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.
Having used my Bradshaw's GuIde from Windsor to Winchester to Wight,
I'm now on the finaI Ieg of my journey to Wareham and Weymouth
and the worId beyond.
I'm voyagIng Into an area blessed wIth valuable mInerals,
whIch were rIpe for exploItatIon by VIctorIan IndustrIalIsts.
On thIs stretch, I'll be uncoverIng a hIdden Industry wIth VIctorIan roots,...
- That is an oiIfieId? - (woman) Yes.
Stretching aII the way past PooIe, beneath Bournemouth, 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.
The day they Ieft... They Ieft from PortIand Harbour.
I went down and waved them bye-bye.
I knew them as friends.
I began my journey travellIng lInes that Queen VIctorIa would have known,
as she moved between WIndsor and the Isle of WIght,
before crossIng Into the county of Dorset,
transformed by 19th-century tourIsm.
ThIs fInal sectIon starts on the Purbeck PenInsula,
and takes me west vIa Weymouth, to the beautIful Isle of Portland.
The unspoIlt countrysIde of Dorset Is ajoy.
But In Bradshaw's day, thIs was home to a VIctorIan enterprIse
whIch foreshadowed a massIve modern Industry.
The IndustriaI RevoIution was founded on power, on energy, on fueI.
And as we approach Wareham, my Bradshaw's GuIde comments that the area
''is rich in sheIIs and saurian...'' reptiIian, ''..fossiIs,
beyond which are the beds of Kimmeridge cIay.''
ThIs KimmerIdge clay Is actually a type of rock,
and In VIctorIan tImes, people around here found they could mIne It
and extract oIl and gas.
For a short whIle It was used extensIvely In street lamps.
The process was costly and dIrty and never flourIshed,
but thIs brIef experIment offered the fIrst hInt
of very much bIgger thIngs to come.
Another gIorious day.
I'm leavIng the traIn at Wareham,
and headIng to a place whIch has played a major role
In supplyIng BrItaIn's modern energy needs.
EnvIronmental scIentIst SuzIe Baverstock knows the story.
- HeIIo, Suzie. - HeIIo. WeIcome to Wytch Farm.
Thank you very much. And what is Wytch Farm?
Wytch Farm is the Iargest onshore oiIfieId in western Europe.
(MIchael) We're very cIose to Wareham here.
You'd hardIy suspect that it existed.
I know. It's weII hidden away in the Iandscape here.
A Iot of care was taken to do just that, actuaIIy.
From ground level, you'd barely know It,
but tucked amongst the trees here on the Isle of Purbeck
Is a vast gatherIng statIon.
1 7,000 barrels of oIl are collected each day from underground deposIts.
(SuzIe) That is the extent of the Iarger
of the three main reseRVoirs,
where we extract oiI today.
- (MIchael) That is an oiIfieId. - Yes.
Stretching aII the way past PooIe, beneath Bournemouth, under the sea.
What kind of distance is that?
It's about 20 kiIometres, or 12 miIes, in distance.
And it's about a miIe down.
The land whIch gave the VIctorIan mIners oIl shale,
90 years later once agaIn rewarded lucky prospectors.
They suspected that below the shale oIl rock there mIght be more lucratIve oIl,
and they were rIght.
The fIrst successful wells were drIlled In the 1950s.
(SuzIe) This is one of the first of the weII sites here at Wytch Farm.
It's actuaIIy the weII site that has the discovery weII on it.
- Where they first found the oiI. - Yes.
AIthough, in a way, it wasn't first found in the 1950s.
It was first found by the Victorians.
They certainIy were expIoiting the oiI shaIe,
but they weren't actuaIIy abIe to get this stuff out of the ground,
- which is at the Iower strata. - That's the crude.
This is the crude oiI.
StiII, I think we shouId be generous to the Victorians
and say that they gave us the idea.
They couId never have predicted how much energy we wouId demand.
By the 1970s, the true extent of the oIIfIeld was becomIng apparent.
PrIvate sIdIngs were buIlt
and soon the raIlways were beIng used to export the oIl.
How busy was this in its heyday?
In the '70s and '80s it was stiII quite a smaII oiIfieId.
This was the onIy way that you couId get oiI to the refinery.
This was absoIuteIy cruciaI to the operation of the oiIfieId.
When the big deveIopment took pIace, we then buiIt a pipeIine,
so the oiI went out by pipeIine.
But instead of using this for oiI,
we used it to export Iiquid petroIeum gases by train.
But over aII that Iong period,
we must have had about over 5,000 trains go out of these sidings.
AbsoIuteIy enormous. So the raiIway was fundamentaI
- to deveIoping this fieId. - AbsoIuteIy.
Today the oIIfIeld produces 6. 1 mIllIon barrels a year.
SophIstIcated drIllIng technology allows oIl to be brought here
from deposIts burIed deep under the sea, 1 1 kIlometres away,
wIth barely a scar on the landscape In thIs area of outstandIng natural beauty.
What precautions were taken ith environmentaI matters
when this was buiIt?
A very much seIf-contained site, so...
Everything was buiIt in a way that you couIdn't see it above the tree Iine.
If you see, it's down at a Iower IeveI.
It's aIso been painted a nice dark brown coIour
so that it's hidden amongst the trees.
(MIchael) It's not gone rusty. It's painted that coIour.
- (SuzIe) A speciaI Van Dyke brown. - Van Dyke brown.
It's amazIng to thInk that such a huge oIIfIeld Is so hard to glImpse,
especIally as thIs Is an area that gets two and a haIf mIllIon vIsItors a year.
I'm now on my way to a hIstorIc spot
that's been pullIng In the tourIsts ever sInce Bradshaw's day.
- HeIIo there. - (man) Good afternoon, sir.
- Just one stop for me, pIease. - Thank you.
(MIchael) Thank you very much.
For the next part of my journey, there's no reguIar pubIic raiI seRVice,
so I'm forced to traveI on a heritage Iine ith a steam engine,
and I'm not compIaining.
ThIs lIne was buIlt In the 1 880s
to lInk Wareham wIth the busy resort of Swanage on the coast.
After It was closed In the 1970s, all the track was lIfted,
but enthusIasts have paInstakIngly rebuIlt It.
The joys of an oId-fashioned carriage.
I'm headIng a mIle down the lIne
towards the 1,000-year-old ruIns of Corfe Castle.
And my fIrst glImpse doesn't dIsappoInt.
Wow, that is fanta... That is fantastic.
Sitting on this hiII here...
are the most romantic ruins of a castIe.
And this must be the best pIace to see them from.
The raiIway Iine is absoIuteIy the pIace to see them from.
I've never seen that before.
Sitting on its mound. Sitting on its hiII. Fantastic.
(traIn whIstle)
With the steam engine chugging away, Bradshaw's, as ever, iII be my guide.
''The surrounding country is fuII of casteIIated remains
and interesting historicaI associations.''
''In the neighbouring IsIe of Purbeck are the ruins of Corfe CastIe.''
DefiniteIy worth a cIoser Iook.
Corfe Castle sIts on a mound far above the vIllage that takes Its name.
VIctorIan readers of my ''Bradshaw's GuIde'' were among the fIrst tourIsts
to clImb to the summIt and admIre the ruIns.
As I get nearer the castIe, it's just as impressive,
because now I get a sense of scaIe. The keep is absoIuteIy massive.
The peopIe who are visiting Iook Iike IittIe dots.
On a warm day cIimbing up this hiII,
I have every sympathy ith anybody who tried to invade this castIe.
I'm meetIng hIstorIan Pam WhIte
to hear how the VIctorIans fell In love wIth thIs pIcturesque relIc.
- HeIIo, Pam. - HeIIo, MichaeI.
What wonderfuI ruins these are.
They're just spectacuIar, they reaIIy are.
(MIchael) How oId is it?
(Pam) A IittIe bit of Saxon work here,
but most of it's from 1 100, so it's about 900 years oId.
- So just after the Norman conquest. - Yes.
(MIchael) It's been a ruin awhiIe.
(Pam) It's been a ruin since 1646, so nearIy 400 years.
ObviousIy it was more or Iess in this condition in Victorian times.
It was. The Victorians reaIIy turned it into a tourist attraction.
Trains started here in 1885.
The Iine from WaterIoo to Weymouth went in in the 1850s,
and then the branch Iine.
(MIchael) I just got off at the raiIway station at Corfe CastIe,
- so it had its own raiIway station. - (Pam) Yes. Very important.
That reaIIy was why the tourism took off.
Roads didn't come tiII about the 1920s, when cars started to get more popuIar.
So for a whiIe, the raiIway was the way to get here.
The onIy way, apart from an occasionaI horse and carriage.
In the 19th century, hIstorIcal novels and popular paIntIngs
fuelled a romantIc vIew of BrItIsh hIstory,
and vIsItIng tumbledown ruIns became a fashIonable pursuIt.
To fIre the ImagInatIon of VIctorIan vIsItors,
my guIdebook brIngs to lIfe a heroIc story
from the castle's 1 7th-century past.
My Bradshaw's GuIde says during the EngIish CiviI War,
the castIe became famous ''because of the gaIIant defence
made by the ife of Chief Justice Bankes on behaIf of the king.''
''She was assisted by her daughters, maids and onIy five soIdiers.''
''After a siege of ten weeks,
the Roundheads were obIiged to give up the siege.''
- Quite an amazing bit of history. - She was a fantastic woman.
RoyalIst Lady Bankes was home alone
when the castle was besIeged by OlIver Cromwell's Roundheads.
She held fIrm.
Her courageous defence earned her the name Brave Dame Mary.
But eventually she was foIled, when the Roundheads played a dastardly trIck.
Just outside the castIe, they simpIy turned their coats inside out,
because the CavaIier soIdiers in the area had bIue coats,
Roundheads had red coats but ith bIue Iinings.
It's a reaIIy sneaky way to get into the castIe.
This is the origin of the expression ''turncoat'', isn't it?
And it sounds as if she was soId out for 20 pieces of siIver.
I can see why the VIctorIans were entranced by the tale,
whIch marked the end of Corfe Castle's hIstory as a fortIfIcatIon.
(MIchael) How was it the castIe came to be destroyed?
CromweII didn't want it.
To garrison it ith soIdiers wouId have cost a Iot of money.
So they simpIy bIew it up ith gunpowder.
The destructIon of Corfe Castle underlIned the defeat of King Charles.
But for the vIllagers, It wasn't all bad news.
Apparently, stone taken from the ruIns can stIll be seen In local houses.
I'm on the hunt for that looted booty.
LoveIy house, IoveIy fIowers.
WeII, I shouId have watered them a Iot.
- A Iot... I beg your pardon. - I don't mind getting wet.
Do you have any bits of castIe in your house?
No, I don't actuaIIy think I do.
I'm on the Iookout for bits of stone in houses.
MichaeI Bond may have, I wouId imagine, in there.
Next house? I'II try there.
Forgive me asking, are these from the castIe, these muIIions here?
(Bond) ProbabIy not, actuaIIy.
We have got something which I think might be from the castIe.
- Quite Iow, isn't it? - Do duck.
What are we Iooking for?
We're Iooking at that piece of paneIIing.
This is spectacuIar. It's from the castIe?
I Iike to pretend so, Iet's put it that way.
PeopIe who know about joinery
teII me it's from about Iate 16th, earIy 1 7th century.
It wasn't made for where it is now, because it doesn't fit at either end.
When it was sacked, it was a great quarry
and everybody heIped themseIves to whatever they wanted.
One of my ancestors, who was a crony of CromweII's,
took some of the beams from the great haII
and took them away for part of a barn
that he had at a farm about three miIes west of here.
What was he, a coIoneI of CromweII's, a generaI?
No, he was a poIitician.
Oh, the worst sort.
The destruction of Corfe CastIe during the EngIish CiviI War
seems Iike a tragedy.
But the distribution of its stones
has Ieft us ith a poignant ruin and a charming viIIage.
I've retraced my steps to Wareham
to contInue my journey towards the coast.
(tannoy) ThIs traIn Is for Weymouth.
(MIchael) I'm travellIng 25 mIles down the track
towards the fInal stop on the South West MaIn LIne from London.
Weymouth was one of BrItaIn's fIrst seasIde resorts,
and It gets a glowIng revIew In my 19th-century guIde.
Weymouth.
And Bradshaw's says, ''No pIace couId be more saIubrious than Weymouth.''
''The town is not onIy frequented during the summer,
but has been seIected by many opuIent famiIies as a permanent residence.''
''The beauty of its scenery and the heaIthfuIness of its cIimate
have contributed to raise it from the Iow state into which it had faIIen
to one of the most fIourishing towns in the kingdom.''
''Weymouth reborn.''
Weymouth fIrst became popular In GeorgIan tImes,
and InItIally was accessIble only for the well-to-do.
But after the raIlway arrIved In 1 857,
the town was transformed Into a destInatIon for mass tourIsm.
By the 20th century, thousands of vIsItors were comIng here
for theIr annual hIt of sun, sea and sand.
It's the perfect place for me to break my journey.
My Bradshaw's GuIde mentions the beautifuI view from the buiIdings
aIong the seafront here at Weymouth.
LuckiIy, there's a hoteI perfectIy situated.
- Good evening. - Good evening. WeIcome to RoyaI HoteI.
MichaeI PortiIIo checking in, pIease.
The Royal Hotel Is one of the few VIctorIan buIldIngs
on Weymouth's GeorgIan Esplanade.
BuIlt In the year of Queen VIctorIa's DIamond JubIlee,
It's an Ideal spot to see the town through 19th-century eyes.
My Bradshaw's says, ''From the indows of these buiIdings,
a most extensive and deIightfuI view is obtained,
comprehending on the Ieft a nobIe range of hiIIs and cIiffs,
and of the sea in front, ith numerous vesseIs, yachts and pIeasure boats.''
And when the sun finaIIy sets on this vista,
I shaII go to sIeep in this royaI hoteI.
WakIng to Weymouth,
I can see why my ''Bradshaw's GuIde'' Is so enthusIastIc about Its beauty.
Butjust 80 years after my guIdebook was publIshed,
thIs pIcturesque seasIde resort was transformed beyond recognItIon.
In World War Two, wIth German-occupIed France so close across the Channel,
the whole of the south coast was declared a war zone.
Nearby Portland was an Important naval base,
and Weymouth's raIlways were targeted In aIr raIds.
Beach huts and donkey rIdes were replaced
wIth barbed wIre and antI-aIrcraft guns.
And for the resIdents, It was a dramatIc change.
I'm meetIng Ken Warren, who grew up In wartIme Weymouth.
HeIIo, Ken.
- How very good to see you. - Good to see you.
Do you remember Weymouth before the wartime?
No. My memory doesn't go back that far.
I can't remember much about it at aII.
So your first memory of this charming resort
is of barbed ire and warfare.
(Ken) And soIdiers and guns and bombs and aeropIanes
- and shooting and sirens. - It doesn't sound Iike
- the normaI description of Weymouth. - No, it does not.
AstonIshIngly, Ken remembers playIng wIth thIs sort of gun as a boy.
(Ken) I used to go to the troops
and I used to take them comics and run errands for them.
They wouId Iet us have a go at the gun. Me and my mate wouId get on either side.
Turn one handIe and the barreI wouId go up and down.
Turn the other handIe and it traveIs right round.
- How oId were you? - I was about ten years oId.
By 1944, the AllIes were plannIng to storm the beaches of northern France.
Troops massed along the south coast,
IncludIng over a mIllIon from the UnIted States.
These exotIc new arrIvals made a lastIng ImpressIon on the locals.
What's your first memory of American troops in Weymouth?
Smart-Iooking feIIows in these nice uniforms.
They were aII smiIing and happy,
whereas the British troops had had enough of the war and didn't want it.
They came and it was so nice.
They had aII these things that we never had.
They wouId aIways shake our hands and say, ''Hiya, boy. Hiya, Mac.''
What sort of things did they have?
MostIy it was biscuits and dried miIk and dried egg
we used to take home to mother. She Ioved it when I brought that home.
What Ken dIdn't know was that the frIendly GIs
were beIng secretly prepared for one of the most ambItIous operatIons
of the Second World War, the D-Day landIngs.
(Ken) It was kept pretty quiet, as a matter of fact.
We just thought it was an exercise. We didn't know they were going.
- It was aII hushed up. - What did you actuaIIy see?
AII these tanks roIIing in the streets
and aII the troops marching aIong, getting ready.
On 6 June 1944,
6,000 shIps and 2,500 planes
delIvered 160,000 AllIed troops to Normandy.
It was to prove a turnIng poInt In the course of the war.
But thousands lost theIr lIves.
(Ken) The day they Ieft... They Ieft from PortIand Harbour.
I went down and I waved them bye-bye.
I knew them as friends.
I knew one of them quite personaIIy. His name was Joe RoyaI.
I often wondered what happened to him. I used to do his shopping for him
and my mother used to do his ironing. We used to have him up for tea.
He was a great friend.
GrowIng up In such a dangerous envIronment,
the raIlway held no fear for Ken and hIs frIends.
They often played nearby,
puttIng pennIes on the lIne to be squashed by the traIn.
UntIl Ken took thIngs too far.
(Ken) One day, the workmen's hut was open.
I had a Iook round and I saw some detonators.
I pIaced them on the Iine.
AIong come the train, run over these detonators,
bang, bang, bang, puff of smoke, steeI grinding, sparks everywhere.
I thought, ''What have I done? I've done something wrong.''
''There's gonna be an accident. I'm gonna get in awfuI troubIe.''
I went home and stayed indoors for three days. I daren't come out
in case they associated me ith this train puIIing up.
But IuckiIy, no disaster. It just made the train stop.
- (Ken) Yes, it made the train stop. - Wow.
That raIlway lIne that Ken feared he'd destroyed opened In 1 865.
It lInked Weymouth to the Isle of Portland,
my last stop on thIs long journey.
Over there is PortIand.
Bradshaw says, ''About four miIes south from Weymouth is the isIand of PortIand,
which, though thus caIIed, is in reaIity a peninsuIa,
connected ith the mainIand
by an extremeIy narrow isthmus caIIed ChesiI Bank.''
And this was once a raiIway track, but discontinued in the 1960s,
so now you have to hoof it.
Portland Is at one end of the stunnIng 1 8-mIle-long ChesIl Beach,
or Bank, as Bradshaw calls It,
whIch stretches up the Dorset coast west of Weymouth.
It's a remarkable natural phenomenon, but a dangerous one, too.
ThIs coastlIne Is famous for shIpwrecks.
SInce the 1 8th century, a lIghthouse has stood on Portland BIll
to warn approachIng saIlors of the danger that lurks beneath Its beauty.
Bradshaw's comments, ''This picturesque coast is unrivaIIed.''
''The sea view is agreeabIy diversified ith grand and striking objects
to break the monotony that usuaIIy peRVades a marine prospect.''
I Iove those Bradshaw-isms.
There's certainIy nothing monotonous about the view from PortIand.
Portland Is part of the JurassIc Coast World HerItage SIte,
a 95-mIle stretch of Dorset coastlIne
whIch charts how the Earth has changed over 1 85 mIllIon years.
It's not only geologIsts who are passIonate about these rocks.
In the 19th century, the comIng of the raIlway
helped export unprecedented quantItIes of stone from the Island's quarrIes.
As I've toured Britain's cities,
Bradshaw's has toId me that many of our finest buiIdings
are made of PortIand stone.
So I had to visit the cradIe of EngIand's most handsome rock.
Portland stone Is a type of lImestone,
formed around 150 mIllIon years ago
on what was once the sea bed.
It's always been hIghly prIzed as a buIldIng stone,
and In VIctorIan tImes was much In demand
for the most prestIgIous projects,
from Nelson's Column to the refurbIshment of BuckIngham Palace.
For generatIons It's provIded jobs for quarrymen lIke Ralph Stone.
HeIIo, MichaeI.
- It's an impressive pIace. - CertainIy is. WeIcome to PortIand.
(MIchael) When did you start as a quarryman?
1959.
- That's a good Iong stretch. - 50 years digging hoIes.
In the 19th century, as BrItaIn's cItIes developed at breakneck speed,
the quarrIes were boomIng.
My guIdebook tells me
50,000 tons of stone were exported yearly from Portland.
I suppose the raiIways pIayed an important part
- in PortIand stone's deveIopment. - Very much so.
The merchant raiIway first of aII was first deveIoped
to take the stone down to the cast-iron pier,
where they used to unIoad it on the steamers,
or the Thames barges to take into London.
(MIchael) That first raiIway, was that steam?
(Ralph) No, that was horse-drawn.
The main raiIway, when that came here,
that was a reveIation for the stone trade.
They used to puII right into the factory.
They'd Ioad them straight into the raiIway trucks.
Off they used to go wherever.
RemovIng thIs valuable stone wIthout damagIng It
has always requIred Immense skIll.
In the 19th and 20th century,
workers relIed on chIsels, hammers and a few explosIves.
It was back-breakIng work.
In Victorian times, what wouId the scene have been
- and how wouId they have done it? - In Victorian times, a Iot of men.
A Iot of men. AII manpower. AII manpower.
The quarry used to be worked according to the naturaI joints in the ground.
It's Iike a giant three-dimensionaI jigsaw, PortIand stone is.
The quarrymen, through a Iot of experience, take the jigsaw apart.
Ralph's VIctorIan predecessors receIved help from an unlIkely quarter,
when In the mId 19th-century, a prIson was buIlt on Portland.
(MIchael) What was the history of the convicts in the quarries?
ApparentIy, they were sent here for hard Iabour
before they were deported to the coIonies.
So it was a doubIe whammy for them.
You can imagine inexperienced peopIe
being put in an environment Iike this, ith expIosives.
There were a Iot of fataIities ith the convicts in the quarries.
I think it was one of the reasons why hard Iabour was stopped.
- (MIchael) A grim history. - (Ralph) A grim history.
Even Into the 20th century,
the combInatIon of explosIves and heavy machInery
made quarryIng a dangerous occupatIon.
When I started work, I went in the hut ith the men,
I was taken there by the manager.
''That's your seat.'' I sat down in the seat.
I didn't know untiI months afterwards,
underneath my seat was a tin box ith bIack powder and a fuse in.
Right by the side of me, in between my knees,
there was a great big stove aII Iit.
It was enough to bIow everybody to kingdom come.
You're taIking about the 1950s. Imagine what it was Iike in the 1850s.
WeII, there you are.
Recently, mInes have been dug to reach deeper deposIts.
Such technIques may supersede opencast quarrIes.
But whIle much has changed sInce Bradshaw's day,
as I say goodbye to Portland, what strIkes me Is how much remaIns the same.
My route from Windsor has taken me aIong tracks famiIiar to Queen Victoria,
and heIped me to understand how the raiIways transformed her Iife,
and those of her subjects,
and the Iandscapes and industries of her reaIm.
My Bradshaw's has given me insights and experiences
that I couId not have derived from any modern guidebook.
It's Ied me now to the RoyaI Manor of PortIand,
and one of the most beautifuI views in EngIand.
My nextjourney takes me west from the rollIng Cotswolds,
passIng through the Malvern HIlls and on to travel the raIlways
that changed the fortunes of IndustrIal South Wales.
En route, I'll be samplIng a VIctorIan navvy's favourIte brew...
Cheers. You couId buiId a raiIway once you've drunk that.
..learnIng how WorcestershIre farmIng has changed sInce Bradshaw's tIme...
This is the most unexpected sight. SuddenIy this riot of coIour.
..and seeIng the modern face of the 19th-century steel Industry.
I can feeI the heat of the bIast furnace. I see a stream of moIten iron,
I can see sparks fIying, smoke, and now this fantastic train that's emerging.