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, 170 years later,
I'm makIng a series ofjourneys across the length and breadth of the country
to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remaIns.
I'm over halfway through my journey
tracIng the raIlway's Impact on the south of England.
Today I'm continuing my route
towards what my Bradshaw's GuIde caIIs Dorsetshire.
Today's journey takes me through the beautifuI Iandscape of the New Forest.
The raiIways enabied Victorian tourists en masse
to visit and experience this distant iIderness,
and heIped Victorian industry to expIoit nature's gifts.
On this stage of thejourney,
I'll be slItherIng In the tracks of a VIctorIan snake catcher,...
Fantastic view.
I never dreamt I'd get that cIose.
..uncoverIng a secret lIbrary descrIbed In my ''Bradshaw's GuIde''...
- This is your oIdest book? - Yes, it is.
(man) OnIy two other copies exist.
..and takIng one of my shortest ever raIlway journeys.
Whoa! Off we go.
So far I've dIscovered how royalty, Industry and agrIculture alIke
were transformed by traIn travel.
Now I'm explorIng this regIon's stunnIng coastlIne,
as I approach my fInal stop on the Isle of Portland.
On this stretch I'll pass through the New Forest NatIonal Park,
stoppIng off at Bournemouth on my way to the harbour town of Poole.
(tannoy) We are now arrIvIng Into Brockenhurst.
(MIchael) The VIctorIans were fascInated by nature
and the raIlway helped make the New Forest
a hot spot for botanIsts and Insect collectors.
This is Brockenhurst. My Bradshaw's GuIde says,
''This station is most exquisiteIy situated
amidst the charming scenery of the New Forest.'' And so it is.
And the raiIways transformed it from a very smaII viIIage
into something of a resort.
But intriguingIy, many Victorians came here not in search of iIdIife,
but in search of a particuIarIy charismatic individuaI.
Brockenhurst StatIon opened In 1 847 and was soon brIngIng vIsItors
eager to meet the New Forest's outstandIng celebrIty.
I've come to the vIllage churchyard
to hear the story from local historIan RIchard Reeves.
- Richard. - How are you?
- What a wonderfuI pIace. - Yes.
A very intriguing tombstone. Why are we meeting by this one?
This tombstone here is that of Harry MiIIs.
He was a Victorian snake catcher. Bit of an odd occupation,
but it made him one of the most famous Victorian characters in the New Forest.
He Iived in a smaII charcoaI burner's hut in the forest for 19 years.
As a hermit and a snake catcher, he was not your standard human being.
As Britain became IncreasIngly urbanIsed In the 19th century,
there was a huge appetIte for news of the natural world.
In the 1 880s, a vIsItor whojoIned Harry MIlls on a snake hunt
wrote It up In the natIonal press.
Soon, people were arrIvIng by traIn to see hIm for themselves.
What kind of things did he do that made him a character,
that made him kind of a tourist attraction?
One of the things he wouId do was, as tourists arrived in the forest,
he'd waIk up and surreptitiousIy drop a snake
and everyone wouId panic and run around.
He wouId waIk up, catch the snake and doff his hat and, you know,
''Spare a shiIIing?'', and safeIy stow the snake away.
As well as brIngIng tourIsts to gawp at this fearless snake catcher,
the new raIlway also enabled Harry MIlls to set up a lucratIve sIdelIne,
sendIng lIve snakes by raIl to the capItal.
He then became suppIier to the snake house in London Zoo.
They required a good suppIy of Iive snakes
to feed the snake-eating snakes in their coIiections.
He was getting a shiIIing a head for every snake he caught.
In fact, on one particuIar occasion, he'd done a good job on catching adders.
He usuaIIy suppIied grass snakes, which are non-venomous,
but one month he had 76 adders and he decided to pack them off.
They sent a note back saying,
''We'd rather you didn't send those any more because they bite.''
So after that he couId onIy send grass snakes.
Was he bitten, do you know?.
Yes, he was bitten a coupie of times. He does state that it was his own fauIt.
But he used to boiI the adders up and extract their fat
and he swore by that as an effective remedy for a snake bite,
which he aIso soId IocaIIy as a cure-aII,
one of those cIassic Victorian Iotions which wouId sort anything,
from a bIack eye to adder bite.
AmazIngly, Harry MIlls kIlled around 30,000 snakes In his lIfetIme.
These days, mercIfully, they're protected by law.
RIchard's become a modern-day snake hunter.
He's Interested In conservIng, not destroyIng, the local adder populatIon,
but uses the same skIlls to track them down.
(RIchard) When I come out here, I'm taking photographs,
identifying the individuaIs, and thereby I'm abie to monitor the popuIation,
to make sure it's doing OK.
- And it is doing OK? - This one is doing perfectIy weII.
In a Iot of areas around the country, they're decIining due to habitat Ioss.
SearchIng for adders can be hIt and mIss,
but RIchard knows exactly where to look.
(RIchard) You shouId Iook around the bottom edges of these bushes.
You see there? Nice ginger adder.
- BeautifuI femaie. - I can. That is beautifuI.
(MIchael) She's very gingery. ReaIIy quite bright coIours.
(RIchard) You can't say snakes aren't beautifuI when you see that one.
Thanks to RIchard, I'm wIthIn fIve feet of a venomous vIper.
Fantastic view.
I never dreamt I'd get that cIose.
You couId get cIoser, but there's no point in disturbing her
and we get a perfectIy good view from here.
She's a IoveIy animaI.
As I say goodbye, I'm glad that thIngs have changed sInce Bradshaw's day.
My snake hunt led me to apprecIate nature, not destroy It.
BuIldIng this lIne through the New Forest was a real challenge.
Some sectIons of the raIlway were even supported on wooden stIlts
to stop the track from sInkIng Into the bog below.
Thanks to that effort, we now have this superb view of romantIc wIlderness.
- Mind if I join you for a second? - Not at aII.
I can't heIp noticing how beautifuI this countryside is.
- (woman) Gorgeous. - Do you go through it every day?
I don't, actuaIIy. This is the first and onIy journey I'II be making for work
and I'm a bit gutted I've got a company car.
But I do come down to the New Forest quite a Iot.
So normaIIy you wouId drive but today you're on the train.
Today I'm on the train. I'm picking up a new car.
It does make you think, why do we bother ith cars?
- It's IoveIy. - It's wonderfuI.
When you're a passenger,
- you can enjoy it compieteIy. - ExactIy.
I'm on my way to Bournemouth.
To my surprIse, I've had to swItch guIdebooks.
The Bradshaw's GuIde I normaIIy use is from the mid-1860s.
I Iooked up Bournemouth and it's not there,
which means it didn't yet have a raiIway.
Isn't that incredibie for a town which is now so big?
So I'm using a more recent Bradshaw's from the 1880s.
It says that ''Bournemouth is a fashionabie, modern watering pIace
and inter residence. It's situated in a beautifuI sheItered spot
in the chine of Iow chaIk cIiffs.''
''It's much resorted to by invaIids
for its heaIthy situation and quiet retirement.''
I used to go there for a compieteIy different reason.
For me, Bournemouth wIll forever be synonymous
wIth party polItIcal conferences.
But comIng as part of an InvasIon of polItIcIans,
I've rarely had the chance to apprecIate Bournemouth's charms.
WIth seven mIles of sandy beaches and a VIctorIan pier,
It's easy to see why fIve mIllIon people vIsIt this busy resort every year.
Remarkably, all this Is only 200 years old.
To hear how this town popped up from nowhere,
I'm meetIng historIan Andrew Emery In the Pleasure Gardens.
- Andrew, very good to see you. - Good to see you, too.
It's surprising to me how Iate the raiIway gets to Bournemouth,
considering what a big pIace it is now. Not tiII the 1870s.
What's happening during the 19th century, before the raiIway gets here?
If you go back 250 years ago, this was nothing but barren heathIand.
No trees. Quite a few smuggiers, though.
This was a popuIar smuggIing path down from the beach over there.
Then around about 1800,
the Iand owners at the time pIanted this whoie area ith pine trees.
Early In the 19th century, a few wealthy famIlies
spotted Bournemouth's potentIal as a fIne spot to relax.
They planted Scots and MedIterranean pInes to enhance the scenery,
creatIng tranquIllIty and beauty that powerfully attracted tourIsts.
It's reaIIy down to this gentieman, Dr GranviIie,
who wrote a book about the famous spa towns of EngIand.
He visits in the 1840s.
He sees the opportunities to deveIop this into a fantastic resort.
He thinks this couId be the best resort in the country
and aIso quotes that the emanations from the pines
have reaI fantastic heaIth-giving quaIities to them.
Dr GranvIlle's guIdes dId for health resorts
what Bradshaw's dId for the raIlways.
WIthIn 40 years,
Bournemouth had mushroomed from a vIllage of a few hundred people
to a town of around 1 7,000.
That wasn't the end of the story.
Up untiI the 1870s, the town was reaIIy just about an invaIids' spa resort.
But from the Iate 1870s, 1880s onwards, the raiIway comes,
you get the middie cIasses and working cIasses,
and the town starts to change into a popuIar seaside resort
fuII of aII the attractions that you see today.
Although Bournemouth has long lost Its reputatIon as a health resort,
you can stIll take a stroll through the so-called InvalIds' Walk.
Here, VIctorIans sought relief from the straIn of lIvIng In smoke-fIlled cIties.
I came here today on the train.
Let's suppose I'm a Victorian gentieman ith poor Iungs.
I take a Iong waIk aIong here, do I?
AbsoIuteIy. This was the pIace to promenade, to breathe in the pines.
Nice and shady as weII in pIaces, so you're not going to get sunburnt.
This is the pIace to meet peopie.
- Did it do me any good? - AbsoIuteIy.
This cIimate, fantastic for the heaIth.
PossibIy not breathing in the pines.
Modern medicine wouId probabIy dispute the medicinaI vaIue of that.
But nevertheiess, good for the heaIth.
Hundreds of years Iater, the pines are stiII important to Bournemouth.
(Andrew) AbsoIuteIy. They feature on the crest of the town.
A Iot of these pines are the originaI ones
that have been on this site for over 150 years.
So the pines have reaIIy kept Bournemouth spruce!
AbsoIuteIy.
Thanks to the raIlway, Investment poured Into Bournemouth.
By the mId 20th century, the empty heathland was a dIstant memory,
replaced by a hIghly developed resort.
Paths zIg-zagged down the dramatIc clIffs to the beach,
and the droves of tourIsts could enjoy all the trappIngs
of a classIc seasIde holIday.
I can't waIt to try out one of the fIrst attractIons enjoyed by vIsItors.
- HeIIo. - (man) Hi.
- A singie to the top, piease. - That's £1 .20, piease.
Thank you very much.
In the 19th century, as tourIsm boomed,
so began a fascInatIon for funIcular raIlways,
whIch let VIctorIan tourIsts admIre the view wIthout breakIng a sweat.
Whoa! Off we go.
Bournemouth dIdn't get this one untIl 1908,
but It's stIll the best way to scale the 40-metre clIff.
It's sImple but effectIve technology.
Two cars move at once, balancIng each other's weIght.
The beach recedes incredibIy quickIy.
It's onIy a 30- or 40-second journey,
but that's not the point, reaIIy. It's the journey you avoid.
It's how Iong it wouId have taken you to waIk to the top.
What a view, what a day.
Short, but very definiteIy sweet.
From the top I get the most fantastic view over Bournemouth's piers
and out towards the white cIiffs of the Isie of Wight.
I caII that a pretty good £1 .20's worth.
This clIfftop walk holds a specIal place In my memory for another reason.
In party conference days, when I was here,
the government stays at the hoteI at the top of the hiII
and they have to go down to the conference centre every morning.
So toing and froing aIong here
you've got aII the members of the cabinet waIking backwards and forwards.
You got Margaret Thatcher in her armour-pIated car.
You've got John Major in his armour-pIated car.
For the few days of the party conference,
this is the corridor of power.
Bournemouth's sea aIr has done Itsjob
and I'm ready to fInd my bed for tonIght.
I've made a beelIne for the grand VIctorIan buIldIngs
up on Bournemouth's East ClIff.
As so often, I've turned to my Bradshaw's
for a recommendation of where to stay.
The Bath, now known as the RoyaI Bath.
In fact, I didn't need Bradshaw because I've been to many a good party here,
which I can just about remember.
This was Bournemouth's fIrst hotel.
It opened on the very day that Queen VIctorIa was crowned.
Ever sInce then It's been hostIng the great and the good.
WeII, very IoveIy room.
Oh, my goodness.
''In this room Lord BeaconsfieId, when prime minister,
heId three cabinet counciIs in the inter of 187 4-5.''
And ''Lord John RusseII, prime minister, occupied this room.''
Wow.
As a former future prime minister,
I feeI reaIIy honoured to be staying in this room. That's fantastic.
- Eggs Benedict ith bacon. - Thank you very much.
- Enjoy your breakfast. - Thank you. It Iooks IoveIy.
For me, summer in EngIand has reaIIy arrived
when you can have aII your meaIs, breakfast, Iunch and dinner, outside.
What better pIace to try that than Bournemouth?
And what better Iight in which to read the smaII print
of my Bradshaw's GuIde?
FollowIng my guIdebook,
I'm now contInuIng my journey Into Bradshaw's DorsetshIre.
I'm headIng fIve mIles up the track towards my next stop.
I'm on my way to Wimborne, but it doesn't have a raiIway station any more.
I'm onIy going as far as Pooie, I'm afraid, sir.
Unfortunately, I can't go all the way by raIl.
WeII, this is not Wimborne, but Parkstone.
There used to be a Wimborne Station, it's in my Bradshaw's GuIde.
But unfortunateIy, it was a victim of the Beeching cuts in the 1960s,
so this is as far as the train iII take me.
The BeechIng Report Into the profItabIlIty of Britain's raIlways
was publIshed In 1963.
In the decade that followed,
over 4,000 mIles of track and thousands of statIons were closed.
WImborne MInster statIon was a vIctIm.
In Bradshaw's tIme, It was a busy junctIon on the maIn lIne to London.
But as nearby Bournemouth grew, more dIrect routes to the coast were buIlt,
and Its Importance declIned.
Today, this small market town Is famous for Its 900-year-old church.
And Its ImpressIve model vIllage.
But I'm here to see the real thIng.
I've never been to Wimborne before, and this minster is absoIuteIy gIorious.
It's so ancient and perfect
and I Iove the way that it sits in this green
so that you can get a reaI view of it. It's perfect.
My guIdebook wrItes, ''The mInster Is a most InterestIng relIc of antIquIty,
saId to have been erected between the years 705 and 723. ''
''The whole buIldIng has a cathedral-lIke appearance. ''
And the interior is just as beautifuI. It dates back to Norman times,
because the Saxon buiIding referred to in my guide was destroyed.
As Bradshaw says, it's cathedraI-Iike.
AbsoIuteIy.
I'm IntrIgued by a another lIne In my 19th-century guIde.
In the vestry are some curIous chaIned books.
To fInd out more, I'm clImbIng a 600-year-old staIrcase
to meet lIbrarIan Frank Tandy.
- Frank, heIIo. - HeIIo.
My Bradshaw's taIks about ''curious oId chained books''.
I see some of them are chained. Why was a book chained?
(Frank) To ensure they're aIways here.
In the 15th century, 16th century, books were rather expensive.
Universities and cathedraIs couIdn't afford
to aIIow the books to be taken away because they might not come back.
To buy a smaII book Iike that,
The Gentleman's CompanIon, for instance,
was, in today's money, about £350.
- No! - Yes.
Every time you bought a book, it was Iike buying a idescreen teievision.
- (Frank) Yes. - Amazing.
This lIbrary was founded durIng the relIgIous upheavals of the 1 7th century.
An Oxford scholar, the Reverend Stone, after beIng condemned as a CatholIc,
donated his lIbrary of relIgIous works to the church.
These were regarded as dangerous CathoIic texts.
(Frank) Yes.
The Reverend Stone sent them here because he knew they'd be safe.
Nobody in Wimborne couId read.
So they wouIdn't know whether they were seditious or not.
They were aII in Greek, Hebrew and Latin anyway.
These books are here pureIy by chance.
After ten years they were stiII being described in this town
as ''a musty divinity''.
The collectIon grew from that InItIal bequest,
and today Includes extraordInarIly rare works
IncludIng this 1 4th-century priest's handbook.
- (MIchael) This is your oIdest book? - (Frank) Yes, it is.
This book was written in 1343. It's written on 80 caIfskins.
- (MIchael) CaIfskins? - (Frank) CaIfskin. Not Iambskin.
- But not paper. - No. Paper wasn't invented.
This is veIIum.
There are onIy two other copies of this in existence.
What eIse can you show me?
This book was bound by King Henry VIII's bookbinder.
King Henry VIII?
(Frank) Yes. This is a binding shoing the Passion. DifficuIt to see.
(MIchael) It's exquisite.
Of your more recent books, what shouId I see?
Sir WaIter Raieigh's history of the World.' In FIve Books.
- Here it is. - (MIchael) LiteraIIy priceiess.
(Frank) It is beyond price.
From early days, anyone was free to come here and read the works,
makIng this one of Britain's fIrst publIc lIbraries.
I can see why my ''Bradshaw's GuIde'' sIngled out this remarkable collectIon,
but I can't help notIcIng
there's somethIng unusual about the way It's arranged.
It's interesting that the chained books appear to be put in,
as I wouId think of it, the wrong way around.
(Frank) No, this is the right way around.
A Iibrary Iike this, that's the correct way for the books to be,
because what you did was you wrote the number on the book.
Or you wrote the titie on the book on the fore-edge.
ChiIdren iII teII you, Hogwarts HaII Library, Harry Potter,
- that's how the books are. - The books are the wrong way around.
- They're the right way around. - The right way around.
For once, my 19th-century ''Bradshaw's GuIde'' seems very young.
After my lIterary adventure, I'm pIckIng up the traIn agaIn at Parkstone.
- Thank you. - AII yours.
- Lots of bicycies today. - Yes. AIways Iots of bikes.
(laughs) Have fun.
I'm on my way to my last stop on this leg of thejourney.
I'm approaching Pooie.
My Bradshaw's says, rather haIf-heartedIy,
''a comparativeIy modern town
that has aIways preseRVed a respectabie position
as a third- or fourth-cIass port.''
At one tIme, Poole Harbour was an Important tradIng post.
But by the 19th century, It had begun to declIne.
The raIlway, whIch reached Poole In 1 847,
accelerated the harbour's downfall
by offerIng a faster, cheaper alternatIve to coastal shIppIng.
LuckIly for Poole, though, the traIns also brought new opportunIties.
Bradshaw's comments that one of the chief exports from Pooie
is potter's cIay from Purbeck,
''of so good quaIity that it's proposed to estabIish potteries here
on a great scaie, especiaIIy as the transit of coaI is now easy and direct.''
So Bradshaw's foreseeing that ith the raiIways bringing coaI,
Pooie couId have a big new industry.
''Bradshaw's'' was rIght.
Around the tIme the raIlways arrIved here,
potteries were sprIngIng up all around Poole.
They specIalIsed In brIcks, tIles and pIpes,
and even produced some of the fIrst modern loos.
As VIctorIan Britain boomed, demand surged.
The town was soon crIss-crossed by prIvate sIdIngs.
TraIns brought In coal to fIre the kIlns
and helped to export Poole's ceramIcs across the globe.
Unfortunately, by the second haIf of the 20th century,
most of the potteries had closed due to foreIgn competItIon.
I've come to see one of the few that remaIn.
- HeIIo, AIan. - HeIIo, MichaeI.
No? AIright.
Alan WhIte Is the head potter.
I see you're making a IoveIy pot there.
Yes, hopefuIIy.
What is it that's speciaI about Pooie Pottery?
BasicaIIy, the unique quaIity of the cIay that's ithin the area.
MostIy in the Purbecks and in and around Pooie.
It was shipped aII over the worId.
It was aIways brought to the boats by raiI.
There are two jetties on the far side of the harbour
which brought the cIay to the jetties
and then it wouId have been put into boats and gone aII over the worId,
and especiaIIy to Stoke, which is the home of pottery in EngIand.
So it was vastIy important.
What brought you into making pots?
Women. GirIs.
I'm afraid it was girIs.
I went to a segregated schooI and you weren't aIIowed to cross the Iine
onto the girIs' side ithout getting detention.
But the ceramic bIock was on the girIs' side,
behind the domestic science bIock.
So aII the boys voIunteered to go to pottery
because they wanted to ogie the girIs.
But I feII in Iove ith pottery and none of the girIs at the time.
This pottery began as a tIle manufacturer In 1 873
but by the 20th century had moved Into hand-thrown pots.
Its heyday was the 1920s and 30s,
when Its Art Deco desIgns were sold In every town In Britain.
Watching you ith your cIay on your potter's wheeI, I'm speechiess.
I'm Iike a person watching a magic trick. Just unbeIievabie.
(Alan) I've been doing it nearIy 45 years,
so it's not reaIIy magic.
It's the cuImination of quite a Iot of hard work, reaIIy.
(chuckles) But it is IoveIy.
I thoroughIy enjoy it.
I've aIways enjoyed getting on the wheeI and making pots.
It's something that I shaII never stop doing, I don't think.
In fact, I'II probabIy end up making my own urn
and putting me in the furnace to get rid of me at the end of it.
So... we'II see.
In VIctorIan tImes, as the spendIng power of the mIddle classes grew,
decoratIve pottery In Britain became hugely fashIonable.
Potters created ever more colourful glazes.
PaInter NIkkI Massarella carries on the tradItIon.
What's the technique? I see here things in various stages of preparation.
This one, what's happened here is I've caRVed in the veins of the dragonfIy,
as you can see. Then I've got to paint the bIue on, which I'm going to do next.
When it's fired it'II come out Iike that one.
This pink that you can see here is actuaIIy the red gIaze.
If I didn't paint anything on it, it wouId come out red Iike that.
- ReaIIy? - Yes.
I paint aII the other coIours on top. When that's fired, it'II change to that.
(MIchael) How Iong does it take you to produce one pot?
It probabIy takes about ten, 15 minutes.
(MIchael) How couId you do that in ten minutes?
When you do Iots, you go into piecework mode.
You do aII the ieaves and then aII the rings, so it makes it a Iot quicker.
NIkkI Is lettIng me loose wIth a paIntbrush.
But I'm not sure I'll match her speed.
I've drawn them in for you so they're nice and easy.
Yes, that's nice and easy.
This is just Iike a chiId fiIIing in the...
- Then what coIour iII that come out? - This'II come out bIue.
(MIchael) This is not easy.
Oh! Horrid crooked Iine there.
I think I might hand back to you there. I've done two Iittie ieaves.
- Over to you. - Thank you.
(both laugh)
- ''Thanks for nothing.'' - I'II fiII it in.
Such thIngs are best left to professIonals.
Thank goodness that the skIlls of the Poole potters are not extInct.
My guidebook has often ied me to discover how,
in Victorian times, the combination of raiIways and coaI
ied to the deveIopment of new industries
as it did ith the potteries here in Pooie.
But it aIso ied me to the coIourfuI character of Brusher MiIIs
and my own encounter ith poisonous snakes.
ReaIIy, Bradshaw's never ceases to amaze me.
On the fInal stretch of thisjourney,
I'll be uncoverIng a hIdden Industry wIth VIctorIan roots,...
- That is an oiI fieId? - (woman) Yes.
Stretching aII the way past Pooie, beneath Bournemouth, way under the sea.
..admIrIng a historIc castle catapulted to fame by the raIlways,...
Wow. That is fanta... That is fantastic.
The most romantic ruin.
..and dIscoverIng Weymouth's role In the D-Day landIngs.
They wouId iet us have a go at the gun, me and my mate.
- How oId were you? - I was about ten years oId.