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In 1840, one man transformed travel
in Britain.

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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
go, what to see and where to stay.

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And now, 170 years later, I'm aboard
for a series of rail adventures

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across the United Kingdom to see
what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.

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My journey around northern England

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has taken me from
the great mill towns of Lancashire

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to the grandiose scenery
of the Yorkshire moors

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and the Keighley and Worth Valley
Railway, opened in 1867,

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closed to passengers in 1962,

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gloriously reopened in 1968,
and running steam.

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'On this leg, I learn how Victorians
marketed confectionery...'

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On Saturday last, you were eating
Mackintosh's Toffee at our expense.

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Next Saturday, pay us another visit
and eat it at your own expense.

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That's brilliant. Brilliant.

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Which was a very unusual way
of advertising.

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'I get a tailor-made fitting...'

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Most people have got one shoulder
lower than the other, and you have.

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Where I've been writing
over the years, yeah.

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All them cheques.
HE LAUGHS

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'And I help revive
a cinematic railway legend.'

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Oakworth!

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Oakworth Station!

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CHEERING

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Oakworth!

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My journey began in Manchester,
headed west to Port Sunlight,

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took the sea air in Southport,

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traversed Lancashire
towards Bradford

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and now goes south to steely South
Yorkshire, ending in Derbyshire,

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where the father of the railways,
George Stephenson, lies buried.

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Today's Yorkist chapter
begins in Haworth,

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goes to the cinema in Oakworth,

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invests in Bradford,

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moves stickily south to Halifax,

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weaving its way
finally to Huddersfield.

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This landscape looks benign in sun.

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But lashed by wind and rain,

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it made the setting for a dark
tale of passion, Wuthering Heights.

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That and another love story,
Jane Eyre,

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are amongst my favourite novels

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and they were written by sisters
in a family of gifted siblings.

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Yes, this is Bronte country.

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I'm heading to Haworth,
atop a hill in the Worth Valley

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where novels of passion and genius

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were created by
three brilliant sisters.

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I want to know what inspired them

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and whether the railway
played any role in their lives.

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I'm meeting Professor Ann Sumner
of the Bronte Society

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at the parsonage provided
for their father, the local curate.

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Hello, Ann. Hello, Michael.
Welcome to Haworth.
Thank you very much indeed.

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Who were this extraordinary
family of Brontes?

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Well, the Bronte sisters
wrote some of the greatest novels

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that we have in English literature
of the 19th century.

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Of course, Charlotte wrote
Jane Eyre published in 1847,

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Emily wrote Wuthering Heights
in the same year,

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and Anne, perhaps the
least known of the three sisters,

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she brought out Agnes Grey
and The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall.

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What were their circumstances?

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Well, they were not a wealthy family.

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Very sadly, the mother died just 18
months after arriving here in 1821.

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And the sisters went out
as governesses or as teachers,

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and when they came back
to write their famous novels,

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they drew on that
experience of life as well.

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Before there had been Jane Austen,

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but was it still quite rare
to have a woman novelist?

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It was unusual.

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And pretty early on there was
some rumour in London

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that actually this was only one man
writing the novels.

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And so the two sisters,
Charlotte and Anne,

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walked to Keighley - by this time
the railways were at Keighley -

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five miles in a thunderstorm, and
then they were whisked down overnight

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to London and, of course,
revealed themselves to the publisher

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the next morning, who was
somewhat surprised to find that
they really were women.

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Jane Eyre was an instant success.

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Charlotte spent some of her
new-found wealth buying shares

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in an industry which already played
a part in the lives of the sisters.

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She and her siblings had inherited
money from their Aunt Branwell,

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£1,400, which had been divided
between them

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and they had invested in the railway.

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And they actually had good
- initially - good income

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from the railways, and now she writes
to her publisher George Smith.

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She writes, "The little
railway property I possessed,

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"scarcely any portion of it
can with security be calculated on."

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This was a real boom and bust
set of stocks, wasn't it?

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This was like the dot-com bubble
of the early 21st century.

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The railways were
tremendously exciting.

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They were transforming
the Brontes' lives.

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Charlotte herself
travelled for the first time in 1839.

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She went on holiday
to Bridlington.

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Her sisters used the train,
and indeed when Anne died,

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it was very sad because Anne
wanted to get to Scarborough,

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she'd been there as a governess
and she wanted to see the sea again,
she thought that would make her well.

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And sadly, just after she arrived
in Scarborough, she did actually die.

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So the trains were
really important to the sisters.

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And, in fact, Branwell, their
brother, was very interested

97
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in the railways, and he actually
worked for the railways as well.

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Branwell Bronte was the fourth child

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and the only boy
of the six Bronte siblings.

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Partial to a drink
and rumoured to take opium,

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he was an aspiring portrait painter
and poet

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whose short but colourful life
ended when he died of bronchitis

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aged just 31.

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So how was it that Branwell
became a railwayman?

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Well, his portraiture business
was failing, so Branwell took

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his own initiative and applied for
a role as a clerk at Sowerby Bridge.

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Here we actually have
a notebook given to him,

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so that he could keep a very close
eye on what kind of goods trains

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came through,
and note the details down.

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Most of it is around doodles,
very good caricatures here of the men

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he's working with, and a lovely
caricature of himself, actually,

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with his glasses on - he was very
short-sighted with this pointy nose.

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And then this list of
his favourite poets

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and there's some lovely drafts
of poems in this book as well.

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With his eye on the artistic,

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Branwell's railway career
hit the buffers

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when his station's accounts
failed to tally and he was sacked.

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So these are by Branwell, are they?

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Yes, they are.
Branwell actually set up practice

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and worked for over a year
in Bradford,

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but wasn't financially successful.

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This has been a real eye-opener
for me. I had no idea

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there was a railwayman Bronte,
the forgotten sibling,

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and a man of some talent.

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GUARD WHISTLES

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Resuming my steam journey, I'm
heading north towards Oakworth.

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There's another literary connection
with this railway.

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A lady who was a child at the time
of my Bradshaw's guide, E Nesbit.

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And she wrote a book,
which became a film

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with which the British people
are still in love.

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Yes, it's The Railway Children.

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Shot on location
at Oakworth in 1970,

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the film, directed
by Lionel Jeffries,

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tells Nesbit's Edwardian story
of the adventures of three siblings.

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Roberta, Peter and Phyllis move to
live next to a Yorkshire railway

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after their father is falsely
accused of spying for the Russians

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and imprisoned.

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Former Members of Parliament
Ann Cryer and her late husband Bob,

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who were Keighley and Worth Valley
committee members,

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played a pivotal role

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in securing this line's starring
role in the production.

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Nice to see you.
Good to see you.

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Now, what was your involvement and
the involvement of your husband Bob?

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On a particular day, the end of '69,
I took a phone-call

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on behalf of the railway,
and this voice said,

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"My name is Bob Lynn
and I'm a friend of Lionel Jeffries

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"and we want to make a film
on your railway."

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That was the beginning of it.

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It was just so exciting.
It was absolutely wonderful.

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Bob had to organise the engines,

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which way they were going to go,
where they were going to be

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and sometimes very early in the
morning an engine would have to

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go down to Shipley triangle
to turn round,

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so it was going
in the other direction.

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He was responsible for all that.

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Did you actually get sucked into
the making of the film?

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Yes, we did. My son and daughter,
John and Jane, and myself -

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we became extras, and
Lionel Jeffries was kind enough

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to give them a close shot in the
film, and that was how kind he was,

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not to mention the fact that
Lionel Jeffries also chose

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to keep the name Oakworth.
Whereas in the book it's Meadow Vale.

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And it's been an absolute godsend
to this railway,

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the fact that Oakworth was used.

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Today is Oakworth's annual
Railway Children celebration,

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when locals
and members of the railway

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re-enact scenes from the film.

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Hello. Hello. May I congratulate
you on your costumes?

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You look absolutely wonderful.
Thanks.

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What are you playing today?
What parts?

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Roberta. Phyllis. And Peter.
And which scenes are you playing?

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We're doing the petticoat scene
where we stop the train.

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We come out of the station
and jump off the platform,

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run down the side of the grass
and stop at the end

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and wait for the train to come, and
wave the petticoats and shout stop.

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And hopefully with train will stop.
Are you involved in that? Yes.

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You haven't got a petticoat! No.

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We'll lend you one.
SHE LAUGHS

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Have fun! Bye-bye.

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Hello. Hello there.

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Are you taking part
in the recreation today?

181
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I'm playing Mr Perks. Perks!

182
00:11:08,180 --> 00:11:10,180
Hmm, I was rather hoping
to play a part myself.

183
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Is there a part that I can do?
Well, you could take my role
for the next train, if you like.

184
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That would be fantastic, but I don't
exactly look the part, do I?

185
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Oh, that's all right.
I can kit you out.

186
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How's that looking? That looks all
right on you. You can use my blazer.

187
00:11:24,140 --> 00:11:27,260
That's really kind of you.
It's all right, no problem.

188
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Thank you very much.

189
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What do I have to do?

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When the train arrives, you shout
"Oakworth, Oakworth Station,"

191
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and this tells the passengers
as the train arrives where they are.

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00:11:36,220 --> 00:11:38,420
Well, thank you.
I must go and practise my line.

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TRAIN WHISTLES

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Oakworth! Oakworth Station!

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00:11:53,780 --> 00:11:54,900
CHEERING

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00:11:54,900 --> 00:11:59,140
Oakworth! Oakworth Station!

197
00:11:59,140 --> 00:12:00,780
Oakworth!

198
00:12:08,700 --> 00:12:11,980
Still awaiting my first call
from a casting agent,

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00:12:11,980 --> 00:12:14,260
I'm taking the steam service
to Keighley,

200
00:12:14,260 --> 00:12:17,820
then changing onto a Northern Rail
service heading southeast.

201
00:12:21,700 --> 00:12:23,540
My next stop will be Bradford.

202
00:12:23,540 --> 00:12:27,380
Bradshaw's tells me that it's
the great seat of the worsted trade,

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finely placed among the Yorkshire
Hills, where three valleys meet.

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00:12:31,660 --> 00:12:35,980
I'm going there to find out how
we became a nation of homeowners.

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Because the names of Yorkshire towns
- Bradford, Bingley, Halifax -

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make me think of building societies.

207
00:12:47,700 --> 00:12:50,300
Bradford is yet another
northern town

208
00:12:50,300 --> 00:12:54,780
transformed by the steam-powered
mills of the Industrial Revolution.

209
00:12:54,780 --> 00:12:59,540
Wealth poured in, but whilst the
council built an opulent town hall,

210
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many of Bradford's workers
lived in abject squalor.

211
00:13:04,980 --> 00:13:07,620
Some put their faith in
self-improvement,

212
00:13:07,620 --> 00:13:10,660
in particular by saving with
the building society.

213
00:13:12,700 --> 00:13:15,540
Liz McIvor is curator of
social history

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00:13:15,540 --> 00:13:20,580
at Bradford Museum in Eccleshill,
northeast of the city centre.

215
00:13:20,580 --> 00:13:23,460
What were housing conditions
like in a place like Bradford

216
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in the early part of
the 19th century?

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00:13:25,420 --> 00:13:27,940
Basically, very old buildings
that were tenemented

218
00:13:27,940 --> 00:13:31,980
to take a whole family in one room.
Very, very poor access to facilities.

219
00:13:31,980 --> 00:13:33,860
What did they do for sanitation?

220
00:13:33,860 --> 00:13:36,740
Well, mostly a couple of streets
might have a middenhead,

221
00:13:36,740 --> 00:13:38,860
which was literally
a hole in the ground

222
00:13:38,860 --> 00:13:40,660
emptied by night soil men regularly,

223
00:13:40,660 --> 00:13:44,180
but the problem with that is that the
private landlords were supposed to

224
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arrange that, and a lot of them
were very unscrupulous and didn't,

225
00:13:48,180 --> 00:13:51,420
so you would have build-up,
and basically the pits
would become too full

226
00:13:51,420 --> 00:13:54,100
so cellar dwellings at the bottom
of the tenement buildings

227
00:13:54,100 --> 00:13:55,220
would fill with sewage.

228
00:13:55,220 --> 00:13:59,820
And what opportunity did working men
and women's have to save,

229
00:13:59,820 --> 00:14:01,220
to buy a place of their own?

230
00:14:01,220 --> 00:14:03,500
Well, at the beginning
of the Industrial Revolution

231
00:14:03,500 --> 00:14:06,820
not very much, but some of the
better-off workers who might earn

232
00:14:06,820 --> 00:14:08,940
that little bit might have
just a little bit of cash

233
00:14:08,940 --> 00:14:10,020
to put aside in savings.

234
00:14:10,020 --> 00:14:13,140
So what was the principle
of these building societies?

235
00:14:13,140 --> 00:14:15,140
Well, the basic idea
of a building society

236
00:14:15,140 --> 00:14:16,740
that makes it different from the bank

237
00:14:16,740 --> 00:14:19,900
is that all the people
that invest in the building society

238
00:14:19,900 --> 00:14:23,020
are basically like the shareholders,
they all get some profit,

239
00:14:23,020 --> 00:14:24,900
they all get a return
on their investments.

240
00:14:24,900 --> 00:14:27,060
Whereas a bank
is a private limited company

241
00:14:27,060 --> 00:14:30,300
where the shareholders
make all the profits.

242
00:14:30,300 --> 00:14:34,860
The first building society,
formed in Birmingham in 1775,

243
00:14:34,860 --> 00:14:37,020
was a terminating society,

244
00:14:37,020 --> 00:14:40,100
which closed when all its members
had been housed

245
00:14:40,100 --> 00:14:42,500
in the property for which
they'd jointly paid.

246
00:14:42,500 --> 00:14:46,300
The 1836 Building Societies Act

247
00:14:46,300 --> 00:14:49,380
made it easier to form
the permanent building societies

248
00:14:49,380 --> 00:14:50,500
that we know today.

249
00:14:50,500 --> 00:14:53,700
And by 1860 there were almost 3,000.

250
00:14:56,900 --> 00:14:59,940
These back-to-back houses
were some of the first

251
00:14:59,940 --> 00:15:03,940
to be built by a building society
in Bradford.

252
00:15:03,940 --> 00:15:06,620
So welcome to number 25
Gaythorne Row.

253
00:15:07,660 --> 00:15:10,740
So obviously this is
a huge improvement

254
00:15:10,740 --> 00:15:13,380
on insanitary
and crowded conditions.

255
00:15:13,380 --> 00:15:15,820
Still quite tight, I must say.

256
00:15:15,820 --> 00:15:17,500
What sort of a family
would live here?

257
00:15:17,500 --> 00:15:20,540
People would quite happily have
lived here with maybe six children,

258
00:15:20,540 --> 00:15:22,100
and yes, it is very cramped,

259
00:15:22,100 --> 00:15:24,620
it's one room at the bottom,
one room at the top,

260
00:15:24,620 --> 00:15:28,380
but you have your own outside toilet,
that's a massive improvement.

261
00:15:28,380 --> 00:15:30,020
And where's the bathroom?

262
00:15:30,020 --> 00:15:31,620
There isn't a bathroom
unfortunately.

263
00:15:31,620 --> 00:15:34,460
There's a tin bath on the wall
on a hook, which you would bring in

264
00:15:34,460 --> 00:15:36,900
in front of the fire
and have your weekly bath.

265
00:15:36,900 --> 00:15:39,940
So what stratum of society would be
living in a house like this?

266
00:15:39,940 --> 00:15:42,940
It would be a skilled worker
or an artisan worker.

267
00:15:42,940 --> 00:15:44,860
I'm going to show you an object.

268
00:15:44,860 --> 00:15:48,900
This is a penny saving bank,
and it looks like a book,

269
00:15:48,900 --> 00:15:50,740
but it's actually got
a hole in the back

270
00:15:50,740 --> 00:15:53,180
for a penny or small coins
to go into,

271
00:15:53,180 --> 00:15:55,020
and then the idea was once
you filled it up

272
00:15:55,020 --> 00:15:57,220
you could take it to your
building society officer,

273
00:15:57,220 --> 00:16:01,980
he has the key, he unlocks it
to put it into your savings account.

274
00:16:01,980 --> 00:16:04,820
The building society movement
really allowed for the first time

275
00:16:04,820 --> 00:16:09,020
working people to think about saving
and think about improving your life.

276
00:16:16,500 --> 00:16:18,780
'It's been a long day.

277
00:16:18,780 --> 00:16:21,980
'Hoping for the luxury
of an inside bathroom,

278
00:16:21,980 --> 00:16:24,860
'I'm heading back to
the city centre.'

279
00:16:24,860 --> 00:16:29,100
As so often, Bradshaw's provides
the clue for my overnight stay.

280
00:16:29,100 --> 00:16:32,580
Bradford, it says, is where
three rail branch lines meet -

281
00:16:32,580 --> 00:16:37,220
The Lancashire and Yorkshire, Great
Northern, and the Midland mainline.

282
00:16:37,220 --> 00:16:40,060
The Midland built
a flagship hotel here,

283
00:16:40,060 --> 00:16:44,420
and this opulently-tiled corridor
led directly from the platform

284
00:16:44,420 --> 00:16:45,860
to the elegance within.

285
00:16:47,780 --> 00:16:53,140
'Opened in 1890, the hotel was
designed with Renaissance grandeur.

286
00:16:53,140 --> 00:16:56,540
'Today's general manager
is Gary Peacock.'

287
00:16:56,540 --> 00:17:00,460
It is a magnificent hotel.
It must have superb history?

288
00:17:00,460 --> 00:17:04,460
Absolutely. It was a significant part
of the Victorian heritage
of the city.

289
00:17:04,460 --> 00:17:07,940
And I suppose in the 19th century
great people were staying here?

290
00:17:07,940 --> 00:17:10,140
The politicians,
the celebrities, the actors,

291
00:17:10,140 --> 00:17:12,820
the actresses of the day
from all over the world.

292
00:17:12,820 --> 00:17:16,060
Are there any stories
around the hotel that I should know?

293
00:17:16,060 --> 00:17:20,500
Probably the most significant
is the death, right here
at the foot of the main staircase,

294
00:17:20,500 --> 00:17:23,940
of Sir Henry Irving,
the famous Victorian actor.

295
00:17:23,940 --> 00:17:25,580
Felt a bit ill on stage,

296
00:17:25,580 --> 00:17:28,420
came back from the Theatre Royal
having played Beckett,

297
00:17:28,420 --> 00:17:29,460
was put into a chair,

298
00:17:29,460 --> 00:17:32,900
and unfortunately he died
at the foot of the main staircase.

299
00:17:32,900 --> 00:17:36,180
And prophetically the last words
he ever uttered on stage were,

300
00:17:36,180 --> 00:17:39,180
"Into Thy hands, O Lord -
into Thy hands!"

301
00:17:49,740 --> 00:17:53,980
Thankful for an uneventful night,
I'm heading to Bradford Interchange

302
00:17:53,980 --> 00:17:56,060
from where I'm travelling
southwest.

303
00:18:02,780 --> 00:18:06,820
Bradshaw's tells me that four
centuries ago my next stop, Halifax,

304
00:18:06,820 --> 00:18:11,300
had but 13 houses. But the spirit
of commercial enterprise

305
00:18:11,300 --> 00:18:16,180
has recently manifested itself
by the rapid growth of the town.

306
00:18:16,180 --> 00:18:19,420
One enterprise filled the streets
of the town

307
00:18:19,420 --> 00:18:21,860
with the sweet smell of success.

308
00:18:24,700 --> 00:18:27,940
The Piece Hall in Halifax
is the sole survivor

309
00:18:27,940 --> 00:18:33,020
of the great 18th century cloth
markets of northern England.

310
00:18:33,020 --> 00:18:36,180
During the 19th century,
textiles were industrialised,

311
00:18:36,180 --> 00:18:40,740
forcing domestic cloth-workers
to find jobs elsewhere.

312
00:18:40,740 --> 00:18:45,020
The enterprising John Mackintosh
turned to toffee.

313
00:18:45,020 --> 00:18:48,260
Alex Hutchinson
is the Mackintosh company archivist.

314
00:18:48,260 --> 00:18:49,660
Hello, Alex. Hello.

315
00:18:49,660 --> 00:18:53,340
You have a lovely railway station.
Why are we meeting just here?

316
00:18:53,340 --> 00:18:56,180
Although this building says
Halifax Flour Society,

317
00:18:56,180 --> 00:19:00,020
right here is where the Mackintosh
family of Halifax made their toffee.

318
00:19:00,020 --> 00:19:02,580
How did it all start?

319
00:19:02,580 --> 00:19:06,780
Violet Taylor, who later
became Violet Mackintosh,
who was born in 1866,

320
00:19:06,780 --> 00:19:10,620
got an apprenticeship in a
confectioner's shop where she learned
to make a new type of toffee.

321
00:19:10,620 --> 00:19:14,860
She invented it. Up until that
point, all English toffee
was brittle, hard butterscotch.

322
00:19:14,860 --> 00:19:18,100
Tough stuff. And there was runny
American caramel, and she worked out

323
00:19:18,100 --> 00:19:20,620
how to blend the two and make
a chewy toffee.

324
00:19:20,620 --> 00:19:22,780
And she married a nice chap
called John Mackintosh

325
00:19:22,780 --> 00:19:25,820
and she and her husband,
instead of having a honeymoon,

326
00:19:25,820 --> 00:19:29,020
bought a little pastry cook shop
where she sold it, and suddenly it

327
00:19:29,020 --> 00:19:31,940
really took off, and then within
a couple of years they had to

328
00:19:31,940 --> 00:19:35,380
open a factory and were selling it
nationwide and then internationally.

329
00:19:35,380 --> 00:19:38,260
It was such an accessible
purchase for working people.

330
00:19:38,260 --> 00:19:40,300
It was bringing confectionery
to every man.

331
00:19:40,300 --> 00:19:42,300
The fact that the factory
is next to the railway

332
00:19:42,300 --> 00:19:44,780
leads me to hope that
there's a railway connection.

333
00:19:44,780 --> 00:19:48,380
Mackintosh's needed to be near
the railway so their ingredients
could come in by train

334
00:19:48,380 --> 00:19:50,700
and they could send their
finished goods out the same way.

335
00:19:52,860 --> 00:19:54,460
Methodist teetotallers,

336
00:19:54,460 --> 00:19:58,900
the Mackintosh family legacy is
certainly something to chew over.

337
00:19:58,900 --> 00:20:02,900
Bring home Quality Street,
and you'll be a prince in her eyes.

338
00:20:06,260 --> 00:20:09,100
Their most famous boxed
confectionery assortment,

339
00:20:09,100 --> 00:20:11,980
currently exported to 70 countries,

340
00:20:11,980 --> 00:20:15,620
was created and first manufactured
in this factory.

341
00:20:19,860 --> 00:20:22,100
Their product was affordable
for the working man,

342
00:20:22,100 --> 00:20:25,380
but it was still a luxury product and
they knew that it wasn't an essential

343
00:20:25,380 --> 00:20:29,380
so to entice their new consumers,
for the first week, they gave their
product away for free.

344
00:20:29,380 --> 00:20:32,020
And then the following week
they put in this ad.

345
00:20:32,020 --> 00:20:35,340
"On Saturday last, you were eating
Mackintosh's Toffee at our expense.

346
00:20:35,340 --> 00:20:38,140
"Next Saturday pay us another visit
and eat it at your own expense."

347
00:20:38,140 --> 00:20:39,940
That's brilliant. Brilliant.

348
00:20:39,940 --> 00:20:42,100
Which was a very unusual way
of advertising.

349
00:20:42,100 --> 00:20:43,940
What else did they do
to market the product?

350
00:20:43,940 --> 00:20:45,740
We have an advertisement here,

351
00:20:45,740 --> 00:20:49,380
and Mackintosh's are telling boys and
girls everywhere on their holidays

352
00:20:49,380 --> 00:20:51,620
to write the words Mackintosh's
Toffee in the sand.

353
00:20:51,620 --> 00:20:55,020
If they're seen by someone
from Mackintosh's factory
they'll be given a prize.

354
00:20:55,020 --> 00:20:57,820
There must have been thousands of
children up and down the nation

355
00:20:57,820 --> 00:20:59,860
writing Mackintosh's Toffee
everywhere you go.

356
00:20:59,860 --> 00:21:03,940
Absolutely brilliant. What kind of
people were they, the Mackintoshes?

357
00:21:03,940 --> 00:21:07,020
John, I think, was what we would call
now a little bit of a workaholic.

358
00:21:07,020 --> 00:21:10,060
He really, really lived
for the business. And she?

359
00:21:10,060 --> 00:21:12,500
She loved wearing ermine.
And looking glamorous.

360
00:21:12,500 --> 00:21:14,860
Once she'd invented
this new type of toffee,

361
00:21:14,860 --> 00:21:17,180
she was more than happy for John
to take all of the credit,

362
00:21:17,180 --> 00:21:21,420
call himself the Toffee King and she
took a back seat and enjoyed life.

363
00:21:22,620 --> 00:21:25,900
The company,
acquired by Nestle in 1988,

364
00:21:25,900 --> 00:21:29,740
produces billions of toffees
every year at its Halifax factory.

365
00:21:32,140 --> 00:21:35,860
There is absolutely an unmistakable
smell of toffee, isn't there?

366
00:21:37,780 --> 00:21:39,900
And this here is our toffee machine.

367
00:21:41,140 --> 00:21:43,820
It's making toffee
to exactly the same recipe

368
00:21:43,820 --> 00:21:45,500
that Violet would have been using.

369
00:21:49,220 --> 00:21:51,500
That is a toffeeholic's dream,
isn't it?

370
00:21:57,180 --> 00:22:00,620
I'm tempted to linger
and gorge myself on toffee,

371
00:22:00,620 --> 00:22:04,860
but I must continue my journey south
to this leg's final destination.

372
00:22:09,980 --> 00:22:12,620
Huddersfield is my next stop.
Bradshaw's tells me

373
00:22:12,620 --> 00:22:16,340
it's the seat of the woollen trade
in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

374
00:22:16,340 --> 00:22:19,940
"Woollens, fancy Valencias,
shawls are the staple articles

375
00:22:19,940 --> 00:22:24,460
"of manufacture besides corduroy,"
which I am wearing at the moment.

376
00:22:24,460 --> 00:22:27,020
Huddersfield had a reputation
for quality.

377
00:22:27,020 --> 00:22:28,860
I wonder whether it has it still.

378
00:22:30,260 --> 00:22:33,980
As the town industrialised,
the merchants who traded in it

379
00:22:33,980 --> 00:22:36,580
and the Ramsden family,
who owned most of it,

380
00:22:36,580 --> 00:22:38,220
decided that Huddersfield

381
00:22:38,220 --> 00:22:43,060
should retain the long-established
reputation for upmarket cloth.

382
00:22:45,340 --> 00:22:49,300
The neoclassical railway station,
completed in 1850,

383
00:22:49,300 --> 00:22:53,460
was clearly the result of
burning civic pride.

384
00:22:53,460 --> 00:22:57,460
I've never been to Huddersfield
before, and I am overwhelmed.

385
00:22:57,460 --> 00:23:02,180
This square is beautiful,
and above all the railway station

386
00:23:02,180 --> 00:23:05,020
is one of the best I've seen
in Britain.

387
00:23:05,020 --> 00:23:07,140
I believe someone once described it

388
00:23:07,140 --> 00:23:10,100
as a stately home with trains
passing through it.

389
00:23:10,100 --> 00:23:14,140
And sadly, with his back
to this architectural gem,

390
00:23:14,140 --> 00:23:20,020
my childhood hero Prime Minister
and Huddersfield boy Harold Wilson.

391
00:23:22,900 --> 00:23:26,060
Wilson famously described
1960s Britain

392
00:23:26,060 --> 00:23:30,340
as being forged in
"the white heat of technology."

393
00:23:30,340 --> 00:23:33,260
He could have been speaking
of his home town a century before,

394
00:23:33,260 --> 00:23:37,740
for in Victorian Huddersfield,
new designs of looms and processes

395
00:23:37,740 --> 00:23:40,460
produced the very finest cloth.

396
00:23:42,540 --> 00:23:46,860
Established in 1883,
Taylor & Lodge makes luxury fabric

397
00:23:46,860 --> 00:23:50,700
for suits that can cost
up to £25,000.

398
00:23:52,980 --> 00:23:56,260
For more than a century,
generations of skilled craftsmen

399
00:23:56,260 --> 00:23:58,460
have toiled on the original looms

400
00:23:58,460 --> 00:24:01,860
still operated by pattern weavers
like Brendan Crowther.

401
00:24:03,500 --> 00:24:06,260
Hello. Hello. Hiya.

402
00:24:06,260 --> 00:24:08,460
What sort of cloth is this?

403
00:24:08,460 --> 00:24:12,060
This here, this is a two and two
twirl, this. It's a worsted.

404
00:24:12,060 --> 00:24:17,860
A worsted. And I suppose you've got
warp and weft.
How does all that work?

405
00:24:17,860 --> 00:24:21,060
Well, this is your warp.
These go through here.

406
00:24:21,060 --> 00:24:24,220
And your weft
is sent across by the shuttles.

407
00:24:24,220 --> 00:24:26,700
Now that is a good old-fashioned
methodology, isn't it?

408
00:24:26,700 --> 00:24:28,660
May we actually
see the thing in action?

409
00:24:28,660 --> 00:24:29,900
Yeah, I don't see why not.

410
00:24:33,740 --> 00:24:35,900
And now we see
the pattern building up.

411
00:24:39,900 --> 00:24:41,660
That is mesmerising.

412
00:24:41,660 --> 00:24:43,580
You know, Brendan, I often see
machines

413
00:24:43,580 --> 00:24:45,340
and I have no idea what is going on.

414
00:24:45,340 --> 00:24:49,020
But this one, I suppose because
it's quite an old technology,

415
00:24:49,020 --> 00:24:53,260
it's perfectly clear
how that is working.

416
00:24:53,260 --> 00:24:55,980
Real Victorian engineering.

417
00:25:00,740 --> 00:25:04,260
With 83 tailors in Huddersfield
in Bradshaw's day,

418
00:25:04,260 --> 00:25:07,780
it would be remiss
not to meet one while I'm here.

419
00:25:07,780 --> 00:25:10,540
I'm visiting Jon Fairweather
at Carl Stuart.

420
00:25:12,620 --> 00:25:14,620
Very good to see you.

421
00:25:14,620 --> 00:25:16,420
I've often had suits made,

422
00:25:16,420 --> 00:25:20,500
and tailors tend to be very polite,
almost flattering.

423
00:25:20,500 --> 00:25:23,140
If you assess me as a customer,
what are you really thinking?

424
00:25:23,140 --> 00:25:25,780
Firstly, you've got to make
the customer relax

425
00:25:25,780 --> 00:25:29,420
because you don't want to be stood
shoulders out, stomach in.

426
00:25:29,420 --> 00:25:33,140
Most people have got one shoulder
lower than the other, and you have.

427
00:25:33,140 --> 00:25:34,860
This one, right? Correct.

428
00:25:34,860 --> 00:25:37,820
That's where I've been writing
over the years, here.

429
00:25:37,820 --> 00:25:39,980
All them cheques!
HE LAUGHS

430
00:25:39,980 --> 00:25:42,660
We can make you look normal.

431
00:25:42,660 --> 00:25:47,700
OK, so you've measured me up,
let's say, I've chosen my cloth.

432
00:25:47,700 --> 00:25:49,340
Right. What do you do next?

433
00:25:49,340 --> 00:25:52,380
We put all the figurations
down on the cutting sheet,

434
00:25:52,380 --> 00:25:56,020
and then it's all adjusted
from the block patterns.

435
00:25:56,020 --> 00:25:58,100
You're doing that just by eye now?

436
00:25:58,100 --> 00:26:01,940
Yeah. So how many years has it taken
you to learn those tricks?

437
00:26:01,940 --> 00:26:03,340
I've been doing it 50 years.

438
00:26:03,340 --> 00:26:05,140
It used to be
a seven-year apprenticeship

439
00:26:05,140 --> 00:26:06,980
to be a tailor and cutter
when I started.

440
00:26:06,980 --> 00:26:10,660
And it's only five years
for brain surgeon, so...

441
00:26:10,660 --> 00:26:12,100
We should be on a level.

442
00:26:12,100 --> 00:26:14,940
So anything very different
about what you're doing here

443
00:26:14,940 --> 00:26:18,340
and what your Victorian predecessors
would've done?

444
00:26:18,340 --> 00:26:22,580
In the bespoke trade, doing this,
it would be exactly the same.

445
00:26:22,580 --> 00:26:25,220
So we've now made our adjustments
here. What do you do next?

446
00:26:25,220 --> 00:26:30,060
Right. When the whole suit's
chalked in, then you start cutting.

447
00:26:31,420 --> 00:26:33,420
You can have a go, if you want.
Oh, thank you.

448
00:26:33,420 --> 00:26:36,660
You start at that end
and go around, if you wish.

449
00:26:36,660 --> 00:26:39,180
This says Made in Huddersfield.

450
00:26:39,180 --> 00:26:41,500
And is that still
an important cache?

451
00:26:41,500 --> 00:26:43,820
Oh, yeah. Made in England definitely.

452
00:26:43,820 --> 00:26:47,420
Made in Huddersfield
is cream on the top.

453
00:26:47,420 --> 00:26:49,740
Where does that go then?
That's the front.

454
00:26:53,700 --> 00:26:55,140
That's your button.

455
00:26:55,140 --> 00:26:57,020
That's your lapel.

456
00:26:57,020 --> 00:26:59,820
Now where does this bit go?
That's the other side.

457
00:26:59,820 --> 00:27:03,700
You cut everything on the double.
Two fronts, two backs, two sleeves.

458
00:27:05,100 --> 00:27:08,140
How do I look? Amazing!

459
00:27:08,140 --> 00:27:09,180
JON LAUGHS

460
00:27:18,940 --> 00:27:20,180
I've been thinking,

461
00:27:20,180 --> 00:27:23,780
how many more great novels the
Bronte sisters might have written

462
00:27:23,780 --> 00:27:28,940
had they not died
aged 29, 30 and 38.

463
00:27:28,940 --> 00:27:32,180
Tuberculosis stalked
19th century Britain

464
00:27:32,180 --> 00:27:37,420
and cholera killed many in their
prime, including George Bradshaw.

465
00:27:37,420 --> 00:27:40,700
Fortunately, later
in Queen Victoria's reign,

466
00:27:40,700 --> 00:27:46,220
engineers and reformers
made progress with sanitation
and public health.

467
00:27:54,660 --> 00:27:56,660
'On the next leg of my journey,

468
00:27:56,660 --> 00:27:58,940
'I'm given a Victorian music
lesson...'

469
00:27:58,940 --> 00:28:02,740
HE PLAYS INSTRUMENT WITH DIFFICULTY

470
00:28:02,740 --> 00:28:05,660
CHEERING
Wow!

471
00:28:05,660 --> 00:28:08,940
'I learn of a watery tragedy
in the Peak District...'

472
00:28:08,940 --> 00:28:13,740
The final death toll was about 81,
of whom half were children.

473
00:28:13,740 --> 00:28:16,820
'And I make a splash in Derbyshire.'

474
00:28:16,820 --> 00:28:18,220
Whoa!

475
00:28:18,220 --> 00:28:21,420
I never produced
as big an impact as that!