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In 1840, one man transformed
travel in the British Isles.

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His name was George Bradshaw

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and his railway guides inspired the
Victorians to take to the tracks.

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Stop by stop, he told them
where to travel,

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what to see and where to stay.

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Now, 170 years later,
I'm making a series of journeys

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across the length and breadth
of these isles

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to see what of
Bradshaw's Britain remains.

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I've embarked on a new journey
following in the tracks of Victorian
entrepreneurs and travellers

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along railways that were
the arteries to industrial England's
Black Country heartland.

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And from there on to the verdant
beauties of Wales.

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On today's stretch, I'll meet
the remarkable craftsmen

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behind the Victorian
furniture trade...

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My dear bodger, I believe
that I have made a bodge!

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..discover how George Bradshaw
helped to save Britain's canal
heritage.

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He inspired railway
travellers in the 19th century

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and canal travellers in the 20th.

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And see Shakespeare through
the eyes of a 19th century railway
tourist.

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"Our revels now are ended

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"These our actors..."

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Bravo!

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Starting in the rolling Chiltern
Hills, my guidebook will lead me

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through Oxfordshire and Warwickshire

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towards the industrial centres
of the Midlands.

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Turning west, I'll experience
the stunning Severn Valley railway

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en route to mid Wales,

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and the Victorian seaside
resort of Aberystwyth.

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Starting in High Wycombe,
this leg takes me north-west

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to one of the Victorians'
favourite spa towns,

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before heading for the heart
of Shakespeare country.

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My first stop will be High Wycombe,
seated deep in the Chiltern Hills.

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Bradshaw says, "Wycombe is a borough
in Buckinghamshire on the Wyck,

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"in vicinity many corn and paper
mills."

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But the arrival of the trains here
in 1854 helped to furnish the town
with a new industry.

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Trains puffed into High Wycombe
courtesy of the Wycombe Railway,

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which linked the town to Brunel's
famous Great Western.

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Today, it's a popular commuter town.

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Indeed, even in the 19th century,

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the area attracted those
who wanted to live at a distance
from the "big smoke."

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I've always wanted to come to
High Wycombe Station. Seriously!

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Near here was the country home
of one of my great heroes,

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the Conservative Prime Minister
Benjamin Disraeli,

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who had a very good relationship
with Queen Victoria, mainly because
he was a great flatterer.

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By own admission, he laid it on
with a trowel.

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Queen Victoria did him
the extraordinary honour of visiting
her Prime Minister at his home.

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Imagine how gratified
he would have been

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when he received Queen Victoria
at this very railway station.

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When she arrived here in 1877,

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the Queen was collected by carriage
and driven past an eye-catching
display -

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a giant arch, constructed
from wooden chairs.

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It was built in honour
of an industry which thrived here
in the 19th century

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thanks to a very special
kind of craftsman.

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I'm going down to the woods today
to get a big surprise.

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The exceptional tale
of the Chiltern chair bodgers.

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Hello.

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Hello. Bit of a stranger
in these woods!

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Ha! I'm sorry to interrupt your
work. I see you are Stuart King
of the Bodgers.

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Indeed. Yes. What is a bodger?

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A bodger historically
was a wood turner

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who turned chair legs for
the High Wycombe chair industry,

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mostly working in the woods
amongst his raw material,

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usually the beech trees.

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Why would you come to the woods
to do this work?

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It's much easier to take my simple
equipment like this,
the raw material,

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than to take very heavy beech logs
perhaps many miles to a workshop.

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Bodgers have worked here
since at least the 18th century,

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but their heyday
came in the railway age.

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Train transport transformed
the High Wycombe chair industry.

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It opened up new markets,
and sped up getting to those markets.

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Before the railway, everything
was taken to London, the Midlands,

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or the south coast by horse and cart.

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With the coming of the railways,
they were there within hours
instead of days.

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In the late 19th century, there
were 340 men at work in this area.

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But by the 1960s, the advent of
electric-powered lathes

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had seen off the last
of the bodgers.

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Thankfully, craft historian Stuart
King is keeping the skill alive,

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which means mastering the bodger's
key machine tool.

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This is chair bodger's pole lathe.

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There's the pole.

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So, I'm going to put a hollow here.

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That's magnificent!

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Do you think you
could put one there? No!

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THEY LAUGH

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You put the tool on the rest first.
Yeah.

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Have you any idea, when the
industry was at its height,

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how many chair legs were being
turned out?

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Oh, enormous numbers.

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If we take a pair of chair bodgers,
they would produce maybe

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three gross a week,
a gross being 144 chair legs.

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Fantastic output.

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My dear bodger,
I believe I have made a bodge!

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In fact, you've done pretty well.

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I have to give you eight out of ten.

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The bodger's finished legs
and stretchers

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were destined to be incorporated
into High Wycombe's famous
Windsor chairs.

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Apparently, the name dates back
to before the arrival of the
railway,

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when the chairs were taken overland
to Windsor then by river to London.

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But by Bradshaw's day,

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over 4,700 chairs a day were being
carried out of High Wycombe by rail.

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Stuart Linford is amongst the last
of the town's chair makers.

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Stuart! Hello, sir!

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Welcome to Kitchener Works.

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Thank you very much. Lovely to be
here. Is this a Victorian
factory in origin?

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Absolutely right. This was
built in the 1890s and it is the last
working chair making workshop left

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in High Wycombe, sadly,
out of over 100.

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High Wycombe's thriving factories
helped meet the demand

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from Britain's rapidly
expanding middle classes.

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They flaunted their newfound
status by buying elegant furniture,

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and the Windsor chair
was a firm favourite.

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And this is the famous Windsor
chair? Absolutely.

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What are its chief characteristics?

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Right, it's got a solid wooden seat

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into which the back
and legs are socketed.

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So the axis of construction
is the seat.

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These days, the legs and stretchers
are turned by machine,
not by bodgers.

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But the method for assembling
the Windsor chair remains unchanged
since Victorian times.

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This, Michael, is the Windsor
framing shop,

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where we actually make the chairs.

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Stuart's going to demonstrate
just how quickly a framer could make
a chair in Bradshaw's day.

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This process is called legging up,

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That's a legged-up base.

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Now we've got to put the sticks in.

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Amazing! This construction kit
goes together in moments!

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If I just grab... That's it! Hand me
that lovely steam-bent component.

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That fits in there like that.

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There's a finished Windsor chair.

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Please have a seat.

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Bravo! That's fantastic!

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Sadly, there's no time for me
to sit around.

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I'm now continuing my journey
along the Chiltern Mainline,
heading north-west.

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I've crossed the border from
Buckinghamshire into Oxfordshire,

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where I'm seeking out the roots
of Britain's Victorian prosperity.

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Next stop for me is Banbury.

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Bradshaw's tells me that
the navigable canal from Coventry
to Oxford

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passes by and is conveyed
through a hill by a tunnel

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three-quarters of a mile in length.

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George Bradshaw began his career
by mapping canals,

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and he may have been upset that
his beloved railways eventually
put them out of business.

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In the late 18th century,

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Britain's canals helped to launch
the Industrial Revolution,

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transporting coal and other
materials faster than ever before.

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Banbury soon found itself
on an important route

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from the Midlands to London.

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I've come to Tooley's Historic
Boatyard to hear the story

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from director Matthew Armitage.

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Matthew.

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Oh, Michael. Hello.
Good to see you. And you.

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A boatyard more than 220 years old,
that must be some kind of record?

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It's something pretty special,
isn't it?

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The boatyard was built in 1788,
around the same time as the Oxford
Canal,

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one of the major arteries
of the fledgling canal system.

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It provided the final link
in an ambitious "grand cross"
of waterways

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connecting up the rivers
Mersey, Trent, Severn and Thames.

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The canal became very busy
and was actually the M40 of its time,

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transporting goods to London,

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pretty much connecting Coventry
down to the River Thames at Oxford.

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When this canal was thriving,
what would the scene here in Banbury
have been?

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Boats coming from all directions,
horses, you'd have had a blacksmith
in the forge.

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There would have been hammer
ringing where they were making horse
shoes and parts for boats.

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Soon, the Oxford Canal encountered
competition, when the Grand Junction
canal opened a more direct route

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from the Midlands to central London,
bypassing the Thames.

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But, before long, an even
bigger rival emerged.

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The canals must have faced intense
competition from the railways?

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Exactly, that's right.

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They actually used the canals to
transport all the goods and equipment
needed to build the railways.

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Once the railways were built,
they filled them in afterwards,
stopping any competition,

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but that wasn't the case
for the Oxford Canal. It kept going,
which is pretty amazing.

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There's something special
about the Oxford Canal.

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The boats plying the Oxford route

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could stop off here in Banbury
for repairs,

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and this boatyard continued
to thrive

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through the 19th century
and right up to today.

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So we're at the bottom of the dry
dock now. You can see it's
pretty dry.

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We've got a boat. We're blacking it.

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We're busy. So I think we could do
with a hand, really.

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These days, it's pleasure boats
that come here to be serviced.

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After a period of decline
in the early 20th century,

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Britain's canals had
a revival as a place of leisure.

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And that story began with a man
called Tom Rolt,

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who, in 1939, bought himself
a dilapidated narrow boat.

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He brought his boat to the dry dock.

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To this very dry dock? To this very
dry dock, and it was repaired
by the Tooleys.

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He set up his boat and went on
a journey around the waterways,

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and during this time, he wrote a book
"Narrow Boat", which became very,
very famous.

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It was pretty much a catalyst
for setting up the Inland Waterways
Association

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which campaigned for the canals,
bringing them up to what
they are today.

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So, Rolt's book set people
travelling on the canals

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in the same way as my Bradshaw's has
set me travelling on the railways?

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Yes, very much so. In fact, I've got
a copy here, and there's something

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here which I think you might find
rather interesting.

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Have a look at just that point there.

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"A large-scale map of the canal
system hung on the wall of my
bedroom,

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"and I would lie abed,
planning imaginary journeys.

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"I had also acquired a second-hand
copy of a book

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"which is indispensable
to the canal traveller.

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"Bradshaw's Guide to the Canals and
Navigable Rivers of England
and Wales."

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Good old George Bradshaw!
He inspired railway travellers
in the 19th century

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00:12:59,160 --> 00:13:01,200
and canal travellers in the 20th.

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It's heartening to think that
Bradshaw helped preserve the canals

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for us all to enjoy.

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00:13:09,360 --> 00:13:11,960
Having brushed up my skills
in the boatyard,

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I'm now in search of refreshment
worthy of a Victorian bargeman.

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Bradshaw's informs me that Banbury
is famous for cakes, cheese and ale.

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"The cakes being sold in
the metropolis."

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After the day of physical exertion
that I've had, I hope they're still
for sale in Banbury.

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I've never heard of Banbury cakes,
but in Victorian times,

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the trains carried this local
delicacy all over the country.

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Back in Bradshaw's day,

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Philip Brown's ancestors owned
a thriving bakery on this street.

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We've stopped outside the pub.

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Cakes and ale seem to go together
in Banbury.

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00:13:49,200 --> 00:13:52,000
Yes, they certainly appear that way.

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00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:55,840
There were 81 alehouses in Banbury
and seven bakeries.

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00:13:55,840 --> 00:13:58,000
Four in this street, as it happens,

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one of which ours, on the opposite
side road to The Reindeer.

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And what happened to it?

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I'm afraid we sold it 1967 because it
needed a lot of modernisation

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and we hadn't got the money to do it.

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It was knocked down by the developers
in 1968.

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Shame. But do you remember it
the way it used to be?

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00:14:17,520 --> 00:14:18,840
Oh, very much so. Yes.

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The front part of it was quite
a delight and people took a great
interest in it.

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Although the bakery's long gone,

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Philip still makes and sells
the cakes.

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The exact recipe, thought to have
been brought back from the Crusades
in medieval times,

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is a closely-guarded secret.

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00:14:35,480 --> 00:14:38,520
But he's brought a sample
to my hotel for me to try.

228
00:14:39,960 --> 00:14:42,360
Time to find out
what all the fuss is about.

229
00:14:46,200 --> 00:14:48,240
Oh, yes!

230
00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:51,080
Buttery, spicy, fruity.

231
00:14:51,080 --> 00:14:52,520
Full of eastern promise.

232
00:14:52,520 --> 00:14:54,760
That's what they're like.

233
00:14:54,760 --> 00:14:59,840
A delicious end to a long
day of Victorian railway travel.

234
00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:10,800
An excellent night's sleep
thanks to the Banbury cakes.

235
00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:12,640
Or was it the Banbury ale?

236
00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:17,840
I'm now continuing my journey
through central England,

237
00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:21,400
and my next destination
was clearly a Victorian favourite.

238
00:15:31,480 --> 00:15:33,640
My first stop is Leamington Spa,

239
00:15:33,640 --> 00:15:38,040
which my Bradshaw's says is now,
"though still small and picturesque,

240
00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:41,760
"become a large, handsome town,
better paved,

241
00:15:41,760 --> 00:15:46,080
"lighted and regulated than any
other town of its size."

242
00:15:46,080 --> 00:15:51,040
"Few places possess
so many attractions as
this highly-favoured town."

243
00:15:51,040 --> 00:15:53,040
There must be something
in the water!

244
00:15:57,920 --> 00:16:01,560
Leamington Spa owed its fame
to its mineral water springs,

245
00:16:01,560 --> 00:16:03,720
which, from the late 1700s,

246
00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:07,280
were recommended as a cure
for all sorts of ills.

247
00:16:07,280 --> 00:16:09,560
Morning. Thank you. Thank you.

248
00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:14,160
By the 1850s, the railways were
bringing wealthy Victorians here

249
00:16:14,160 --> 00:16:15,360
in their droves.

250
00:16:21,440 --> 00:16:27,000
The curative properties
of the waters of Leamington Spa are,
according to my Bradshaw's,

251
00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:33,960
"resorted to by vast numbers of
invalids and a constant succession
of fashionable visitors."

252
00:16:33,960 --> 00:16:35,920
But I was struck by this reference.

253
00:16:35,920 --> 00:16:41,200
"Amongst Leamington's numerous
attractions are a splendid tennis
court and racquet ground

254
00:16:41,200 --> 00:16:44,240
"attached to an elegant pile
of buildings."

255
00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:46,840
I think a visit there
would serve me well.

256
00:16:53,800 --> 00:16:57,840
The Leamington Spa Tennis Court Club
was founded in 1846

257
00:16:57,840 --> 00:17:00,880
when lawn tennis as we know it
had yet to be invented.

258
00:17:02,920 --> 00:17:04,040
Mark. Good morning.

259
00:17:04,040 --> 00:17:08,080
Morning! Welcome to Leamington
Tennis Court Club. Thank you.
Come through.

260
00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:11,240
Very spacious, and very Victorian.

261
00:17:11,240 --> 00:17:13,880
The Victorian gentlemen of leisure
who came here

262
00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:16,720
played the ancient indoor game
of "real tennis".

263
00:17:16,720 --> 00:17:20,200
Marc Seigneur is one of a select
few who play it today.

264
00:17:20,200 --> 00:17:23,640
A real tennis court is just
immensely different

265
00:17:23,640 --> 00:17:26,000
from a lawn tennis court, isn't it?

266
00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:29,240
What are all these lines about
and the sloping roofs?

267
00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:33,600
The lines are what we call the
chases, and that's the complicated
bit of the game.

268
00:17:33,600 --> 00:17:35,880
The sloping roofs
are called penthouses,

269
00:17:35,880 --> 00:17:40,320
and they would have dated back
from the cloisters
because the monks played.

270
00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:45,040
So this is very historic game,
but I've seen a real tennis court
at Hampton Court.

271
00:17:45,040 --> 00:17:50,040
Yes. Henry VIII would have played,
Henry V before him.

272
00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:52,840
It dates back
from the 12th, 13th century.

273
00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:55,680
Henry V, in fact, went to war
because of it.

274
00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:57,600
Went to war because of tennis?

275
00:17:57,600 --> 00:18:04,120
Well, the French dauphin sent him
a box of balls when Henry V
claimed the throne of France

276
00:18:04,120 --> 00:18:09,960
and the message going with it
was, play tennis with the boys,

277
00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:12,360
leave war to the men.

278
00:18:12,360 --> 00:18:15,000
Mm! An insult.

279
00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:16,200
For the Victorians,

280
00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:19,720
this rich history served to make
real tennis irresistible,

281
00:18:19,720 --> 00:18:22,120
sparking a revival of the game.

282
00:18:22,120 --> 00:18:25,160
When lawn tennis burst
upon the scene in the 1870s,

283
00:18:25,160 --> 00:18:26,920
some of this club's members

284
00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:28,840
helped to draw up the rules.

285
00:18:28,840 --> 00:18:32,280
But the older sport wasn't
forgotten.

286
00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:33,720
So that's our equipment.

287
00:18:35,360 --> 00:18:38,520
Ooh! These feel quite different
from tennis balls.

288
00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:40,240
Yes, this is what we call a pilota.

289
00:18:41,840 --> 00:18:43,240
Hardly bounces at all.

290
00:18:43,240 --> 00:18:44,680
And...

291
00:18:44,680 --> 00:18:46,480
these are quite heavy.

292
00:18:46,480 --> 00:18:48,960
Yes, there are different weights
and different balances,

293
00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:53,200
but they're all made out of wood,
with very taut strings,

294
00:18:53,200 --> 00:18:58,000
much tauter than the lawn tennis
version, and a very small sweet spot,

295
00:18:58,000 --> 00:19:00,920
so it's actually quite difficult
to strike the ball.

296
00:19:00,920 --> 00:19:02,960
I see!

297
00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:04,200
Right.

298
00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:07,440
Nonetheless, would you like to
show me how the game is played?

299
00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:08,880
Love to.

300
00:19:08,880 --> 00:19:12,760
Modern tennis owes some
terminology to the medieval game,

301
00:19:12,760 --> 00:19:17,160
such as "service", which comes from
when servants used to throw
the ball into play.

302
00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:19,000
Swing slowly.

303
00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:20,760
Swing slowly!

304
00:19:20,760 --> 00:19:24,320
The basics might be straightforward,
but the game gets trickier

305
00:19:24,320 --> 00:19:28,360
when your opponent starts to
bounce balls off the wall.

306
00:19:28,360 --> 00:19:32,640
I'm going to serve onto this sloping
roof, which we call "the penthouse",

307
00:19:32,640 --> 00:19:35,600
and you'll have to try
and hit it.

308
00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:36,680
OK.

309
00:19:42,760 --> 00:19:45,520
Good!
You're too good at this.

310
00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:51,720
Well done!

311
00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:56,160
Thank you, Mark.
It's a pleasure.

312
00:19:56,160 --> 00:20:00,080
I feel you've not only introduced me
to a sport but to history.

313
00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:03,360
The sport of kings. I mean,
real tennis, royal tennis.

314
00:20:03,360 --> 00:20:06,760
Yes, you're welcome
and membership is still open.

315
00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:07,880
Thank you very much.

316
00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:12,080
I'd love to linger
to develop my backhand,

317
00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:14,880
but it's time for me
to take my last train for today.

318
00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:20,720
I'm making a short hop south-west,
on the trail of a national icon.

319
00:20:22,600 --> 00:20:26,640
My Bradshaw's provides a clue
as to my next destination.

320
00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:30,720
"Where his first infant lays
sweet Shakespeare sung.

321
00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:33,920
"Where the last accents faltered on
his tongue

322
00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:37,840
"and to which the genius
of one man has given immortality."

323
00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:41,480
In other words,
Stratford-Upon-Avon,

324
00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:44,760
which, by any other name,
would be as sweet.

325
00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:48,200
The entry for Stratford
in my Victorian guidebook dedicates

326
00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:52,560
nearly two whole pages to the Bard,
and judging by this busy train,

327
00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:55,760
he's just as popular with modern
railway tourists.

328
00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:58,960
Are you headed for Stratford?
Yes, I am.

329
00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:02,520
Would I be right in detecting
you're not from UK? I'm not.

330
00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:05,400
Where are you from? I'm from
the United States of America.

331
00:21:05,400 --> 00:21:07,720
Where are you from?
I am from Peru.

332
00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:11,600
Shakespeare is quite well known
in Peru? Yes. Can you do any
quotations?

333
00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:15,600
Um... "Ser o no ser?"

334
00:21:15,600 --> 00:21:17,240
"To be or not to be?"

335
00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:18,440
Yes.

336
00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:20,520
"To be..." "To be..."

337
00:21:20,520 --> 00:21:22,320
Do you know how that
finishes?

338
00:21:22,320 --> 00:21:25,320
Um, "To be or not to be."

339
00:21:25,320 --> 00:21:27,000
There we are!

340
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:31,040
Romeo! Romeo! Where art thou, Romeo?

341
00:21:31,040 --> 00:21:32,280
Any more?

342
00:21:32,280 --> 00:21:34,040
Um...

343
00:21:34,040 --> 00:21:35,720
No!

344
00:21:37,360 --> 00:21:40,360
It seems these days Stratford
attracts Shakespeare pilgrims

345
00:21:40,360 --> 00:21:42,640
from across the world.

346
00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:44,840
There's no option
but to join the throng.

347
00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:49,760
The crowds getting off this
train are absolutely amazing

348
00:21:49,760 --> 00:21:51,800
and it's like the Tower of Babel -
there are

349
00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:54,040
so many languages being
spoken on this train

350
00:21:54,040 --> 00:21:57,440
and they're all here for a man
who died 400 years ago.

351
00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:02,320
Shakespeare's
emergence as a global icon was

352
00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:04,760
well on the way in Bradshaw's day.

353
00:22:04,760 --> 00:22:07,800
The Victorian's passion
for the immortal poet shines

354
00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:09,280
through in my guidebook.

355
00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:11,520
It describes how in Stratford,

356
00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:15,440
"we tread the very ground that he
has toured a thousand times

357
00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:20,800
and feel as he has felt." And to do
just that, it sends readers

358
00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:24,920
to the old-fashioned, timbered house
where Shakespeare was born.

359
00:22:24,920 --> 00:22:28,640
Here, Victorian admirers
went to extreme lengths to preserve

360
00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:31,440
Stratford's Shakespearean heritage.

361
00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:33,720
I'm hearing this story
from Dr Anjna Chauhan.

362
00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:36,840
My Bradshaw's tells me

363
00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:39,880
that Shakespeare's birthplace,
after some changes and "the risk

364
00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:43,760
even of being transferred as it
stood to America by a calculating

365
00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:48,520
speculator, was at last purchased by
the Shakespeare Club and adopted by

366
00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:52,280
the government". So, apparently, the
house was saved in Victorian times.

367
00:22:52,280 --> 00:22:53,360
Yes, that's true.

368
00:22:53,360 --> 00:22:56,280
It was going to be purchased
by an American businessman

369
00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:58,800
and showman, PT Barnum.

370
00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:02,040
Now obviously people in England got
very angry about this

371
00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:04,520
and they decided to form
the Shakespeare Committee,

372
00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:06,880
a birthday committee,
and purchase the birthplace.

373
00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:09,760
As industrialisation swept Britain,

374
00:23:09,760 --> 00:23:13,440
nostalgia for the past grew
and, with it, a desire to preserve

375
00:23:13,440 --> 00:23:15,080
historic sites like this,

376
00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:19,960
but Shakespeare had an extra-special
resonance for the Victorians.

377
00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:23,640
Shakespeare was somebody people
could look up to as a man.

378
00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:28,320
He transformed from somebody who was
just the son of a glove-maker

379
00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:29,880
in a market town

380
00:23:29,880 --> 00:23:32,080
and he became a prolific playwrighter

381
00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:34,480
and a great businessman in his own
right

382
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:37,800
and this was incredibly
admirable in the period

383
00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:42,960
of industrialisation, of capitalism
as well, of self-improvement.

384
00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:46,760
As well as applauding Shakespeare's
example of diligence, 19th-century

385
00:23:46,760 --> 00:23:50,640
audiences interpreted the place
in a particularly Victorian way.

386
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:54,600
They were great pieces of literature
but they were also considered

387
00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:57,520
great moral tales,
cautionary tales as well... Mmm.

388
00:23:57,520 --> 00:24:00,560
..stories about justice, about
mercy, about what's right

389
00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:02,960
and what's wrong,
what's good, what's bad.

390
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:08,440
From 1860, high-minded Victorian
visitors could arrive here by rail.

391
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:11,920
Down in the birthplace archive,
documents show that trains

392
00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:15,160
brought Stratford within
reach of day-trippers.

393
00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:21,880
We have a record of the rail journeys
to and from Stratford-upon-Avon

394
00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:25,720
and the rail fares during the
tercentenary of Shakespeare's birth,

395
00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:32,240
so 1864, to celebrate 300 years after
the birth of William Shakespeare.

396
00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:35,200
The highlight of the archive is
this edition of Shakespeare's

397
00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:40,560
complete works, published in 1623,
brought here in the 19th century.

398
00:24:40,560 --> 00:24:44,400
Now, without this,
this particular text,

399
00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:48,920
we'd be missing 18 of Shakespeare's
plays, so it's very, very important.

400
00:24:48,920 --> 00:24:53,160
We'd be missing plays such as The
Tempest, Macbeth and Twelfth Night.

401
00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:57,800
I've never felt closer to the Bard
than at this moment.

402
00:24:57,800 --> 00:24:59,440
That's wonderful to hear.

403
00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:02,920
At first, railway tourists came to
Stratford to see Shakespeare's

404
00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:03,920
birthplace and grave,

405
00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:08,880
but from 1879 they could also attend
performances of his plays here.

406
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:13,280
That was when the curtain
rose in Stratford's first successful

407
00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:17,120
theatre dedicated to the Bard, and
its modern-day descendant

408
00:25:17,120 --> 00:25:20,160
is the recently-renovated
Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

409
00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:26,040
Before I leave town, I'm taking
a tour with actor Jonathan Slinger.

410
00:25:27,480 --> 00:25:31,360
We walk through here. I make an
entrance down this lift

411
00:25:31,360 --> 00:25:38,600
in Twelfth Night. This is a fantastic
space now, isn't it? It's stunning.

412
00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:40,280
Now, in Victorian times,

413
00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:43,160
I imagine nearly all theatres
would have been...

414
00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:47,160
The stage would have
been behind an arch, proscenium,

415
00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:49,040
and now thrust
out into the audience.

416
00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:52,880
Exactly right. I much prefer this,

417
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:59,160
because I very strongly believe that
Shakespeare wrote his plays

418
00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:02,400
with audience participation in mind.

419
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:06,080
A lot of the text that you can read
sometimes lends itself to

420
00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:09,720
the kind of audience
participation that we don't get any

421
00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:13,280
more, except at panto,
but in Shakespeare's day, there would

422
00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:16,320
have been a lot more heckling
going on of the actors on stage.

423
00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:19,920
'It's not just the staging that's
changed since Bradshaw's day,

424
00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:22,120
'acting techniques have moved
on too.'

425
00:26:22,120 --> 00:26:26,720
There was much more of an emphasis
on stance and gesture,

426
00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:28,200
so that would have been...

427
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:33,280
So if we take a line, if we take
a bit from, The Tempest, let's say.

428
00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:38,720
Our revels now are ended

429
00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:43,880
These our actors, as I foretold you

430
00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:50,960
Were all spirits and are melted
into air, into thin air.

431
00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:51,800
Bravo!

432
00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:54,240
And how are you delivering it today?

433
00:26:54,240 --> 00:27:00,520
Well, today would be a much
more naturalistic affair, so...

434
00:27:00,520 --> 00:27:01,840
Our revels now are ended

435
00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:07,000
These our actors, as I foretold you

436
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:13,160
Were all spirits and are
melted into air, into thin air.

437
00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:17,400
Very moving indeed, so I've been
privileged to hear one version

438
00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:20,200
and George Bradshaw would
have heard another.

439
00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:24,720
On today's journey,
my guidebook has shown me

440
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:28,480
how our 19th-century forebears
helped to shape many

441
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:32,600
things, from furniture
to our appreciation of theatre.

442
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:38,360
Ever since I sat in that Windsor
chair in High Wycombe,

443
00:27:38,360 --> 00:27:41,040
Queen Victoria has never been far
from my mind.

444
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:42,160
During her reign,

445
00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:47,040
there was a revival of interest in
both real tennis and in Shakespeare.

446
00:27:47,040 --> 00:27:49,960
Having been bashed about the tennis
court, I've now trodden

447
00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:54,800
the boards in Stratford-upon-Avon,
so all's well that ends well.

448
00:27:58,480 --> 00:27:59,760
On the next stretch,

449
00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:03,800
I'll learn how railways helped
pen-making to boom in Birmingham...

450
00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:07,240
It was a trade that brought writing
to the masses really.

451
00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:09,000
..hear the chilling tale

452
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:13,160
of one of 19th-century Britain's
most notorious murderers...

453
00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:15,600
30,000 turned up for his execution.

454
00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:19,080
They had special trains
laid on from Bristol, from Manchester

455
00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:20,320
and from London.

456
00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:24,400
..and sample the delicacies
concocted in a Victorian kitchen.

457
00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:27,920
Look at that, wow! That's got a real
wobble factor on it, hasn't it?

458
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:45,320
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd