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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, what to see

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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'm continuing my journey
through England's industrial
heartland towards rural Wales.

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Even before the Victorian period,

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the Midlands had experienced
an intellectual enlightenment

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that put it at the core
of Britain's Industrial Revolution.

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And by the time my guidebook
was published,

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their ideas had turned Britain into
the world's most advanced economy.

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On this stretch, I'll learn
how the railways helped

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to make Birmingham the
pen-making capital of the world...

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It was a trade that brought
writing to the masses, really.

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..hear the chilling tale
of one of 19th-century Britain's
most notorious murderers...

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30,000 turned up for his execution.

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They had special trains laid on
from Bristol, from Manchester

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and from London.

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..and sample the delicacies
concocted in a Victorian kitchen.

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Look at that! Wow! Did you
make that? I certainly did.

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That's got a real wobble factor
on it, hasn't it?

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This journey began in
the Chilterns and is now taking me

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towards the heart
of the industrial Midlands.

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I'll then join the picturesque
Severn Valley,

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before crossing into Wales, en route
to my final stop at Aberystwyth.

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Today, I'll begin in Birmingham,
then explore the Staffordshire towns

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of Tamworth and Rugeley, finishing
in the county town of Stafford.

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I'm on my way to Birmingham,

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which Bradshaw's tells me
is "the great centre of the
manufactured metal trades,

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"being situated in North
Warwickshire on the borders

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"of the South Staffordshire
iron and coal district."

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During Victorian times,

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Birmingham was known as
the workshop of the world

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and "the city of a thousand trades,"
a place where the currencies

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were skill and invention.

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ANNOUNCEMENT: We are now
approaching Birmingham Moor Street.

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To trace the vestiges of
that hive of industry,

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I'm alighting at Birmingham Moor
Street, the spectacular gateway

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from the Chiltern railway
to Britain's second-largest
conurbation.

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Thank you. 'It's an uplifting way
to enter this dynamic city.'

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Birmingham Moor Street
station, what a joy.

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First opened in 1909,
in Edwardian Britain.

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Rebuilt in the 21st century,
in 1930s style.

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It has the feel of a film set
for a period costume drama.

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And I love it.

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From the start of Britain's
Industrial Revolution,

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Birmingham led the way,

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enthusiastically adopting
the new technologies that
would change the world.

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According to my guidebook,

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"scarcely a street is without
its manufactory and steam engine.

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"At the same time, a considerable
amount of the labour

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"is of a manual kind."

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By the middle of the 19th century,

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Birmingham had a population
of 500,000.

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And in the previous 100 years,
its inhabitants had applied

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for three times as many patents
as those of any other city.

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My Bradshaw's recommends that
amongst the principal establishments

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worth visiting in Birmingham

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I should go to one for
the manufacture of steel pens,

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here in the jewellery district.

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In Bradshaw's day,
Birmingham was a global centre

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for the making of pen nibs and my
guidebook singles out one producer,

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saying, "We should think that
the reputation of Messrs Gillott
and Son of Graham Street

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"has reached all parts
of the world."

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Whilst the Graham Street factory
is no longer in operation,

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just opposite the site
is a pen museum,

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where I am meeting
expert Larry Hanks.

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Larry. Good morning.

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Good to see you.

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I've got an advertisement in my
Bradshaw's guide for Joseph Gillott.

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It's a fantastic advertisement.

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"Joseph Gillott, metallic
pen maker to the Queen,

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"begs to inform the commercial
world of his useful productions

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"which for excellence of temper,
quality of material

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"and cheapness ensure
universal approbation."

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Very good. Joseph Gillott was
just across the street, wasn't he?

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His factory was built in 1839.
He was a great entrepreneur.

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He made sure that anybody of any
note who visited Birmingham

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in the tour went around his works.

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In Victorian times,
factories like Gillott's were
helping to transform society.

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The first steel nib
was invented in Birmingham

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for a local doctor in 1780,
but in those days,

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pens were a handcrafted luxury,
so even the few who were literate

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couldn't afford to write.

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Then, in the 1820s,
the process was mechanised,

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with far-reaching consequences.

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When the steel pen nib
was put into mass production,

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did it remain an expensive item?

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No, the price came down dramatically.

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I mean to say, you could be paying
2 or 3 shillings each for a steel pen

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when they first came out.

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2 or 3 shillings, that
would've been a lot of money.

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It would have been
in those days, yes.

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So it really made quite a
difference to public literacy,

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the availability of cheap pens.
Oh, yes, it did.

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It was a trade that brought
writing to the masses, really.

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Suddenly schools could afford
to buy pens in bulk

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and the means of writing
were put within everybody's reach.

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The advent of the railways gave
the industry a further boost.

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Trains carried steel from Sheffield
and by the mid-19th century,

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Birmingham's pens were conveyed
by rail for export around the globe.

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What scale did pen-nib manufacture
reach in Birmingham?

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We say that three-quarters of
the people writing in the world

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with a steel pen were writing
with one made in Birmingham.

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Nobody came anywhere near us, really.

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Most of the workers were women,

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expected to produce
tens of thousands of nibs everyday.

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Why women? Cheap labour,
unfortunately.

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Of course, women have
got nimble fingers.

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The other thing was that in the early
days you could be fined for talking

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or even singing, but the bosses then
didn't realise women can multitask.

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They can talk AND work,

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where, unfortunately,
men can only talk OR work.

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So once the bosses realised this,
the workplace became a lot happier

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and the production went on.

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The machinery worked by the women
was simple but effective.

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Each hand press completed
one stage of the process,

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the first being to cut
the outline of the nib.

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The first operation was blanking,
which was done on a strip.

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The women were expected to do
36,000 in a day on this.

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That's in position,
so if you'd like to pull that,
a sharp snatch towards you.

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That's it. Push it back.

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I've just pressed out the shape
of a pen nib, have I? Yeah.

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I wouldn't want to do
36,000 of those in a day.

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There were machines for shaping,
piercing and slitting the nibs.

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But discerning Victorian
customers demanded more than just
functionality from their pens.

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Right, on this last process here,
this started from about the 1850s

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where they started to do
more decorative pen nibs.

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And to decorate them,
they embossed them.

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For VIPs and big companies,

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personalised nibs became
a way of showing off

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and in Bradshaw's day, no business
was bigger than the railways.

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All companies and people
had their names

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and things embossed on pen nibs.

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They were supplying the railway
companies - GWR, NER, LMS.

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It even went on into the
British Rail era as well.

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Sadly, Birmingham's Victorian
domination of the global pen
trade wasn't to last.

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In the 20th century, the invention
of the ballpoint pen

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dealt the industry
a devastating blow.

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'But one local firm continues
the tradition.' Hello, Tim.

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Hi, nice to meet you.
Very good to see you.

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'Tim Tufnell's company
makes traditional pens

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'for the luxury market.'

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And you're doing, I think,
very intricate, high-end work.

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Using modern machinery?
Not at all, no.

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A lot of the tooling we're using
is this sort of thing,

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which goes back to Victorian times,

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exactly how they would have produced
this product in the 1800s.

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Is this what you start with? Yes,
this is a piece of silver tubing,

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so that's what we buy in
from the manufacturer,

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and then, believe it or not,
it ends up looking like that.

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That is exquisite.

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'A far cry from the usual
mass production of today,

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'these solid silver pens are
reminiscent of Birmingham's past.

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'The techniques used
would have been familiar

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'to the Jewellery Quarter's
artisans in the 19th century.'

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How many hammer blows do you think
you deliver to a single piece
to build up the pattern?

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About 2,000. About 2,000?! Yes.

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We're so used to admiring
Victorian craftsmanship

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but it's wonderful to know that
it's alive and thriving here today.

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I'm now leaving industrial
Birmingham behind

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to continue my progress
through the Midlands.

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In the past, I've been very rude

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about Birmingham's New Street
station, which is truly hideous.

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But now they are
completely rebuilding it

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and in the meanwhile, they are
keeping all the trains running,

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which is an engineering
achievement on a Victorian scale.

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From this busy railway hub,

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my next train takes me
just 17 miles north-east,

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crossing from Warwickshire
into Staffordshire.

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I'm on my way to Tamworth,
which my Bradshaw's tells me

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is "a market town with a population
of 8,650 who return two members."

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That means they elected
two MPs to Westminster

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and in Tamworth, unusually for me,
I'm in search of a politician.

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In the mid-1800s,
Tamworth's Member of Parliament

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was the great 19th-century
statesman, Sir Robert Peel.

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Today, he's seen as one
of the founding fathers
of the Conservative Party,

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so I can't resist following
my guidebook to the marketplace

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to meet vice-chairman of
The Peel Society, Nigel Morris.

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Hello, Nigel. Hello, Michael.
Welcome to Tamworth.

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Sir Robert Peel, I presume?
Yes, that's correct.

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My Bradshaw's says
he's looking towards Bury,

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the place of his birth.
That's correct.

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He was born there in 1788.

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Peel entered Parliament in 1809
aged just 21.

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By the 1820s, he'd risen to
the rank of Home Secretary,

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where he made a rather
famous decision.

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Now Londoners have good reason
to remember Sir Robert Peel too,
don't they?

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Absolutely, because he
passed through Parliament

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the Metropolitan Police Act in 1829,

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founding the police force
as we know it today.

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Originally, they were known
as Peelers and they wore top hats

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and bright white trousers,

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but after that, it became, after
his first name, Robert, bobbies.

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Peel was to go on to
be Prime Minister twice,

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where his achievements included
Acts of Parliament

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curbing child labour
in mines and factories.

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He was also a keen supporter
of the railways,

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cutting the first sod
for the Trent Valley line in 1845.

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But for me,
it's another local event

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that is Peel's most important
claim to fame.

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00:13:00,160 --> 00:13:03,160
And it took place here
in the town hall.

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00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:06,440
This is a delightful
and impressive council chamber.

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00:13:06,440 --> 00:13:08,280
And here's his portrait.

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00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:11,720
A copy of the one
by Sir Thomas Lawrence,

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00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:16,680
and it shows him as a relatively
young man still, about the age of 30.

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And you can see his ginger hair.

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00:13:21,200 --> 00:13:24,320
Peel's first stint as Prime Minister
came at a tumultuous time

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00:13:24,320 --> 00:13:26,760
in British history.

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00:13:26,760 --> 00:13:29,840
His political opponents,
the Whigs, had recently instituted

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00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:34,560
constitutional reform,
bitterly contested by the Tories.

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When Peel came to power,
he was determined to start afresh.

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He set out his political vision
in a document read out

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00:13:41,560 --> 00:13:44,920
to the people of Tamworth
from the window of this town hall.

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00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:49,120
And what was in it,
what was significant about it?

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00:13:49,120 --> 00:13:53,960
The main point about it was that
he accepted the Reform Act of 1832.

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Which had extended the franchise
to many more voters?

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Exactly, yes, including
the great industrial cities

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of Manchester and Birmingham.

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'The Tamworth Manifesto,
as it's become known,

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00:14:04,320 --> 00:14:08,000
'is seen as the first example
of the kind of party manifesto

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'that we know today. And it
also set an important precedent.'

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Actually, we've seen
that in politics again and again,

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00:14:15,240 --> 00:14:17,360
that the party that's in opposition

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00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:20,160
has opposed something
that the government does,

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but then it finds that
it becomes the norm,

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that it becomes
something irreversible,

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and the party has to accept it
if it's to have any chance
of being re-elected.

232
00:14:28,280 --> 00:14:30,360
Exactly, we see it
time and time again

233
00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:34,200
and it's very interesting that
it started, really, in this room.

234
00:14:34,200 --> 00:14:39,280
Shall we go to the window and look
down on the great man? Exactly, yes.

235
00:14:45,160 --> 00:14:48,360
I'm now joining the
Victorian-built Trent Valley line

236
00:14:48,360 --> 00:14:50,120
to continue my journey north.

237
00:14:51,560 --> 00:14:56,520
On this stretch,
I'm following in the footsteps
of 19th-century thrill seekers.

238
00:14:57,760 --> 00:15:01,200
I'm on my way to Rugeley,
which my Bradshaw's tells me

239
00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:05,360
"will ever be memorable on account
of its having been the residence

240
00:15:05,360 --> 00:15:09,080
"of the sporting Dr Palmer,
who was accused of poisoning

241
00:15:09,080 --> 00:15:13,800
"his wife, his brother and friend,
John Parsons Cook, by strychnine.

242
00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:16,200
"But at the post-mortem
examinations,

243
00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:20,240
"not a particle of
that poison was discovered."

244
00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:23,760
Very intriguing. And the Victorians
had a taste for the macabre

245
00:15:23,760 --> 00:15:28,760
and the Victorian press was ever
willing to feed their ghoulishness.

246
00:15:33,320 --> 00:15:37,120
'In the 19th century, urbanisation
saw people living side-by-side

247
00:15:37,120 --> 00:15:39,400
'with strangers as never before.

248
00:15:39,400 --> 00:15:42,680
'And this, combined with
increasingly professional policing,

249
00:15:42,680 --> 00:15:45,480
'fuelled a public obsession
with crime.

250
00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:49,400
'Cheap penny dreadfuls enabled
the masses to read the lurid details

251
00:15:49,400 --> 00:15:51,720
'of infamous murders.

252
00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:56,040
'And railway companies even ran
special trains to crime scenes.

253
00:15:56,040 --> 00:15:59,520
'Dave Lewis has been researching
the still-puzzling case

254
00:15:59,520 --> 00:16:03,040
'of Dr William Palmer.'
David. Good morning, Michael.

255
00:16:03,040 --> 00:16:05,160
Welcome to Rugeley.

256
00:16:05,160 --> 00:16:11,000
Thank you very much indeed.
Who was this Dr William Palmer?

257
00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:16,160
Well, he was the most infamous person
ever, I think, to live in Rugeley.

258
00:16:16,160 --> 00:16:19,000
People were shocked because
he was a respectable doctor.

259
00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:22,240
He was early 30s
when he came to trial.

260
00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:25,000
And they were just shocked
that somebody who had taken

261
00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:27,960
the Hippocratic Oath could
be accused of so many murders.

262
00:16:27,960 --> 00:16:32,760
My Bradshaw's tells me that he
poisoned his wife and his brother.

263
00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:35,240
Was he accused of that?
He was accused of that

264
00:16:35,240 --> 00:16:38,920
but he was never ever brought to
trial for the murder of his wife

265
00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:42,360
and his brother. He was only ever
accused and tried of one murder,

266
00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:44,600
that is the murder
of John Parsons Cook.

267
00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:46,640
Shall I show you the grave?
Let's go and have a look.

268
00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:50,480
Cook was a friend of Dr Palmer

269
00:16:50,480 --> 00:16:54,840
and the events leading
to his death began in 1855.

270
00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:58,440
By that time, the sporting doctor
had all but given up medicine

271
00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:00,840
to indulge his passion
for horseracing

272
00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:04,280
and had accumulated
substantial gambling debts.

273
00:17:05,320 --> 00:17:09,160
Well, they'd gone to
the races at Shrewsbury

274
00:17:09,160 --> 00:17:11,600
and John Parsons Cook's horse,
Polestar, had won,

275
00:17:11,600 --> 00:17:13,520
and he won a tidy sum.

276
00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:16,880
Whereas poor old Palmer,
his horse, Chicken, had fallen

277
00:17:16,880 --> 00:17:18,320
and he's lost quite a lot of money

278
00:17:18,320 --> 00:17:21,520
and was more heavily
in debt than ever.

279
00:17:21,520 --> 00:17:24,200
Palmer invited his friend
to Rugeley,

280
00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:28,040
installed him in the local pub
and visited him frequently.

281
00:17:28,040 --> 00:17:32,560
Cook became increasingly unwell
and on the seventh night,

282
00:17:32,560 --> 00:17:36,160
shortly after Dr Palmer
had administered two pills,

283
00:17:36,160 --> 00:17:38,800
his patient took a dramatic turn
for the worse.

284
00:17:40,040 --> 00:17:43,560
Here we have on the left
the famous room number 10

285
00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:45,800
where John Parsons Cook died.

286
00:17:45,800 --> 00:17:50,200
Was it a painful death?
It was a horrendously painful death.

287
00:17:50,200 --> 00:17:53,880
At one stage, he was described
as resting on his heels

288
00:17:53,880 --> 00:17:56,960
and the back of his head,
he was in so much agony.

289
00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:00,040
'At first, Cook's death
was ascribed to natural causes,

290
00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:03,920
'but when Palmer claimed to have
lost his friend's betting book,

291
00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:07,280
'suspicions were aroused.
The accusation was

292
00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:10,920
'that Palmer had dosed Cook
with the rat poison, strychnine.'

293
00:18:10,920 --> 00:18:15,560
But my Bradshaw's says that
in the post-mortem examination

294
00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:18,040
no trace of strychnine was found.

295
00:18:18,040 --> 00:18:21,040
That was because of the incompetency
of the people carrying out

296
00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:23,520
the post-mortem.

297
00:18:23,520 --> 00:18:27,000
The guy, the doctor in charge
arrived from Stafford.

298
00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:31,040
He had no medical equipment. He
didn't even bring a pencil and paper.

299
00:18:31,040 --> 00:18:35,320
The people who cut open the body,
one was a medical student

300
00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:38,560
and one was an assistant
at a local chemist's.

301
00:18:38,560 --> 00:18:42,280
Despite the botched post-mortem,
Palmer was charged

302
00:18:42,280 --> 00:18:47,200
and the case immediately
captured the public imagination.

303
00:18:47,200 --> 00:18:50,120
It was probably THE trial
of the century.

304
00:18:50,120 --> 00:18:52,480
Three months before the trial,

305
00:18:52,480 --> 00:18:56,640
the London Illustrated Times
produced a 15-page supplement,

306
00:18:56,640 --> 00:18:59,880
which talked about
the Rugeley tragedies

307
00:18:59,880 --> 00:19:03,480
and all the suspicious deaths
that occurred

308
00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:06,680
that were linked
to Dr William Palmer.

309
00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:09,800
Amongst the most shocking claims
was the accusation that Palmer

310
00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:12,320
had killed his own wife and brother,

311
00:19:12,320 --> 00:19:16,080
both of whose lives he'd insured
for large sums.

312
00:19:16,080 --> 00:19:18,560
He was never tried for those crimes,

313
00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:22,240
but the Cook case was heard
at the Old Bailey in London.

314
00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:24,880
And, despite confused
and contradictory evidence,

315
00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:27,240
the doctor was convicted
and sentenced to death.

316
00:19:28,520 --> 00:19:32,320
The execution was back in Stafford
in accordance with the sentence,

317
00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:36,240
and at a time when Stafford
had a population of 12,500,

318
00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:39,880
30,000 turned up for his execution.

319
00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:42,640
They had special trains laid on
from Bristol, from Manchester

320
00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:44,360
and from London.

321
00:19:44,360 --> 00:19:47,800
And evidently his fame survived
a long time after his death.

322
00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:49,840
It did indeed.
Being in Staffordshire,

323
00:19:49,840 --> 00:19:51,720
they produced pottery figurines.

324
00:19:51,720 --> 00:19:56,120
They have a figurine
of William Palmer himself.

325
00:19:56,120 --> 00:19:57,560
Good Lord!

326
00:19:57,560 --> 00:20:01,440
And this is a photograph
of his effigy

327
00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:04,280
that stood in
Madame Tussaud's, London,

328
00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:07,720
in the Chamber of Horrors,
for 127 years.

329
00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:11,000
Labelled as a mass murderer.

330
00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:13,640
Even though he was only ever
tried for one murder.

331
00:20:18,360 --> 00:20:20,880
Chilled to the marrow
by grisly tales,

332
00:20:20,880 --> 00:20:23,560
it's time to seek the sunshine.

333
00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:26,720
I'm hunting out
the picturesque charms
of the Staffordshire countryside.

334
00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:33,120
I'm on my way to Stafford
and my guidebook tells me

335
00:20:33,120 --> 00:20:36,560
that the line passes through
"a country of single beauty,

336
00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:41,240
"having almost the appearance
of one continued park."

337
00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:44,280
These were the estates
of the great landed gentry,

338
00:20:44,280 --> 00:20:47,920
of Harrowbys, Shrewsburys
and Dartmouths

339
00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:51,000
and of the Lichfields
at their estate of Shugborough.

340
00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:55,440
Most readers of my guidebook
satisfied themselves

341
00:20:55,440 --> 00:20:57,880
with a glimpse of
Shugborough Park from the train.

342
00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:02,600
But the upper crust of 19th-century
society would arrive to stay.

343
00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:07,840
In 1832, one visitor
was a young princess,

344
00:21:07,840 --> 00:21:10,920
destined to become one
of our greatest monarchs.

345
00:21:10,920 --> 00:21:13,040
I'm now following in her footsteps.

346
00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:22,080
As I walk across the estate,
across the park towards Shugborough,

347
00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:25,280
the house appears
in all its magnificence.

348
00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:27,440
And this, I think, is my guide.

349
00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:30,560
Hello, Chris. Hello, Michael.
Welcome to Shugborough.

350
00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:33,120
'Chris Kopp is a local historian.'

351
00:21:33,120 --> 00:21:34,680
When Princess Victoria came here,

352
00:21:34,680 --> 00:21:37,320
would she have seen the house
much as it is today?

353
00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:41,120
Yes, it's very little changed
from October 1832.

354
00:21:41,120 --> 00:21:43,560
What had drawn her to the house?

355
00:21:43,560 --> 00:21:45,240
Well, she was 13 years old

356
00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:48,280
and she came with the Duchess of Kent
on her first tour, really,

357
00:21:48,280 --> 00:21:52,760
around the country,
the grand stately homes of England.

358
00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:56,160
The future Queen arrived
at Shugborough by horse and carriage

359
00:21:56,160 --> 00:21:57,440
but just 13 years later,

360
00:21:57,440 --> 00:22:00,560
plans were drawn up to build
the Trent Valley Railway through

361
00:22:00,560 --> 00:22:04,720
the heart of the estate.
The Earl of Lichfield was horrified

362
00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:07,760
until he realised that there
could be a silver lining.

363
00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:13,880
He'd come into financial
difficulties in the 1840s.

364
00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:16,920
He basically negotiated
with the railway company

365
00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:22,600
£30,000 in compensation, and that
included £2,000 for the land

366
00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:26,200
the railway took up, and the rest
of the money was to make good

367
00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:27,680
the look of the estate

368
00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:30,840
to avoid damaging the appearance
of Shugborough.

369
00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:33,560
My Bradshaw's tells me that
the railway passes through a tunnel

370
00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:36,800
in Shugborough Park,
779 yards in length.

371
00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:38,440
"The north face of the tunnel

372
00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:41,160
is a very striking
architectural composition."

373
00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:44,720
Part of their attempts to make it
a more ornamental look,

374
00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:46,960
to fit in with the other monuments,

375
00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:49,840
the north portal
looks like a Norman castle.

376
00:22:49,840 --> 00:22:52,600
It's got turrets
and this glorious Norman arch.

377
00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:56,160
And then this side is slightly less
impressive but still ornamental.

378
00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:58,720
And it's meant to look
like an Egyptian temple,

379
00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:00,760
but it takes a bit of
a leap of imagination, really.

380
00:23:05,240 --> 00:23:06,880
'In its Victorian heyday,

381
00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:11,320
'Shugborough employed 120 indoor and
outdoor staff, including gardeners,

382
00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:14,440
'gamekeepers and farm labourers.

383
00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:18,280
'It's still run as a working estate
and a look at the kitchen garden

384
00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:20,440
'brings home the scale
of the operation.'

385
00:23:20,440 --> 00:23:23,320
A vast walled garden.

386
00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:28,240
Yes, and this is only one
of six compartments here.

387
00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:30,920
Some of them are walled,
four walled compartments,

388
00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:35,000
and then the other two are hedged.
But, yes, it is a large garden.

389
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,440
Were walled gardens
quite an innovation?

390
00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:42,000
They were very fashionable
in 1805 when this was built.

391
00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:45,480
Estates at the time were trying
to be much more self-sufficient,

392
00:23:45,480 --> 00:23:47,520
grow all their own produce.

393
00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:52,360
So as well as the garden here
for fruit, vegetables, flowers etc,

394
00:23:52,360 --> 00:23:56,560
honey, you had the park farm
built at the same time for meat,

395
00:23:56,560 --> 00:23:58,600
dairy products, cereals and so on.

396
00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:04,840
For illustrious visitors
like the young Princess Victoria,

397
00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:07,000
the estate would pull out
all the stops,

398
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:09,800
offering the very best produce
in lavish banquets.

399
00:24:12,360 --> 00:24:16,160
'Above stairs, amid the splendour
of this grand stately home,

400
00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:20,720
'it would all seem effortless, but
all that luxury came at a price.'

401
00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:22,360
Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

402
00:24:22,360 --> 00:24:24,360
'To get a sense of the graft
involved,

403
00:24:24,360 --> 00:24:26,080
'I'm visiting the kitchens,

404
00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:28,920
'overseen today by resident cook
Penny Locke.'

405
00:24:31,360 --> 00:24:34,440
Oh, this is the kitchen
on the grand scale, isn't it?

406
00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:38,080
What equipment have you got here
from Victorian times?

407
00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:39,680
We have all sorts of things.

408
00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:42,720
We have a bottle jack there
for spit-roasting meat on. Oh!

409
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:45,200
And it's actually clockwork,
so we wind it up

410
00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:48,440
and it spit-roasts the meat for us.
We have the lemon squeezer.

411
00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:52,840
That is brilliant, isn't it?
Works very well.

412
00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:56,280
You put half a lemon in there and
the idea is it turns it inside-out,

413
00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:59,920
as you squeeze it, so there's no
wastage. Isn't that beautiful?

414
00:24:59,920 --> 00:25:02,480
What a fine invention.
And even the squashed-out lemon

415
00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:04,280
is then given to the youngest girl

416
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:07,320
to dip in salt and clean
all the copper with.

417
00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:10,560
'The kitchens
were a model of efficiency,

418
00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:13,760
'but 19th-century entertaining
was extravagant.

419
00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:16,520
'During Princess Victoria's
three-day stay,

420
00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:21,760
'the guests got through 76 pheasants
and 67 bottles of sherry.

421
00:25:21,760 --> 00:25:25,800
'But some Victorian delicacies have
since disappeared into obscurity.'

422
00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:28,800
They would make cucumber soup.
That's cucumber soup there,

423
00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:32,120
which actually tastes an awful lot
better than it looks.

424
00:25:32,120 --> 00:25:36,800
And also stewed cucumbers. Look at
that. What have they been stewed in?

425
00:25:36,800 --> 00:25:40,320
What do they taste of?
Stewed in salted water to start with

426
00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:41,880
and then you make a stock up

427
00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:44,840
and put them into the stock
and thicken the sauce from the stock.

428
00:25:44,840 --> 00:25:46,920
It's believed very bad
to eat raw cucumber,

429
00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:48,960
it's very bad for your digestion.

430
00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:52,400
And this I don't need
to have identified.

431
00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:54,600
Look at that. Wow.

432
00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:57,080
Did you make that? I certainly did.

433
00:25:57,080 --> 00:25:59,560
That's got a real wobble
factor on it, hasn't it?

434
00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:02,680
What's different from a Victorian
jelly and a present-day jelly?

435
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:04,600
It takes a long time to make
a Victorian jelly.

436
00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:06,240
You're talking a good hour or so.

437
00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:09,560
Obviously, you have fresh gelatine
from the farm come up

438
00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:12,160
and all the ingredients are stewed
and the gelatine's added.

439
00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:13,320
It's quite a skill.

440
00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:15,680
'With so many mouths to feed,

441
00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:18,840
'there was no space for idlers
in a Victorian kitchen.

442
00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:22,240
'Time for me to get stuck in.'
What's the recipe, Penny?

443
00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:26,120
Fresh trout from the river
out the back. Mmm!

444
00:26:26,120 --> 00:26:27,760
You've got a couple of beauties.

445
00:26:27,760 --> 00:26:30,440
And can we have two glasses
of beer in there, please?

446
00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:32,760
Beer was a big Victorian thing,
wasn't it?

447
00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:35,120
This beer is made at the brewhouse
on the estate here,

448
00:26:35,120 --> 00:26:38,120
where staff were allocated
eight pints of beer a day each.

449
00:26:38,120 --> 00:26:41,040
Eight pints?!
They must have been paralytic!

450
00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:44,840
The brew is made to make the
strong ale and the same mash

451
00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:48,000
is brewed six or seven more times and
that's what the staff will be given.

452
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:50,080
It's purely because
it's safe to drink.

453
00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:52,360
'A little wine, a little lemon.'

454
00:26:52,360 --> 00:26:56,040
Would you like a little thumb in
there as well? Preferably not, ha!

455
00:26:56,040 --> 00:26:59,480
'And my trout is ready
for the coal-fired range.'

456
00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:01,440
It'll go across
the middle section there.

457
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:06,960
And once it starts steaming, it'll
take about 20 minutes. Marvellous.

458
00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:10,760
A delicacy fit for
Princess Victoria. Definitely.

459
00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:15,000
'Now for a taste of the kind
of dish that George Bradshaw
would have enjoyed.'

460
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:17,120
Cook, this looks very fine.

461
00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:21,960
Excellent.

462
00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:26,680
From the kitchen maid to the Earl,

463
00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:30,720
every member of this grand household
had a specific role to play.

464
00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:33,880
Victorian Britain
organised and stratified.

465
00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:39,040
As ever, I've been
impressed by Birmingham.

466
00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:41,920
Once the metal-bashing
centre of the world,

467
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:46,400
powered by the impersonal forces
of capitalism and steam.

468
00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:51,400
But this leg of my journey has been
rich in Midlands personalities too.

469
00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:54,280
Prime Minister Peel,
the landed Lichfields

470
00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:56,720
and the poisoner Palmer.

471
00:27:56,720 --> 00:28:00,440
I encountered them all in the
pages of my Bradshaw's guide.

472
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:08,920
'Next time, I'll explore one
of the greatest locomotive
factories in railway history...'

473
00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:12,160
The records are sketchy but
they talk about 20,000 people,

474
00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:13,760
so the size of it was immense.

475
00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:17,040
'..discover the dark side
of the Industrial Revolution...'

476
00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:19,360
The place was very heavily
spoiled by pollution

477
00:28:19,360 --> 00:28:22,560
and the stench of the sewage,
it was like a large cesspit.

478
00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:27,200
'..and learn how the potteries
brought their products to
the masses in Victorian times.'

479
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:29,960
This is incredibly difficult.
This is fiendish!

480
00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:51,320
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