIcium, other mineraIs that are very important.
So it was a very easy source of nutrition.
How wouId peopIe take it?
Were they buying it in IittIe baskets as we sometimes do today?
Were they having it in sandiches? How did they eat it?
The EarI of Sandich mentioned watercress in his earIy sandiches,
which is very convenient,
but they were actuaIIy eating it as a cone nearIy, which was a bunch.
Watercress contInued to thrIve through the two world wars.
But by the end of the 20th century, It had fallen out of favour.
Now, though, It's back In the spotlIght thanks to Its health benefIts.
- You've got a basket of the stuff here - I have.
- I hope not aII for me. May I try some? - Of course. It was picked this morning.
- (MIchael) Is there a method? - No, as much as you can fit reaIIy.
OK.
Do you know, it takes me back to chiIdhood.
I confess, I don't eat it much these days.
- That IoveIy tangy mustardy taste. - That's right.
Mmm, that's briIIiant stuff.
At Its peak, It's estImated that growers sold
many hundreds of tonnes of watercress per week.
For the raIlway workers, transportIng It meant bravIng all weathers
and pushIng theIr locomotIves to the lImIt.
Having seen those beautifuI acres of watercress beds,
it's now time to see how the crop was moved to the markets of Britain
on what was inevitabIy known as the Watercress Line.
I've come to Alresford, at the start of the MId Hants RaIlway,
whIch opened In 1 865, carvIng a path through the rollIng HampshIre Downs.
It was closed down In 1973, butjust a few years later,
It was reopened as a herItage lIne.
I Iove this, the oId British RaiIways sign.
The Iion and the wheeI and the crown.
- HeIIo. - HeIIo, MichaeI.
- How IoveIy to see you. - Nice to meet you.
- WeIcome to the Watercress Line. - I'm Iooking forward to this.
Good. We've got some uniform for you,
if you'd Iike to put that on and come back and join us.
(MIchael) See you in a moment.
You wait here.
I've been gIven the chance to rIde on the footplate
of one of the raIlway's magnIfIcent steam engInes.
Dressed for the part.
- Do I pass muster? - You're ready. PIease come aboard.
- Thank you. - (toots whIstle)
Volunteer drIver ChrIs Yates knows how tough It was
to drIve a traIn on the Watercress LIne.
(MIchael) What's this bit of Iine Iike?
It can be hard work.
EspeciaIIy for the fireman who has to shoveI the coaI to produce the steam.
- (MIchael) Hard work why? - Because we've got a hiII to go up.
For about four miIes, it cIimbs up about 400ft to the summit.
- That's demanding for a steam engine. - AbsoIuteIy.
And ith a heavy train behind you, you'II need the steam to do that.
At Its peak, 16 steam traIns a day braved thIs challengIng route.
MichaeI, we're now on the steepest part of the Iine at one in 60.
- You can probabIy see how steep it is. - Very steep.
(ChrIs) The engine is Iabouring a IittIe bit ith the weight of the train.
But if you'd Iike to have a go, pIease feeI free.
What do I do?
We've got the reguIator here. That emits steam to the cyIinders.
- (MIchael) Does that need any movement? - That moves up.
If you get underneath it and Iift it up. Give it a... yank.
Bit more. Bit more. Bit more.
Bit more.
(ChrIs) That's it.
You probabIy hear that the beat of the engine (IndIstInct).
If you'd Iike to ind that sIightIy anti-cIockise...
What we're doing is reducing the amount of steam going into the cyIinders
and making use of the expansive properties of the steam.
- (MIchael) Is it moving OK? - It's moving perfectIy.
We're moving up the hiII quite fast.
I'm finding a reaI responsibiIity driving this thing.
It's so big and heavy.
And the thing about it is you can make you go faster or sIower
but you can't steer it.
Although It's hard work, drIvIng a locomotIve Is a boyhood dream.
I Iove that rhythm of the steam engine.
AbsoIuteIy.
I've so often heard it but today I can feeI it.
You can feeI it aII through your body.
- The engine is taIking to you. - AbsoIuteIy.
(toots whIstle)
TravellIng wIth my ''Bradshaw's GuIde'',
I've seen how the raIlways helped to send
the effects of the IndustrIal RevolutIon
rIpplIng through the BrItIsh countrysIde.
On my journeys I've often thought about the sociaI and industriaI impact
of the raiIways in Victorian Britain.
But having driven this monster,
today I'm thinking about the visuaI impact on the Iandscape
as this green and pIeasant Iand was criss-crossed by engines
beIching fire and steam.
On the next part of my journey
I'll be learnIng how VIctorIan engIneerIng made Its mark on musIc...
- Now I'm going to press a pedaI. - (organ sounds)
Amazing feeIing of power.
..goIng behInd the scenes at a 19th-century raIlway works...
That is what I caII a Iocomotive. That is fantastic.
..and dIscoverIng a landscape that wowed tourIsts In Bradshaw's day.
I have this amazing pIunge down to the beach. Whoa!
You have to have a head for heights here.