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.
Guided, as ever, by my Bradshaw's, I've embarked on a new journey
from the roIIing countryside of Oxfordshire
to the mining and smeIting heartIands of South WaIes.
During the IndustriaI RevoIution,
the Victorians expIoited the fruits of this Iand,
transforming the country and its cities.
And as ever, the cataIyst for that change was the arrivaI of the raiIways.
I'm begInnIng In a quIntessentIally EnglIsh regIon.
Its tImeless beauty and quIrky tradItIons are all recorded
In my 19th-century guIdebook.
On thIs leg of thejourney, I'll be seeIng Oxford
through Bradshaw's eyes...
It's reaIIy worth the cIimb. That is the most fantastic view.
..samplIng a VIctorIan navvy's favourIte brew...
Cheers. You couId buiId a raiIway once you've drunk that, couIdn't you?
..and dIscoverIng a surprIsIng crop In the heart of the Cotswolds.
This is the most unexpected sight.
SuddenIy this riot of coIour.
ThIsjourney starts In the heart of England.
TakIng me west through the Malvern HIlls and across the Welsh border.
I'll then travel through the IndustrIal powerhouse of South Wales,
fInIshIng up In MIIford Haven.
StartIng In hIstorIc Oxford,
thIs stretch explores the pIcture-postcard landscape
of the Cotswold hIlls
as far as a Pershore, near the agrIcultural vale of Evesham.
My fIrst stop Is Oxford,
known as home to one of BrItaIn's best unIversItIes.
According to my Bradshaw's,
Oxford University has an advantage over Cambridge
in being pIaced among more attractive scenery
and combining a greater variety of spIendid architecture.
That judgment iII be highIy controversiaI
amongst peopIe, Iike me, who went to Cambridge.
Whatever my personal vIews,
there's no dIsputIng that Oxford Is a wonderfully preserved hIstorIc cIty.
After the raIlway arrIved here In the 1 840s, It brought new waves of tourIsts
to admIre the dreamIng spIres
and provIded a speedy way for students to travel
to and from theIr venerable seat of learnIng.
Many of Oxford's beautIful buIldIngs and ancIent tradItIons
date back to medIeval tImes,
but the 19th century also left Its mark, IntroducIng competItIve rowIng, puntIng
and the bIcycle to the cIty.
My ''Bradshaw's GuIde'' waxes lyrIcal
about seeIng the Oxford panorama from above.
To see how the modern vIew measures up,
I'm meetIng ChrIs Kissane at Merton College.
- Chris, heIIo. - HeIIo, MichaeI.
- Great to see you. - Nice to meet you.
Oxford is a city to be proud of.
It reaIIy is, it's a wonderfuI city.
What's your connection?
I'm a student here now at BaIIioI CoIIege
and when I was born, my dad was a student at Merton CoIIege,
so we Iived in coIIege accommodation.
You were born ithin Merton CoIIege.
Yeah, I'm an Irishman but Oxford is home away from home.
Merton is the oIdest coIIege?
We, in BaIIioI, cIaim to be the oIdest coIIege as weII,
but to avoid famiIy arguments we'II agree to disagree.
You're cIutching a very impressive key.
I'm Iucky enough to get the key to the tower of Merton CoIIege ChapeI,
one of the oIdest remaining MedievaI buiIdings in Oxford.
We're going to have Iook up the top and see the view of the city.
I can't wait, Iead me on.
- OK. - Thank you.
Merton Isjust one of dozens of Independent colleges
that make up the unIversIty.
Each adds Its own dIstInctIve archItecture to the cIty skylIne,
creatIng the vIew that my guIdebook so admIres.
It's reaIIy worth the cIimb, isn't it? That is the most fantastic view.
It's extraordinary. It's inspiring, isn't it?
What Bradshaw says is that it's the concentration,
the combination of buiIdings, that makes Oxford so great.
I think that's true. He says,
''The city presents a very imposing appearance,
from the number and variety of its spires, domes and pubIic edifices,
whiIe these structures, from their magnitude and spIendid architecture,
give it an air of great magnificence.'' A pretty good description, isn't it?
Very apt, yes.
(MIchael) This is Bradshaw's view.
- It hasn't changed very much. - It hasn't.
Oxford Is lucky to have preserved Its stunnIng skylIne.
DurIng the Second World War,
the Luftwaffe delIberately targeted some of BrItaIn's most hIstorIc cItIes,
In a bId to dent morale.
They even used guIdebooks to pInpoInt herItage towns.
But amazIngly, Oxford survIved unscathed.
Why is it so weII preseRVed?
The story goes that HitIer
had his eyes on Oxford's magnificent buiIdings for his capitaI,
if he ever invaded EngIand. Story's never been proven,
but you can understand why anyone wouId be enchanted by the view.
It's a rather grim reason for a very beautifuI suRVivaI.
(ChrIs) It is.
One famous landmark that survIved Is the RadclIffe Camera.
Bradshaw says, ''It's dome Is one of
the most conspIcuous objects In the vIews of Oxford. ''
But, to me, thIs lIbrary Is memorable for another reason.
Even though I was at Cambridge,
when I was running up to some exams,
I did two weeks' revision in the RadcIiffe Camera.
For me, aIthough it's a beautifuI buiIding,
it has that horribIe feeIing of fear when you're running up to an exam.
An experience that I and many Oxford students can definiteIy identify ith.
The unIversIty has always set Oxford apart,
and despIte the arrIval of the raIlway,
the cIty dIdn't develop any major IndustrIes In the 19th century.
But the ever-expandIng academIc communIty
ensured that local trades thrIved.
Bradshaw's says that the high street of Oxford
is justIy considered the finest in EngIand.
''From the number and eIegance of its pubIic buiIdings
and the remarkabIe cuRVature.''
And it does indeed resembIe a Iong crescent.
And then it says, ''Oxford has Iong been famous for good sausages.''
That's news to me.
To see whether sausages are stIll a local delIcacy,
I'm headIng to the covered market.
It was buIlt 230 years ago
to try and rId the cIty centre of unsIghtly and smelly outdoor stalls.
The fIrst busInesses to move In were the butchers
and several stIll prosper here today.
Fantastic dispIay of sausages.
ColIn Dawson has worked here sInce the 1990s.
- CoIin, heIIo. - HeIIo, MichaeI.
I've come in search of sausages. I've come to the right pIace.
You certainIy have.
What about the Oxford sausage? Do you have that?
We do. This is the Oxford sausage.
It's our best-seIIing sausage.
I confess, I've never heard of an Oxford sausage. What do you put in it?
It's pork, Iemon, there's herbs,
there's thyme, parsIey, breadcrumbs.
(MIchael) I'm foIIoing a 19th-century guidebook. WouId it be the same?
No. In those days they used to have veaI and beef suet as weII.
(MIchael) The veaI sounds as if it wouId've been tasty.
What about the beef suet, what wouId that have done?
Beef suet wouId've been very greasy. Make a very greasy sausage.
I think in those days they thought it was good for their heaIth.
Actually, recIpes for Oxford sausages date back to the early 1 8th century,
but It was In VIctorIan tImes that they achIeved natIonal recognItIon.
EvidentIy the Oxford sausage was popuIar in the 1860s.
Where did you get the recipe from?
The recipe was handed down to us from another company,
but in Mrs Beeton's, the Victorian Mrs Beeton, Household Management Book,
the recipe is in there.
That wouId account for why Bradshaw's mentions it,
because she's 1860s as weII, isn't she?
Yeah, 1861 , the book.
Isabella Beeton's book was a hIt wIth the growIng mIddle classes,
seekIng guIdance on how to run a respectable household.
Her recIpe gIves two ways to serve an Oxford sausage, wIth or wIthout skIns.
Apparently the earlIest Oxford sausages resembled our modern hamburgers.
As far as we understand, this is the type of thing...
Just pressed out Iike that.
Then they moved on to sausage a bit Iater in time.
Very good. Despite the historic interest,
I think I'II go for a sausage today.
(ColIn) AII right.
These are the Oxford sausages cooked today.
- BeautifuI. - HeIp yourseIf.
Gosh, that's good.
That is meaty and I can taste the herbs
and I can taste the Iemon, Iots of Iemon.
AbsoIuteIy briIIiant.
That's good. GIad you're enjoying it.
Fuelled by my sausage, I am now leavIng Oxford behInd
to head Into the pIcturesque Cotswolds.
The lIne I'm followIng was buIlt In the 1 850s,
under the supervIsIon of the famous engIneer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
In the 19th century, the construction of raiIways was scarceIy mechanised at aII.
It depended on thousands of Iabourers, or navvies, using shoveIs and hammers.
LuckiIy, these fieIds suppIied a crop used to produce a refreshing,
not-to-say aIcohoIic drink, that couId be used to quench their thirst
after a day of toiI and sweat.
In VIctorIan tImes, thIs part of OxfordshIre
was a major growIng area for barley, a prIncIpal IngredIent In beer.
To fInd out how the raIlways helped beer makIng to flourIsh here,
I'm gettIng off at Charlbury StatIon.
BeautifuI station. Not the best day to see it.
Just up the road Is a splendId VIctorIan brewery, born In the raIlway age.
For fIve generatIons It's been run by James Clarke's famIly
- MichaeI. WeIcome to Hook Norton. - LoveIy to be here.
What a fantasticaIIy historic and picturesque Iooking brewery this is.
(James) We're very Iucky.
Very traditionaI design and unspoiIt, reaIIy, by time.
NIneteenth-century BrItons were beer enthusIasts,
belIevIng It to be a healthy drInk,
and It was seen as patrIotIc to choose a tradItIonal BrItIsh brew
over European wIne.
In the 1 800s lIcensIng laws were changed to boost beer productIon,
fuellIng an explosIon of new brewerIes.
(James) The company was started in 1849 by my great-great-grandfather.
We got the first commerciaI breing records back in 1856.
The breing deveIoped and he buiIt a smaII brewery in the 1870s
and foIIowed it ith this brewery
that was compIete around the turn of the century.
The Industry was quIck to adopt the latest technology.
ThIs brewery embraced steam power to mIll malted barley,
the fIrst stage of the brewIng process.
And the steam engine stiII works?
It does. Steam engine was instaIIed in 1899
and it wouId've been the soIe source of motive power
that was distributed throughout the brewery,
by a series of Iine shafting and open drive beIts.
Is it possibIe to see the machine work?
AbsoIuteIy. Let's fire her up.
(laughs)
We disappear in a cIoud of water vapour.
What a fantastic machine.
It has a bit of the Iook
and certainIy the sound of a Iocomotive on the raiIway.
AbsoIuteIy, just Victorian engineering, reaIIy weII and soIidIy buiIt,
and consequentIy Iasted 1 10 years, pIus.
It makes me feeI very at home.
BrewerIes are tradItIonally buIlt on many floors, so that gravIty can help
to move the beer between the dIfferent stages of productIon.
(MIchael) Up and up and up.
(James) Yes, six fIights of stairs to the top of the brewery
and we've just come up a coupIe of them.
ThIs brewery grew rapIdly In the late-19th century,
thanks In part to a new raIlway lIne
buIlt through the nearby OxfordshIre hIlls.
I beIieve the process of buiIding the raiIway
- had a big impact on the brewery. - It had a huge impact.
The section through Hook Norton was quite difficuIt engineering-ise
and reputed to have taken 400 navvies four years
to buiId two sets of viaducts and a Iong tunneI.
So, cIearIy, 400 men working very hard and working up quite a thirst.
For the navvIes who buIlt the raIlways, lIfe was tough.
The dark beer that they drank
was an Important source of nutrItIon, rIch In Iron.
And are you making those Victorian beers, on which the navvies thrived?
We have an oId bottIe here, which shows the originaI IabeI.
That's a beer we're stiII producing today.
- Wow, that is dark, isn't it? - It is.
A smaII amount of very highIy roasted maIt in it,
to give it a depth of coIour and fIavour.
That's as bIack as night.
Mmm.
Wow.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
You couId buiId a raiIway once you'd drunk that, couIdn't you?
That puts hairs on your chest and muscIes on your arms, I shouId think.
Barrels of beer used to be carrIed by horse and cart
to the raIlway at Hook Norton, a mIle down the road.
Sadly, that branch lIne has closed, but the horse and cart tradItIon contInues.
HeIIo, what a fabuIous dray and what beautifuI horses.
You wouIdn't be going towards the station?
I certainIy can do. WaIk on!
WeII, I've often traveIIed by raiIway Iike George Bradshaw,
but never headed towards the station by horse Iike George Bradshaw.
My VIctorIan transport Is carryIng me towards my next traIn.
ThIs leg of thejourney takes me deeper
Into the heart of the famous gently rollIng hIlls called the Cotswolds.
My next stop got Its statIon In 1 853,
but Its hIstory as a haltIng place for travellers reaches far Into the past.
My journey has brought me across the border from Oxfordshire
into GIoucestershire, to Moreton-in-Marsh.
And here I shaII find a pIace to rest my head.
My guIdebook tells me that Moreton-In-Marsh
Is a small town on the old Fosse Way,
a Roman road that stretched all the way from Exeter to LIncoln.
The perfect spot for a tradItIonal coachIng Inn.
I Iove the coIour of CotswoId stone. It has an extraordinary warmth.
And one of the hoteIs mentioned in my Bradshaw's stiII stands.
The White Hart.
Good evening. MichaeI PortiIIo checking in.
Nice to meet you.
Very good to see you. What have you...
This evening you'II be staying in the King CharIes Suite.
Ah... Which King CharIes is that?
It was King CharIes I and the suite is actuaIIy named after him.
In fact he stayed here the night on his way to Marston Moor
and Ieft the next morning ithout paying his biII.
Oh. That is fantasticaIIy historic.
As Iong as you don't expect me to pay his biII.
- You can if you want to. - Thank you very much. Goodbye.
Magnificent.
This reaIIy crowns my day.
I've woken to a perfect day for explorIng the Cotswolds.
Before I catch my next traIn,
I want to uncover the story behInd a local landmark.
I've come to Moreton because my Bradshaw's mentions
the Saxon tower on Broadway HiII.
And the author was seeing it from Warwck 20 miIes away,
so it must be rather speciaI.
Broadway HIll Is a stIff clImb from Moreton
and the second hIghest poInt In the Cotswolds.
IntrIguIngly, my ''Bradshaw's GuIde'' claIms that the tower that tops It
Is vIsIble from WarwIck Castle,
and as I approach It I begIn to see why.
There's a stunning view.
A sIender castIe.
And whoever buiIt it reaIIy knew their site.
What a fantastic position.
The horizon is just opened up aII around it.
NeIl Thorneywork knows the hIstory of thIs castellated curIosIty.
- HeIIo, NeiI. - HeIIo.
Tower Iooking beautifuI in sunIight today.
Yes, it's aIways nice when the sun's on it, Iooks a treat.
Now, my Bradshaw's refers to it as a Saxon tower, but I'm guessing it's not.
No, it was finished in 1 799.
Saxon refers to the styIe of architecture used.
(MIchael) Who buiIt the tower?
(NeIl) It was buiIt by the sixth EarI of Coventry as a present for his ife.
Very, very nice present, too.
A bit unusuaI compared to today's presents.
What was she supposed to do ith it?
Nothing. AII she wanted to do was Iook out of the estate indow
some ten miIes away and basicaIIy say, ''That's my tower.''
So this was in the tradition of buiIding foIIies?
Yes, very much so.
Wealthy VIctorIans contInued to construct quIrky buIldIngs lIke thIs
and BrItaIn Is claImed to have had more follIes than anywhere else In the world.
The definition of foIIy is a pointIess, useIess buiIding
and they were buiIt by the weaIthy,
in a period from 1 750 to about 1910.
Some peopIe think of them as even done to give peopIe empIoyment.
But normaIIy they was just there as a show of weaIth.
And so they were buiIdings that they couId enjoy
views of, views from, and just to amuse their friends.
Or just to amuse their friends and say, ''This is my foIIy.''
These days the tower Is open to the publIc,
and reputedly, on a fIne day, you can see for over 50 mIles from the top.
- That is stunning, isn't it? - Some view, isn't it?
(MIchael) That's fantastic.
How high are we now?.
(NeIl) We're about 1 ,080 feet, incIuding the tower.
(MIchael) And reputedIy, you can see 1 4 counties from here?
Yes, on a perfectIy cIear, atmospheric day.
- Which are they? - Worcestershire, Warwckshire,
GIoucestershire, Leicestershire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire,
Buckinghamshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire,
Avon, Dyfed, Gwent, Powys, WiItshire and Somerset.
(applauds) Bravo. That was very, very good.
Now, the author of Bradshaw's GuIde
was standing on Guy's Tower at Warwck CastIe when he saw this tower.
Do you know where that is?
Warwck CastIe, just over in that direction there.
OK.
ObviousIy, we wouId be abIe to see it from here on a perfectIy cIear day.
I think you'II probabIy need fieId gIasses to distinguish it.
Although the tower was buIlt as a flIght of fancy,
In the 19th century,
It helped the development of an Important art movement.
The Pre-RaphaeIite artists, the arts and crafts movement,
aII used to come and stay here.
Because?
BasicaIIy the resident here at the time was a gentIeman caIIed Crom Price,
who was a very good friend of Burne-Jones.
So he used to invite the Pre-RaphaeIites to come here and stay ith him
and I'm sure WiIIiam Morris gained some great inspiration from being here.
He'd certainIy be abIe to see Iots of Ieaves and trees and inspiring things.
That's right.
VIsItIng here led WIllIam MorrIs
to campaIgn to preserve BrItaIn's hIstorIc monuments.
I for one am very glad that thIs partIcular oddIty has survIved.
Any man watching this programme who's stuck for an idea
for his ife for Christmas... A foIIy's the thing.
That's right, buiId a tower, ins every time.
I'd love to stay and plan my gIft lIst,
but It's tIme for me to catch my next traIn.
So, I continue down the beautifuI CotswoIds Line.
Next stop, Pershore.
The scenery I'm passIng through Is beautIful.
But It hasn't always been peaceful.
My train iII soon pass under the CotswoId Ridge,
through the Camden tunneI.
And this was the scene of an extraordinary piece of raiIway history.
The tunneI was under the engineering supeRVision of BruneI.
He'd empIoyed some navvies to dig it.
He was dissatisfied ith their progress and decided to evict them.
And he did that by marching his own band of 3,000 navvies to throw them out.
It was the scene of one of the Iast pitch battIes on British soiI
and it was fought over a raiIway tunneI.
Brunel's sIde was vIctorIous, and wIthIn a year the tunnel was complete.
The fInIshed lIne lInked Oxford and Worcester
and these days It's known as the Cotswolds LIne.
Good afternoon, sir, tickets, pIease.
- Thank you very much. - Thank you.
This Iine is so beautifuI, the CotswoIds Line.
We're quite Iucky to have it stiII, aren't we?
(conductor) It's a pIeasure to work on.
Yeah, Iots of beautifuI stations and scenery.
My journey now brings me into Worcestershire,
which my Bradshaw's says is engaged chiefIy in agricuIture.
And I'm heading for Pershore.
Bradshaw says, ''The situation of the town is very beautifuI
and the surrounding scenery is picturesque.''
I want to see how agricuIture has changed
and I'm certainIy hoping to see something highIy picturesque.
I'm gettIng off at a statIon on the edge of the Vale of Evesham,
a rIchly fertIle area,
whIch In the 19th century was a major centre for market gardenIng.
Orchards covered the countrysIde
and hundreds of tonnes of fruIt were sent to market by raIl.
In the 20th century, as foreIgn competItIon grew,
thIs trade dIed off and many farmers struggled to survIve.
But one famIly farm has recently had a renaIssance,
thanks to thIs stunnIng crop.
This is the most unexpected sight.
Here we are in the middIe of an EngIish countryside,
normaI greens and browns, and suddenIy this riot of coIour.
It's Iike someone tipped a pot of different coIoured paints
aII over the Iandscape. Fantastic!
I'm meetIng Charles Hudson,
whose famIly has farmed thIs land for over 200 years.
What an amazing sight. What a riot of coIour this is.
It is a bit of a surprise when you waIk down a green country Iane,
turn the corner and suddenIy see this.
Very unIikeIy.
ThIs sensatIonal array of delphInIums Isn'tjust for decoratIon,
and nor are they sold as cut flowers.
In fact, thIs farm grows a vItal IngredIent
for a tradItIonal EnglIsh weddIng.
We pick the petaIs, we dry them and then they are...
They can be thrown as confetti.
That's a wonderfuI idea.
Whenever I've been to a church, I've seen paper confetti.
This is obviousIy a much IoveIier idea.
And does it work as a business?
(Charles) We farm over a thousand acres here and this fieId is about 15 acres
- and this makes up 50 of our turnover. - ReaIIy?
So it's been a reaI saviour of everything.
It's got us through some difficuIt times.
Newlyweds have been showered wIth
everythIng from rIce to sweets for centurIes.
The orIgIns of modern confettI are unclear, but by VIctorIan tImes,
the kInd of paper mIssIles that we launch today were common.
I suppose, environmentaIIy, if you're chucking around an organic product,
that's a much nicer thing to do than chucking around paper.
(Charles) CertainIy, yes.
Paper, and there's a pernicious new product, which is foiI confetti,
which everybody reaIIy hates because it just never goes.
Yes, petaIs are just Iike the grass and the Ieaves.
They're organic and they just disappear.
ConfettI Is the latest In a long lIne of crops grown here by Charles's famIly.
Over the years they've wItnessed many changes,
IncludIng the arrIval of the raIlway.
We stopped the raiIways coming through our farm a coupIe of hundred years ago.
Why did your famiIy do that?
OriginaIIy, 300 years ago,
the turnpike road went through and cut things in haIf.
Then the raiIways, it was a sort of giddy Iimit.
So I think they campaigned, reaIIy,
to try and sort of push it the other side of the river,
which is uItimateIy what happened,
which is why Pershore Station is about a miIe and a haIf out of town.
I think everybody aIways sort of curses the waIk they have to make into town.
Before I make the trek back to the statIon,
I want to see Charles's fInIshed product.
This is what it Iooks Iike. Those are sort of bags...
You wouId hardIy know that they weren't...
It's got a nice sort of hay smeII to it.
(MIchael) LoveIy smeII.
That's a stunning bIue in there, isn't it?
It's reaIIy a very far cry from paper confetti.
It's wonderfuIIy naturaI.
- Yeah... - Light.
WeII, thank you, CharIes.
I must head to the raiIway station,
which thanks to your ancestors is quite a Iong way away.
I'm afraid it is. Sorry about that.
Pershore's confettI fIelds
have certaInly made theIr mark on the landscape.
And they're rIngIng the changes at weddIngs, too.
The industriaI revoIution brought factories
and dark satanic miIIs to much of Britain.
But when I Iooked down on the coIIeges of Oxford
and on the countryside around Broadway,
and waIked through the fIowers at Pershore,
I was reminded that whiIst the raiIways affected everywhere,
many pIaces were Ieft unspoiIed.
This is stiII a Iand of green pastures.
On the next step of my journey,
I'll be vIsItIng the home of Queen VIctorIa's favourIte bIshop...
She commented that Bishop Perowne had the best Iegs in tights
of any man on the EpiscopaI bench.
..snIffIng out the secrets of a famous 19th-century condIment...
That's a gIorious smeII, but a very concentrated smeII.
..and followIng In the footsteps of VIctorIan health fanatIcs.
There'd be wet toweIs wrapped around you
and water poured upon you from a ghastIy height.
- So, actuaIIy pretty bracing stuff. - Bracing indeed.