In 1 840, one man transformed travel In BrItaIn and Ireland.
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 these Islands
to see what of Bradshaw's world remaIns.
I'm continuing my journey across Northern IreIand,
which iII Iead me to the spectacuIar north coast.
Just now I'm approaching BeIfast,
which, when ParIiament first approved IegisIation for raiIways,
was known as a viIIage.
But today, it's become a mighty city.
On today's leg of my journey, I'll be takIng a step back In tIme...
This is Iike making a visit to the earIy stages of the IndustriaI RevoIution.
..seeIng what gave pleasure-seekIng VIctorIans the thrIll of theIr lIves...
(woman) Being 30 to 70 feet above the sea, crashing beIow you.
It makes a change from city Iife.
..and takIng to the tracks In the latest hI-tech traIn sImulator.
(gasps) Oh!
Oh, dear! I think we're aII dead!
My 19th-century guIdebook Is takIng me across a land
that at the tIme of wrItIng
was one Ireland under the reIgn of Queen VIctorIa.
I've been followIng the hIstorIcal expansIon of the raIlways
from DublIn towards BeIfast, before fInIshIng In Derry/Londonderry.
On today's stretch, I'll be explorIng Northern Ireland's capItal
before headIng north to TemplepatrIck,
endIng at the handsome coastal town of WhItehead.
My Bradshaw's says of BeIfast,
''The taII chimneys and factories for spinning Iinen and cotton yarn
are the most conspicuous buiIdings.''
''Though ranking the second port in IreIand,
it stands first for manufactures and trade.''
And I'm deIighted to be back in a city, which has memories for me
of bad times and good.
BeIfast suffered greatly durIng the polItIcal conflIct
and the vIolence of the Troubles.
But In recent tImes It's experIenced greater perIods of calm
and economIc growth, at least untIl the recessIon.
The cIty's huge IndustrIal development began In the VIctorIan era.
It was the centre for lInen
and by 1 873 produced more of It than anywhere In the world,
employIng thousands of workers and earnIng ItseIf the monIker LInenopolIs.
But another Industry also gave BeIfast global renown.
It was the water and the raiIways that made BeIfast great.
As Bradshaw's GuIde says,
''Since 1839, very great improvements have been made in the harbour,
a deep channeI having been cut right up to the town,
so that Iarge vesseIs are now abIe to discharge cargo at the new quays.''
But even Bradshaw, I think, foreseeing the greatness of BeIfast,
wouId've been stunned by the scaIe and wouId've been in awe to know
that this city wouId produce ships that are househoId names.
To dIscover how thIs all came to be, I've arrIved at BeIfast Dock
and the Harland And Wotff shIpyard,
famous for buIldIng the Ill-fated TItanIc.
I'm meetIng BeIfast Harbour hIstorIan Andrew Waldron
to ascend one of the two huge shIpbuIldIng gantry cranes.
Thankfully, by takIng the lIft,
rather than clImbIng the heart-stoppIng 400 steps to the top.
Wow! We can see everything from here.
This is a very speciaI experience, being up here,
as Iong as we're not bIown off by this high ind.
We've got aII of BeIfast Iaid out before us.
Another of the iconic HarIand And WoIff cranes, there.
330 feet up here, on this. This is the Iargest crane, the Samson.
GoIiath is just sIightIy smaIIer than the crane we're standing on.
But these two cranes symboIise BeIfast, for what it is today.
A thIrd of all Northern Ireland's wealth Is developed
from the busInesses operatIng wIthIn BeIfast Port.
And the harbour area employs a staggerIng 1 7,000 people.
But none of thIs would have been possIble
wIthout the InterventIon of VIctorIan WIllIam Dargan,
the father of IrIsh raIlways,
who substantIally enlarged and deepened the harbour In the 1 840s.
WIth bIg shIps able to dock for the fIrst tIme, the port boomed.
So much so, that Bradshaw notes
that customs dutIes had rIsen tenfold In 40 years.
And raIlways were Instrumental In that growth.
There's not much sign of raiIway tracks any more,
apart from the tracks these cranes run on.
But at one time it must've been fuII of raiIways.
There were that many raiIway Iines here, it was an industriaI raiIway system.
There were more raiIway Iines here than ithin the city of BeIfast itseIf.
And what were those tracks doing?
They were bringing goods into the port, and goods going out of the port,
you know, exports. Various different commodities.
Linen was exported. Iron ore. Bauxite from the hiIIs of County Antrim.
SaIt. Timber was being imported. CoaI was coming in.
Just about everything under the sun came here, at one stage.
The work that Dargan dId In creatIng a shIppIng channel
had another Immense consequence for BeIfast.
The spoIl from the project was used to buIld Queen's Island,
named after Queen VIctorIa.
And there, shIpbuIldIng really got under way
when Edward Harland and Gustav Wotff chose to sIte theIr shIpyard there.
BeIfast's foresIghted harbour commIssIoners
provIded the most up-to-date heavy lIftIng machInery and raIlways
to enable Harland And Wotff to construct the huge vessels then beIng desIgned.
(Andrew) The harbour commissioners in 1882
suppIied three heavy raiIway wagons,
each wagon capabIe of taking 150-tonne Ioads.
They didn't have anything to hauI them, so they used horses, teams of horses.
30 horses, 40 horses, 50 horses on the much Iarger Ioads.
They trundIed down the quayside to the Iarge crane, the 120-tonne crane,
then offIoaded them straight into the huII of the ship.
Steam locomotIves eventually replaced the horses
and BeIfast grew to be the world's largest shIpyard
by the turn of the 20th century.
Harland And Wotff employed an astoundIng 12,000 people,
workIng over a sIte of 80 acres.
They buIlt enormous ocean-goIng lIners
IncludIng the TItanIc and her two sIsters,
whIch were Intended to saIl from Southampton to New York.
And theIr output went beyond desIgnIng and buIldIng shIps.
They buiIt a number of raiIway Iocomotives
for use ithin Northern IreIand and they buiIt a number of Iocomotives
and a raiIcar, which they exported to Buenos Aires and the Sudan.
BeIfast port contInues to be a major marItIme gateway today.
ShIpbuIldIng, on the other hand, has declIned steadIly.
HavIng buIlt over 1 700 shIps and a faIr few traIns In Its hIstory,
Harland And Wotff now focuses on shIp repaIr and cIvIl engIneerIng projects
IncludIng buIldIng wInd- and tIdal-powered turbInes.
So, they're not manufacturing trains here any more?
No. But the Iatest trains being buiIt for Northern IreIand RaiIways,
these new state-of-the-art raiIcars,
are coming into here and being imported directIy through BeIfast port.
- So, there is a Iink? - There is a Iink stiII Ieft, yes.
Today, there are no operatIonal raIlway tracks left at BeIfast Port,
bar those that Samson and GolIath run on.
But the docks are playIng host to the latest generatIon of traIns
beIng shIpped from SpaIn for the Northern Ireland raIl network.
When new rollIng stock arrIved In Bradshaw's day,
drIvers learnt on thejob.
Today, a hIgh-tech sImulator allows operators to practIse
In the safety of a vIrtual world.
And I'm lucky enough to be InvIted to the RaIl OperatIons TraInIng Academy
to try my hand at drIvIng a modern commuter traIn.
Wow, this Iooks Iike fun!
My supervIsor Is ColIn Watson.
- CoIin? - MichaeI.
- HeIIo. - How are you, are you weII?
This is fantastic, Iook at that. The Iine Iaid out before me.
Where am I?
You're currentIy in pIatform one
in Great Victoria Street Station in BeIfast.
- May I start off? - AbsoIuteIy.
To move, ease the power controIIer, over to your Ieft.
And ith the weight of your hand, just Iet it ease forward.
(gasps) My goodness! We're moving.
That is... (laughs)
This is wonderfuIIy reaIistic, isn't it?
Just amazing.
(ColIn) We're coming to a tunneI,
so if you bIow the horn as a warning of entry.
(traIn horn sounds)
ThIs sImulator can prepare drIvers for any eventualIty
that they may face on the tracks.
We can have our drivers driving in various different weather conditions.
- Oh! - There's snow.
(laughs) That was a sudden change of weather.
I know the weather changes quickIy in Northern IreIand, but that is amazing.
We can put various different obstacIes in front of anyone in the simuIator,
here ranging from trees to fridges.
Shopping troIIeys wouId be quite an occasionaI obstacIe to come across.
So we can represent a normaI day or an abnormaI day for a driver.
(pushes brake lever) Whoa!
(laughs)
Oh, dear!
I think we're aII dead. That tree reaIIy came out of nowhere, didn't it?
(ColIn) It did, which is aIways your probIem in fog.
- Ah, God, that was frightening. - (laughs)
I thInk I'll leave the drIvIng to the professIonals
and stIck to what I can manage,
as I catch a traInjust over a mIle south across the cIty.
(announcement) The next statIon Is Great VIctorIa Street.
As Industry and commerce prospered throughout the 19th century,
pursuIts that had been the preserve of the upper classes
now became open to an emergIng wealthy mIddle class.
I'm headIng for an InstItutIon
that flourIshed wIth such changes In VIctorIan socIety.
Bradshaw's says that here in BeIfast ''the BotanicaI Society possesses
a garden on the river, where an isIand of 20 acres
has been Iaid out ith shrubberies''.
Such exotic amenities were popuIar in Victorian times.
I'm guessing that the right pIace to get out and see it
is at the raiIway station caIIed Botanic.
The VIctorIan perIod was the golden age of plant collectIng,
and botanIcal adventurers rIsked theIr lIves
brIngIng back the fInest exotIc specImens from around the world.
LuscIous ferns and fruIts, gIant water lIlIes from the OrIent
and palms from IndIa.
All these specIes requIred protectIon from the BrItIsh clImate,
and that gave rIse to stupendous VIctorIan glasshouses.
My guIde to thIs palace of plants Is hortIculturalIst Reg Maxwell.
- Reg, heIIo. - Good to have you.
WeIcome to Botanic Gardens.
I'm just beitched by this buiIding. It is so beautifuI.
When does it date from?
(Reg) It dates from 1839-40 and that was the two ings that were buiIt first
by Turner of DubIin.
He was the great iron master who went on to buiId a number of gIasshouses
and specificaIIy Kew Gardens, the big one.
But the dome wasn't buiIt straight away.
That wasn't buiIt untiI 1852 by Young of Edinburgh.
And is this what Bradshaw wouId caII ''an isIand of 20 acres''?
- It's the same site today, is it? - That's right.
The path systems that you waIk around here, and Iook into the trees
and the great Iawn, were aII Iaid out in 1828.
(MIchael) And how speciaI is this paIm house?
WeII, I think it's speciaI in that it is buiIt specificaIIy for tropicaI pIants.
It's made of cast iron and wrought iron
and it is a cuRViIinear house.
And that's because the bars are cuRVed and the gIass is cuRVed.
That makes it very important. Because it makes it
one of the earIy suRViving
fuII cuRViIinear paIm houses.
I have a feeIing that it's even more remarkabIe inside than outside.
- ShaII we go and have a Iook? - I think so.
Advances In the manufacture of Iron and glass
gave BrItaIn both Its canopIed raIlway statIons
and Its botanIcal glasshouses.
And these elegant feats of archItecture and engIneerIng
brought VIctorIans flockIng.
The interior is warm and humid and the sunIight is streaming in
and you've got these immense specimens. It's deIightfuI.
Isn't it? And in the Victorian times, of course,
for the ordinary person coming in here, it wouId've been totaIIy amazing.
AImost Iike, for us today, if we're deaIing ith the space age
and waIking on the Moon. It's that kind of magnitude of surprise and interest.
(MIchael) Because of specimens they'd never seen before?
(Reg) From parts of the worId that they couId never even think of or dream of.
BusIness travellers and those on colonIal or mIlItary servIce
had the opportunIty to see these plants In theIr habItats.
They would then send seeds, cuttIngs or whole plants back to BrItaIn.
- And how did these specimens get here? - (Reg) By ship and over Iand.
Once the raiIways came, of course, things speeded up.
And so the chances of pIants suRViving and getting back were much greater.
(MIchael) And the Victorians were very serious about studying pIants
and cataIoguing pIants, weren't they?
(Reg) They were, because there were thousands of these pIants coming in,
and so they had to try and find out what they were,
because they didn't fit into the fIora that we had in our own country.
So it was a great chaIIenge to them to try and grow them.
And that's why they had to buiId these houses.
This is a fine exampIe of a pIant that came in
from the South Americas in the Iate Victorian period.
And this is aechmea fascIata.
(MIchael) It has the IoveIy creaking Ieaf.
Yes, and, of course, the Victorians wouId Iove that experience
of being abIe to touch and feeI and smeII a pIant such as this.
AII these pIants around us wouId've been considered extremeIy rare and exotic
and wouId be the pIant that you had to have to be in the fashion
and to be a coIIector, but now are common housepIants
and we take them for granted. But they're beautifuI aII the same.
Back on the traIn Into the centre of BeIfast at the end of a fascInatIng day.
WhIlst my journey around thIs great cIty has so far celebrated
the trIumphs of Its VIctorIan past,
I can't come here wIthout acknowledgIng the dIffIcultIes of more modern tImes.
And my bed for the nIght Is In a hotel whIch experIenced and wIthstood
much vIolence durIng the polItIcal conflIct
generally known as the Troubles.
Since the 1970s, the Europa has been one of BeIfast's premier hoteIs
and as such it attracted journaIists and poIiticians who stayed here.
I came here myseIf back in those days of TroubIes
and I remember it surrounded by an enormous fence ith sandbags,
ith concrete, ith security cameras and enormous security measures, as weII.
The fact that aII that has been taken away and you can just waIk straight in
is perhaps an eIoquent sign
that more peacefuI times have returned to Northern IreIand.
Good morning.
For the first time, I have stayed in a room
that was once occupied by a president of the United States.
Because in November 1995, BiII and HiIIary CIinton
made a remarkabIe visit to Northern IreIand in search of peace.
Perhaps most remarkabIy, at the 30th anniversary of the hoteI,
BiII CIinton sent a message saying, ''The Europa stands today
as a Iiving exampIe of an extraordinary past
and the promise of an even greater future.''
That being a reference to the fact that this hoteI was bombed 36 times
during the TroubIes.
ThIs mornIng my ''Bradshaw's'' leads me away from BeIfast,
to the vIllage of TemplepatrIck, 1 4 mIles north-east of the cIty.
To work the land productIvely has been key to survIval
In Ireland for centurIes.
And the humble spade has been the maIn tool
wIth whIch the IrIsh have cut peat for fuel,
planted foods and toIled as constructIon workers.
So I'm takIng a step back In tIme
to one of the last remaInIng VIctorIan spade mIlls,
to meet spade maker ColIn Dawson.
- CoIin. - HeIIo, MichaeI. PIeased to meet you.
Great to see you. I've never been to a spade miII before.
TeII you the truth, I've never thought about spades.
Are there many, many different varieties?
WeII, in IreIand aIone there were 1 7 1 different varieties of spade.
Every county had its own type of spade.
For instance, SIigo is grey cIay and a Iot of stone,
so you need a very narrow, thick spade.
Fermanagh is very wet Iand, so you need a spade that's a wee bit Iike a spoon,
ith a bend in it, very thick in the middIe,
so that you can break the suction of the wet soiI.
I hope it's OK if I say that I suppose IreIand has been a Iand of digging.
When I think about agricuIture, when I think about turf
and when I think about navvies, they're aII using spades, aren't they?
Yes. Irish navvy was the best navigator in the worId.
PeopIe think of a navvy as being a Iabouring man,
but they were very, very skiIfuI peopIe.
The term navvy, short for navIgator, has been used sInce the 1 8th century
to descrIbe those workIng on cIvIl engIneerIng projects.
From canals, roads and tunnels to the raIl network,
navvIes are recognIsed as the men who buIlt Ireland and BrItaIn.
But to do thejob, they needed an effectIve tool.
EnterprIsIng VIctorIan spade manufacturers
recognIsed the potentIal for mechanIsIng the productIon of spades
and took over thIs sIte, orIgInally a water-powered lInen mIll.
How would condItIons have been In mIlls lIke these In the 19th century?
Oh, they wouId've been horrendous pIaces to work.
There was no such thing as heaIth and safety.
ChiIdren worked when they were ten.
They went to work in the morning and schooI in the afternoon
or they wouId've went to work one day and schooI the next.
They were caIIed a haIf-timer or a part-timer.
Then, whenever they were 12, they Ieft schooI, went to work fuII time,
from six in the morning to six at night, six days a week.
At 1 4 you started an apprenticeship untiI you were 25.
And sometimes you didn't get paid for the apprenticeship.
It was a pIeasure to get doing it.
For the Iife of me, I don't know why they caIIed it the good oId days.
At the peak of spade-makIng In the mId-19th Century,
there were 37 mIlls throughout Ireland,
makIng an astoundIng 36,000 spades per year.
ColIn and hIs colleague Tom Mahon have kIndly agreed to show me
thIs tIme-hallowed process,
somethIng they stIll do every day to meet a huge order book.
So you start just ith a piece of steeI?
We start ith a soIid bIock of steeI. As you see, we knack it.
We spIit the knack and now we're going to pierce the socket down into it.
And this is water-powered, this machine.
The whole spade head Is made from one pIece of steel,
heated In a forge to blIsterIng temperatures
to allow It to be worked Into shape.
After you've done about 200 of these...
..you're ready for a pint of Guinness.
The spades are made In batches of 12.
WhIlst each Is worked, the others are beIng heated In the furnace.
Can't beIieve the speed at which this is going on.
One spade after another coming out of the furnace.
ColIn and Tom beat the steel Into a spade-shaped blade
usIng the mIll's orIgInal water-powered hammer.
Never saw anything Iike that in my Iife.
It's Iike a big nodding duck.
This is Iike making a visit to the earIy stages of the IndustriaI RevoIution.
You just can't beIieve the ingenuity of man.
And the skiII of CoIin working it.
What sort of power is that deIivering, CoIin?
RoughIy 100-tonne pressure coming down on it.
(laughs) That I don't beIieve. Tom just pops in there ith a bit of wood.
I just can't beIieve it.
The whoIe secret is to make sure your thumb's not on top of it
when you put it in there.
(MIchael) Yeah, that wouId be important.
So the next stage is just to keep bringing it out
untiI you get the bIade beat out, and then you trim it up.
How many times iII you have to bring it out and beat it?
- About seven times. - AII of this for one spade.
In Bradshaw's day, the fInIshed spades were dIstrIbuted by traIn over Ireland
and by shIp onwards to BrItaIn and the contInent from BeIfast Port.
VIctorIan entrepreneurs saw how raIlways could help to expand IndustrIal output,
and to supply new demands from the IncreasIngly numerous mIddle class.
My lastjourney today takes me 1 7 mIles north-east of BeIfast
to where a Northern IrIsh raIlway magnate
constructed an astoundIng coastal attractIon,just for tourIsts.
I'm on my way to Whitehead and IsIandmagee.
My Bradshaw's says, ''The cIiffs and caves of the isIand
are frequentIy basaItic, especiaIIy at the Gobbins.''
Since I've arrived in IreIand,
I've found that most raiIways were buiIt for passengers rather than freight.
On this Iine, the raiIways actuaIIy buiIt an attraction
to bring the tourists aIong the Iine.
I think this is going to be a beautifuI spot,
the way the Iine ran aIong the coast there was just gorgeous, breathtaking.
The VIctorIans and EdwardIans loved nothIng more
than a bracIng walk along a seafront,
and WhItehead became a popular seasIde destInatIon.
VIsItors were partIcularly drawn by the GobbIns,
a serIes of awe-InspIrIng clIffs towerIng hIgh above the IrIsh Sea,
on whIch a pathway had been constructed.
It was desIgned by raIl entrepreneur Berkeley Deane WIse
for the BeIfast and Northern CountIes RaIlway,
wIth the express aIm of attractIng passengers
to use the raIl between BeIfast and WhItehead.
CouncIl executIve GeraldIne McGahey Is my guIde
to thIs IntrIguIng VIctorIan sales promotIon.
BerkeIey Deane Wise was the engineer and architect
who worked for BeIfast and Northern Counties RaiIway.
He was the visionary behind aII of the tourism aspects
that the raiIway company got invoIved in.
He heIped construct Whitehead. He buiIt Whitehead RaiIway Station,
Larne RaiIway Station and many, many others.
So aIthough we're deaIing ith cIiffs and other naturaI phenomena,
the path itseIf had to be constructed in some way.
The path itseIf was constructed by hand
and you'II see that he has used oId raiIway sIeepers encased in concrete.
He was one of the pioneers of reinforced concrete
and he did this to encourage peopIe to use the raiIway Iine
as far as Whitehead.
And this was about tourism,
to give something for peopIe to do at the end of the raiIway Iine.
WIse constructed paths, suspensIon brIdges and tunnels,
all hewn Into the rocks,
Intended to gIve pleasure-seekIng VIctorIans the thrIll of theIr lIves.
The Victorians Iiked their fresh air, they Iiked to be out in nature.
This gave them that kind of exposure.
You're taIking about being 30 to 70 feet above the sea, crashing beIow you,
the fresh air that comes ith that. It makes a big change from city Iife.
Unfortunately, after the Second World War, the pathway fell Into dIsrepaIr
and was eventually closed to the publIc.
But some parts of thIs great pIece of VIctorIan IngenuIty stIll remaIn.
MichaeI, back when this path first opened,
a IittIe boy used to sit on the steps and coIIect the entrance money.
- Sixpence, way back in the 1900s. - An expensive treat.
If you came on the raiIway, you got it free.
So, now as we come round,
you can see the spectacuIar pathway unfoIding in front of you.
- I can. - You can see where the remnants
of the oId raiIings, the handraiIs that came up there, they were cast iron.
And then the stonework that was buiIt up to produce the actuaI path itseIf.
A reaI engineering feat.
In Its heyday, thIs attractIon was more popular
than Ireland's famous GIant's Causeway.
Are there any pIans to restore it to its former gIory?
AbsoIuteIy. We have now secured £6 miIIion of funding
from a variety of sources, and by the end of 2013,
we'II have this path back to exactIy the way it was
when BerkeIey Deane Wise first opened it.
(MIchael) Back to the bridges and tunneIs?
(GeraldIne) Everything is going to be put back.
Not cast-iron, stainIess steeI this time,
a bit more durabIe, but peopIe iII stiII get the same experience.
When Berkeley Deane WIse's
heart-stoppIng suspensIon brIdges and tunnels are restored,
I shall defInItely return.
I'd lIke to experIence a VIctorIan thrIll
of tIptoeIng hIgh above the IrIsh Sea.
The Victorians had an eye for beauty.
They found it in the four corners of the Earth
and sent back specimens to the BotanicaI Gardens in BeIfast.
And they perceived beauty too in craftsmanship,
whether it was Iaying tracks or hammering out a humbIe spade
or buiIding the mightiest ships that the worId had ever seen.
On the next part of my raIl adventure,
I'll be marvellIng at a gIant's handIwork...
It is the most amazing, awe-inspiring sight.
..hearIng how women,
famous for theIr dexterIty wIth the needle, buIlt a cIty...
If there wasn't a shirt factory, this wouId be a desert.
..and dIscoverIng how emIgratIon profoundly shaped famIlIes and natIons.
When you went to America in the '50s, it was kind of goodbye for ever, you know?.