1 00:00:04,660 --> 00:00:09,220 In 1840, one man transformed travel in Britain. 2 00:00:09,220 --> 00:00:11,140 His name was George Bradshaw, 3 00:00:11,140 --> 00:00:15,580 and his railway guides inspired the Victorians to take to the tracks. 4 00:00:16,820 --> 00:00:19,780 Stop by stop, he told them where to go, 5 00:00:19,780 --> 00:00:22,020 what to see and where to stay. 6 00:00:23,100 --> 00:00:28,100 Now, 170 years later, I'm aboard for a series of rail adventures 7 00:00:28,100 --> 00:00:33,220 across the United Kingdom to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains. 8 00:00:53,580 --> 00:00:56,140 The British Empire reached its zenith under 9 00:00:56,140 --> 00:01:00,500 Queen Victoria, and mechanisation boosted its industrial output. 10 00:01:00,500 --> 00:01:02,940 But as technology spread to other countries, 11 00:01:02,940 --> 00:01:06,300 no British industry could rest on its laurels. 12 00:01:06,300 --> 00:01:09,260 As I continue my journey north towards Leeds 13 00:01:09,260 --> 00:01:12,340 across the Midlands, I shall be interested to see 14 00:01:12,340 --> 00:01:16,940 how British manufacturing adapted to prosperity and competition. 15 00:01:21,820 --> 00:01:24,780 All this week, I've been travelling away from the capital 16 00:01:24,780 --> 00:01:26,380 and its metropolitan sprawl, 17 00:01:26,380 --> 00:01:30,340 heading north on Stephenson's London to Birmingham line. 18 00:01:30,340 --> 00:01:32,540 I'll explore the Victorian manufacturing hub 19 00:01:32,540 --> 00:01:33,820 of the East Midlands 20 00:01:33,820 --> 00:01:37,220 before ending my journey in the Yorkshire city of Leeds. 21 00:01:38,380 --> 00:01:41,580 On this leg, I'm riding the tracks into the Midlands, 22 00:01:41,580 --> 00:01:43,740 to Northampton and Rugby 23 00:01:43,740 --> 00:01:47,940 and onto the city of Coventry before changing lines for Nuneaton. 24 00:01:47,940 --> 00:01:52,180 Today I discover a tradition unaltered since Victorian times. 25 00:01:52,180 --> 00:01:54,700 It's like most things in life - you can learn it in two weeks, 26 00:01:54,700 --> 00:01:57,180 but it takes you a lifetime to be any good at it. 27 00:01:57,180 --> 00:02:01,340 I hear about the man who changed education around the world. 28 00:02:01,340 --> 00:02:04,260 These were people capable of running the British Empire. 29 00:02:04,260 --> 00:02:07,740 Very much so, and that was part of Arnold's great reform. 30 00:02:07,740 --> 00:02:11,620 And I see how a city rode out the economic cycles. 31 00:02:11,620 --> 00:02:15,860 This is the forerunner of all modern bicycles, known as a safety bicycle. 32 00:02:15,860 --> 00:02:19,860 For the good reason that everything that came before was not! Exactly! 33 00:02:25,100 --> 00:02:29,060 My first stop today is Northampton, which Bradshaw's tells me 34 00:02:29,060 --> 00:02:33,740 has an industrious population, some thousands of whom are engaged 35 00:02:33,740 --> 00:02:37,940 in boot and shoe manufacture, which has been here for centuries. 36 00:02:45,980 --> 00:02:49,580 Northampton, known as the land of the shoe makers, has been 37 00:02:49,580 --> 00:02:52,220 producing shoes since the 15th century, 38 00:02:52,220 --> 00:02:55,860 thanks to a plentiful supply of wood, water and cattle. 39 00:02:55,860 --> 00:03:00,700 In 1642, a group of shoemakers won a contract to supply the army, 40 00:03:00,700 --> 00:03:02,780 and by 1841, 41 00:03:02,780 --> 00:03:06,020 fuelled by the arrival of the London to Birmingham railway line, 42 00:03:06,020 --> 00:03:09,660 the shoe industry had grown to nearly 2,000 shoemakers. 43 00:03:09,660 --> 00:03:13,180 Today, although the skills have changed little over the centuries, 44 00:03:13,180 --> 00:03:15,780 there are only five firms left. 45 00:03:15,780 --> 00:03:21,300 Keeping traditions alive is Crockett and Jones, founded in 1879. 46 00:03:21,300 --> 00:03:25,500 The process starts with the leather being cut by a skilled cutter, 47 00:03:25,500 --> 00:03:26,980 called a clicker. 48 00:03:26,980 --> 00:03:30,380 David Mains oversees the factory's 21 clickers. 49 00:03:30,380 --> 00:03:33,660 So clicking is cutting, is it? 50 00:03:33,660 --> 00:03:37,740 It is cutting, yes, and it's not the actual cutting that's the skill. 51 00:03:37,740 --> 00:03:41,980 The skill is getting the sections on the right areas of the leather. 52 00:03:41,980 --> 00:03:44,380 Avoiding defects? Avoiding the defects, yeah. 53 00:03:44,380 --> 00:03:46,460 Anybody can come and cut a piece out. 54 00:03:46,460 --> 00:03:50,220 It's knowing where to put the pieces, that's where the skill is. 55 00:03:51,340 --> 00:03:54,940 Cutting all the parts of a shoe from the skins is done by hand, 56 00:03:54,940 --> 00:03:56,860 using a pattern and a knife. 57 00:03:56,860 --> 00:03:59,860 The key thing is to create as little waste as possible. 58 00:03:59,860 --> 00:04:02,620 In Victorian times, the patterns would have been 59 00:04:02,620 --> 00:04:05,980 made from cardboard edged with brass, and the knives 60 00:04:05,980 --> 00:04:09,580 clicking against their wooden blocks gave the cutters their name. 61 00:04:09,580 --> 00:04:12,620 Ooh. Moved my pattern there. 62 00:04:12,620 --> 00:04:14,780 You said this was the easy bit. It isn't! 63 00:04:14,780 --> 00:04:15,940 LAUGHTER 64 00:04:15,940 --> 00:04:19,220 It's nice round the curve there. 65 00:04:19,220 --> 00:04:21,580 Not too bad. 66 00:04:21,580 --> 00:04:24,220 I've got a little bit of a rough edge there, haven't I? 67 00:04:24,220 --> 00:04:27,060 Just missed a bit. How many years' practice have you had? 68 00:04:27,060 --> 00:04:28,900 Well, I've been here 20 years now. 69 00:04:28,900 --> 00:04:31,700 I'll talk to you again in 20 years! Thank you so much, David. 70 00:04:31,700 --> 00:04:32,820 Thank you. Bye-bye. 71 00:04:34,900 --> 00:04:38,020 The striking thing about this factory is that the process has 72 00:04:38,020 --> 00:04:41,060 stayed essentially the same for 134 years. 73 00:04:41,060 --> 00:04:43,460 One of the managers, James Fox, 74 00:04:43,460 --> 00:04:46,980 is taking me onto the factory floor to the closing room, 75 00:04:46,980 --> 00:04:50,020 where all the leather parts are stitched together. 76 00:04:50,020 --> 00:04:52,900 This room seems to be entirely filled with women. 77 00:04:52,900 --> 00:04:55,700 Do you practise segregation here? 78 00:04:55,700 --> 00:04:58,780 We don't, we don't, it's more of a natural occurrence. 79 00:04:58,780 --> 00:05:00,860 The skills that are involved in the closing room 80 00:05:00,860 --> 00:05:05,220 tend to be more delicate operations, there's less manual labour involved. 81 00:05:05,220 --> 00:05:07,300 Still extremely highly skilled. 82 00:05:07,300 --> 00:05:09,500 I think there's about 110 people in here, 83 00:05:09,500 --> 00:05:11,980 100 of which are women, and about nine or ten gents 84 00:05:11,980 --> 00:05:14,980 that you will see dotted around the room. 85 00:05:14,980 --> 00:05:18,060 I have seen them dotted around. All the time I've been in your factory, 86 00:05:18,060 --> 00:05:20,100 I've had this kind of Victorian feel. 87 00:05:20,100 --> 00:05:23,660 You know, the wooden panelling and the shape of the windows 88 00:05:23,660 --> 00:05:26,580 and all that sort of thing, and then to come into a room that's entirely 89 00:05:26,580 --> 00:05:30,420 filled with one gender is also a very Victorian feel. 90 00:05:30,420 --> 00:05:32,700 And as in Victorian times, 91 00:05:32,700 --> 00:05:36,380 many of these workers are second or third generation shoemakers. 92 00:05:38,380 --> 00:05:40,660 Hello. I'm Michael. Pleased to meet you. 93 00:05:40,660 --> 00:05:42,860 What's your name? My name's Lisa. 94 00:05:42,860 --> 00:05:44,700 And what is it that you're doing to the shoe? 95 00:05:44,700 --> 00:05:47,460 I'm eyeleting the shoe. I'm only doing half a shoe. 96 00:05:47,460 --> 00:05:50,140 It's just, erm, putting the holes in for the laces. 97 00:05:50,140 --> 00:05:52,820 Quite a skilled job. You've got to get them in the right place 98 00:05:52,820 --> 00:05:56,180 or else that's that sort of ruined and it's got to be re-cut again. 99 00:05:56,180 --> 00:05:57,580 How long have you been here? 100 00:05:57,580 --> 00:05:59,660 I've been here 23 years now. 101 00:05:59,660 --> 00:06:01,820 Did you have any family here before? 102 00:06:01,820 --> 00:06:06,620 My mother used to work here, yeah, and my grandfather worked in the clicking room upstairs. 103 00:06:06,620 --> 00:06:08,820 Your mother, how many years was she here? 104 00:06:08,820 --> 00:06:11,700 Erm... All her life, as well. She's 75 now. 105 00:06:11,700 --> 00:06:14,300 Thank you, Lisa. You're welcome. Lovely to see you. 106 00:06:14,300 --> 00:06:15,900 Thank you. Bye. Bye. 107 00:06:18,740 --> 00:06:22,060 It takes nearly three hours of continuous hand-stitching 108 00:06:22,060 --> 00:06:25,340 to sew the leather uppers. James wants to show me 109 00:06:25,340 --> 00:06:28,580 a machine that radically reduced how long it took to make them 110 00:06:28,580 --> 00:06:31,780 and changed the way in which they could be repaired. 111 00:06:31,780 --> 00:06:35,620 The Goodyear welting machine was invented in America 112 00:06:35,620 --> 00:06:37,460 in the late 1860s, 113 00:06:37,460 --> 00:06:40,740 mechanically fastening the sole to the shoe. 114 00:06:40,740 --> 00:06:44,180 A strip of leather - the welt - was stitched to the upper. 115 00:06:44,180 --> 00:06:47,460 Then the sole could be easily attached. 116 00:06:47,460 --> 00:06:50,860 Michael, this is David, our Goodyear welter. 117 00:06:50,860 --> 00:06:52,500 Hi, David. Pleased to meet you. 118 00:06:52,500 --> 00:06:56,060 I've just been hearing that this Goodyear welting changed shoemaking, 119 00:06:56,060 --> 00:07:00,620 why is that? Before Goodyear welting was actually introduced, 120 00:07:00,620 --> 00:07:02,660 the bottom of the shoe was flat 121 00:07:02,660 --> 00:07:06,740 and then you covered it with a full sheet of leather, which had to 122 00:07:06,740 --> 00:07:09,580 be either riveted or stapled right through. Yes. 123 00:07:09,580 --> 00:07:13,860 So it used a lot more leather, a lot more time, a lot more labour. 124 00:07:13,860 --> 00:07:18,500 They came up with a process of putting a rib round the bottom of the insole, 125 00:07:18,500 --> 00:07:21,900 to which we then sew a welt. 126 00:07:33,500 --> 00:07:35,780 That's approximately 80 stitches. 127 00:07:35,780 --> 00:07:39,420 And how long did that take them when doing it by hand? 128 00:07:39,420 --> 00:07:44,260 Two hours to a pair. No! Yeah, still does in Scandinavian countries, 129 00:07:44,260 --> 00:07:46,140 where they still do them by hand. 130 00:07:46,140 --> 00:07:50,420 You've added this leather strip, that's called the welt, 131 00:07:50,420 --> 00:07:53,380 and then you're going to put the sole on there 132 00:07:53,380 --> 00:07:57,380 and you're going to sew through the welt into the sole 133 00:07:57,380 --> 00:07:59,940 and that's going to hold the whole shoe together? Yes. 134 00:07:59,940 --> 00:08:04,020 How many years did it take you to achieve that level of skill? 135 00:08:04,020 --> 00:08:07,060 I've been welt sewing about 40 years, I suppose. 136 00:08:07,060 --> 00:08:09,620 It's like most things in life - you can learn it in two weeks 137 00:08:09,620 --> 00:08:11,740 but it takes you a lifetime to be any good at it. 138 00:08:11,740 --> 00:08:14,140 Extraordinary. I take my hat off to you. 139 00:08:14,140 --> 00:08:16,140 Thanks very much. Thanks very much. 140 00:08:19,220 --> 00:08:22,460 A hand-sewn pair of these quality shoes 141 00:08:22,460 --> 00:08:26,580 could cost from £350 to £4,000. 142 00:08:26,580 --> 00:08:30,020 What makes them so special is that they're made in 143 00:08:30,020 --> 00:08:32,860 the traditional way, which has never been bettered. 144 00:08:32,860 --> 00:08:36,980 To step into this factory is to be transported back through time. 145 00:08:36,980 --> 00:08:39,940 A Victorian could have seen similar tools 146 00:08:39,940 --> 00:08:42,500 working the fine-smelling leather. 147 00:08:50,500 --> 00:08:52,980 My journey from Northampton to Rugby 148 00:08:52,980 --> 00:08:56,340 is on the London-Midland line and takes 20 minutes. 149 00:09:00,380 --> 00:09:03,540 As I approach Rugby, Bradshaw's draws attention to the 150 00:09:03,540 --> 00:09:06,580 place of learning that put the town on the map. 151 00:09:06,580 --> 00:09:09,580 'By the exertions of successive masters, 152 00:09:09,580 --> 00:09:11,460 'especially the late Dr Arnold, 153 00:09:11,460 --> 00:09:15,140 'it ranks as one of the best grammar schools in the country.' 154 00:09:15,140 --> 00:09:19,380 As a grammar school boy myself, I'm anxious to learn more about 155 00:09:19,380 --> 00:09:23,820 Thomas Arnold, a man who left his fingerprints on British education. 156 00:09:36,060 --> 00:09:40,300 The school was founded in 1567 by a local philanthropist, 157 00:09:40,300 --> 00:09:43,180 Lawrence Sheriff, who wanted to provide an education 158 00:09:43,180 --> 00:09:44,620 for the boys of Rugby. 159 00:09:44,620 --> 00:09:49,220 400 years later, the school retains a far-flung reputation 160 00:09:49,220 --> 00:09:52,500 as one of the country's leading public schools. 161 00:09:52,500 --> 00:09:56,020 The buildings conjure up the spirit of Dr Arnold. 162 00:09:56,020 --> 00:09:59,780 I'm meeting the school's archivist, Rusty Maclean, to find out 163 00:09:59,780 --> 00:10:02,740 more about the school's most celebrated head. 164 00:10:02,740 --> 00:10:03,900 Hello, Rusty. 165 00:10:03,900 --> 00:10:06,340 Very pleased to meet you. 166 00:10:06,340 --> 00:10:09,100 Now, Dr Thomas Arnold has gone down in history 167 00:10:09,100 --> 00:10:11,060 as a great educational reformer. 168 00:10:11,060 --> 00:10:13,620 What was it that he was reforming here at Rugby? 169 00:10:13,620 --> 00:10:17,260 Well, when Arnold arrived here in 1828, he arrived at a school 170 00:10:17,260 --> 00:10:19,820 which, in common with most other schools of the day, 171 00:10:19,820 --> 00:10:23,980 was an institution where boys were regarded as empty vessels 172 00:10:23,980 --> 00:10:28,420 to be filled with facts and then flung out into the world. 173 00:10:28,420 --> 00:10:33,340 Arnold, through his subtle reforms, remodelling of existing practices, 174 00:10:33,340 --> 00:10:35,740 transformed the whole idea of education, 175 00:10:35,740 --> 00:10:39,180 and his influence spread not only through the rest of England 176 00:10:39,180 --> 00:10:40,580 but throughout the world. 177 00:10:42,860 --> 00:10:46,860 Rusty is taking me to the classroom where Arnold used to teach. 178 00:10:59,340 --> 00:11:01,740 What were Arnold's principles of education? 179 00:11:01,740 --> 00:11:04,580 Well, in one of the first meetings he had with his sixth form, 180 00:11:04,580 --> 00:11:09,020 he laid out three principles. First, religious and moral principles, 181 00:11:09,020 --> 00:11:11,700 second, gentlemanly conduct, 182 00:11:11,700 --> 00:11:14,940 and third, intellectual academic ability. 183 00:11:14,940 --> 00:11:19,460 He was far more concerned with educating the whole person. 184 00:11:19,460 --> 00:11:23,700 It wasn't just about facts. It was about developing character. 185 00:11:23,700 --> 00:11:26,940 So he was training these young men of the school for what? 186 00:11:26,940 --> 00:11:29,500 Well, he was training them for just about everything, 187 00:11:29,500 --> 00:11:32,820 and boys went out from here into all walks of life - 188 00:11:32,820 --> 00:11:36,140 the military, the church, politics, the arts. 189 00:11:36,140 --> 00:11:38,300 But a big emphasis on administration. 190 00:11:38,300 --> 00:11:41,140 These were people capable of running the British Empire. 191 00:11:41,140 --> 00:11:44,660 Very much so, and that was part of Arnold's great reform. 192 00:11:46,140 --> 00:11:49,260 I see you have a handsome collection of graffiti. 193 00:11:49,260 --> 00:11:52,540 These are desk lids, little tabletops, they were called. A-ha. 194 00:11:52,540 --> 00:11:56,740 And this in a sense is not graffiti because the boys were actually 195 00:11:56,740 --> 00:12:00,700 permitted to carve their name on the desk lid before they left school. 196 00:12:00,700 --> 00:12:03,220 Anyone that I would recognise? 197 00:12:03,220 --> 00:12:06,140 You may recognise the name Chamberlain. 198 00:12:06,140 --> 00:12:09,780 This is Neville, our Prime Minister at the beginning of World War II. It is. 199 00:12:09,780 --> 00:12:12,220 An intriguing reference in my Bradshaw's. 200 00:12:12,220 --> 00:12:16,020 "The fagging or monitor system prevails at the school..." - 201 00:12:16,020 --> 00:12:18,100 this is in the mid-1860s - 202 00:12:18,100 --> 00:12:21,540 "..but has somewhat been mitigated by Dr Arnold." 203 00:12:21,540 --> 00:12:22,980 What does that mean? 204 00:12:22,980 --> 00:12:25,740 Well, fagging originally was a mentoring system. 205 00:12:25,740 --> 00:12:29,700 If you think that boys as young as six were entering this school, 206 00:12:29,700 --> 00:12:31,300 probably their first time away from home 207 00:12:31,300 --> 00:12:32,940 into a completely alien environment, 208 00:12:32,940 --> 00:12:35,260 senior boys would take them under their wing, 209 00:12:35,260 --> 00:12:37,020 show them where everything was, 210 00:12:37,020 --> 00:12:40,700 and in return, the boys would provide menial tasks. Perhaps popping across 211 00:12:40,700 --> 00:12:42,900 the road to get a bowl of baked potatoes 212 00:12:42,900 --> 00:12:45,180 or polishing the senior boy's boots. 213 00:12:45,180 --> 00:12:47,420 Trouble is, by the time Arnold arrived, 214 00:12:47,420 --> 00:12:50,220 this had effectively become institutionalised bullying. 215 00:12:50,220 --> 00:12:53,260 He made it a somewhat kinder place, did he? 216 00:12:53,260 --> 00:12:57,300 Very much so. It was an environment of trust. 217 00:12:58,980 --> 00:13:03,620 Dr Arnold most certainly left his mark on Victorian schooling, 218 00:13:03,620 --> 00:13:05,940 while one of his pupils left his boot-print 219 00:13:05,940 --> 00:13:08,420 on the sporting field of dreams. 220 00:13:09,700 --> 00:13:14,100 Ah, William Webb Ellis, the boy who invented rugby football. 221 00:13:14,100 --> 00:13:17,860 And when were the rules of rugby football formalised? 222 00:13:17,860 --> 00:13:21,740 The sport was first codified officially in August 1845 by a group 223 00:13:21,740 --> 00:13:26,580 of three Rugby school boys, one of whom was one of Thomas Arnold's sons. 224 00:13:26,580 --> 00:13:29,460 When they were codified, they were actually produced... 225 00:13:29,460 --> 00:13:31,220 printed in a little book... 226 00:13:31,220 --> 00:13:32,500 Why so small? 227 00:13:32,500 --> 00:13:35,940 In those days there were no referees, the boys didn't need them, 228 00:13:35,940 --> 00:13:39,140 so they would take this booklet out on the pitch with them. 229 00:13:40,540 --> 00:13:44,580 As the game developed, the rules changed to allow faster play. 230 00:13:44,580 --> 00:13:48,740 It made matches more exciting for both players and fans. 231 00:13:48,740 --> 00:13:51,780 It also meant that a referee on the pitch eventually became 232 00:13:51,780 --> 00:13:54,220 compulsory, in order to settle disputes. 233 00:13:56,340 --> 00:13:58,700 The game's roots have not been forgotten. 234 00:13:58,700 --> 00:14:02,540 The Rugby World Cup is known as the Webb Ellis Trophy. 235 00:14:02,540 --> 00:14:06,100 If Webb Ellis were watching now, I'm sure he'd be chuffed to see 236 00:14:06,100 --> 00:14:09,780 how his game is being played today, pretty much as he invented it. 237 00:14:12,900 --> 00:14:16,740 I have to admit that I'm not very sporty, but in for a penny... 238 00:14:21,980 --> 00:14:24,140 Crouch, touch, set. 239 00:14:55,660 --> 00:14:59,260 It's only a short trip up the London to Birmingham mainline 240 00:14:59,260 --> 00:15:00,620 to my next stop, Coventry. 241 00:15:07,140 --> 00:15:10,340 After a game of rugby, an early bath is called for, 242 00:15:10,340 --> 00:15:12,820 and Bradshaw's is ever helpful. 243 00:15:12,820 --> 00:15:16,860 "Coombe Abbey, belonging to the Earl of Craven, has abbey ruins, 244 00:15:16,860 --> 00:15:20,900 "with a gallery of paintings by van Dyck." It sounds perfect. 245 00:15:34,740 --> 00:15:38,180 Coombe Abbey was founded as a monastery by Cistercian monks 246 00:15:38,180 --> 00:15:40,420 in the 12th century. 247 00:15:40,420 --> 00:15:43,500 Following the dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s, 248 00:15:43,500 --> 00:15:47,140 in the early 17th century it became a Royal property, 249 00:15:47,140 --> 00:15:51,580 home to Elizabeth Stuart, the daughter of King James I. 250 00:15:51,580 --> 00:15:55,900 Today it's a hotel, where I'll break my journey. 251 00:15:55,900 --> 00:15:59,020 It may be my paranoia as a former politician, 252 00:15:59,020 --> 00:16:03,780 but I find I sleep most soundly when secure behind a moat. 253 00:16:07,260 --> 00:16:10,340 There is a moat, but I haven't found any van Dycks. 254 00:16:10,340 --> 00:16:13,300 Still, it's a good place to rest my sporty legs. 255 00:16:26,740 --> 00:16:31,380 A beautiful new day sees me heading into the manufacturing heartland of Coventry. 256 00:16:32,940 --> 00:16:36,660 As far back as Roman Times its central location made it 257 00:16:36,660 --> 00:16:39,140 ideally situated for trade. 258 00:16:39,140 --> 00:16:44,180 And the arrival of the train helped to fuel its commercial ambitions. 259 00:16:44,180 --> 00:16:46,260 Hello. Hello, good morning. 260 00:16:46,260 --> 00:16:49,700 I'm using this rather old guide book... Bradshaw, yes. 261 00:16:49,700 --> 00:16:54,140 Bradshaw! And it sounds to me that Coventry is well known for watchmaking. 262 00:16:54,140 --> 00:16:57,060 Now, I didn't know that, is Coventry well known for watchmaking? 263 00:16:57,060 --> 00:17:00,500 Yes, it's known throughout the world. What sort of watches? 264 00:17:00,500 --> 00:17:07,580 They do what they call, Half Hunters, the big ones the chaps wore across here with the Albert chain. 265 00:17:07,580 --> 00:17:10,940 Yes, they're very prized and very expensive. 266 00:17:10,940 --> 00:17:14,420 When does that go back to? Erm, in the 1800s. 267 00:17:14,420 --> 00:17:16,620 What do you know about watch making? 268 00:17:16,620 --> 00:17:22,220 Erm, they used to have top shops, they lived in the two floors then they lived in the top shops 269 00:17:22,220 --> 00:17:26,460 with big windows at the top and that's where they used to do the watches. 270 00:17:26,460 --> 00:17:29,620 Quite proud of all that, are you? Oh, God, yeah - we are, aren't we? 271 00:17:29,620 --> 00:17:32,380 Of all the industries we've had and lost, aren't we? Yes. 272 00:17:34,620 --> 00:17:40,900 At its peak, in the 1850s, Coventry's watch-making industry employed 2,000 people. 273 00:17:40,900 --> 00:17:45,940 And one of the biggest firms, Rotherhams, was producing 9,000 watches per year. 274 00:17:46,900 --> 00:17:50,060 But by the 1860s, the industry was in decline 275 00:17:50,060 --> 00:17:54,180 because of cheap imports of Swiss and American watches. 276 00:17:54,180 --> 00:17:58,940 So generations of craftsmen learnt to adapt their skills to survive. 277 00:18:00,220 --> 00:18:05,060 I'm meeting Steve Bagley, from Coventry Transport Museum at his rather special lock up. 278 00:18:06,500 --> 00:18:10,460 Steve, what an amazing sight. An Aladdin's cave. 279 00:18:10,460 --> 00:18:15,340 Yeah, cars and bikes made in Coventry. Absolutely glorious. 280 00:18:15,340 --> 00:18:20,100 So how did Coventry get from watches to bicycles? 281 00:18:20,100 --> 00:18:23,820 There was a slump in the watch-making industry and a few entrepreneurs 282 00:18:23,820 --> 00:18:26,460 opened up sewing machine factories, 283 00:18:26,460 --> 00:18:30,660 because the skills of making a watch was very similar to making a sewing machine. 284 00:18:30,660 --> 00:18:34,980 And then there was slump in the sewing machine manufacturing industry. 285 00:18:34,980 --> 00:18:39,140 Again, these entrepreneurs decided to build some of these French-build boneshakers, 286 00:18:39,140 --> 00:18:41,620 velocipedes as they were also known. 287 00:18:41,620 --> 00:18:48,100 So in 1868, these were brought to Coventry and the sewing machine factory began to manufacture these. 288 00:18:48,100 --> 00:18:49,980 What comes next? 289 00:18:49,980 --> 00:18:53,860 What they began to do, was to make the front wheel on the velocipede bigger, 290 00:18:53,860 --> 00:18:57,300 so we ended up with what's now known as the penny farthing. 291 00:18:57,300 --> 00:18:59,500 Or to call it its right name, the Ordinary. 292 00:18:59,500 --> 00:19:03,180 But it is nicknamed penny farthing because we had a coin called a penny 293 00:19:03,180 --> 00:19:05,820 and a much smaller coin called a farthing. 294 00:19:05,820 --> 00:19:09,060 Exactly. Getting on and off is an issue. 295 00:19:09,060 --> 00:19:12,820 They were made for athletic gentlemen to ride. 296 00:19:12,820 --> 00:19:15,900 But the penny farthing was lacking one vital ingredient... 297 00:19:15,900 --> 00:19:17,820 ..a bicycle chain. 298 00:19:17,820 --> 00:19:23,860 The Eureka moment came in 1885 with the invention of the Rover safety bicycle. 299 00:19:23,860 --> 00:19:27,860 This is the modern bicycle as we know it today. 300 00:19:27,860 --> 00:19:30,780 A fella called John Kemp Starley in Coventry, 301 00:19:30,780 --> 00:19:34,740 he owned the Rover Cycle Company, that became the Rover Car Company, 302 00:19:34,740 --> 00:19:38,540 still existed till very recently, and he developed this bicycle 303 00:19:38,540 --> 00:19:42,620 in the mid-1880s and it is the forerunner of all modern bicycles. 304 00:19:42,620 --> 00:19:45,020 And known as a safety bicycle. 305 00:19:45,020 --> 00:19:49,460 Er...for the good reason that everything that came before was not? Exactly. 306 00:19:49,460 --> 00:19:54,340 During the 1890s, Coventry became the cycle capital of the world, 307 00:19:54,340 --> 00:19:58,580 and companies like Rover were producing thousands of these a year. 308 00:20:00,060 --> 00:20:03,620 So much so that factories grew up all over the city. 309 00:20:03,620 --> 00:20:07,180 From about seven companies in the 1870s 310 00:20:07,180 --> 00:20:11,020 to about 50-odd companies by the 1890s. 311 00:20:11,020 --> 00:20:14,860 It just exploded on the back of this safety bicycle. 312 00:20:14,860 --> 00:20:19,340 And yet, I think of Coventry as being associated with motors? 313 00:20:19,340 --> 00:20:22,820 That's right. So how was that transition made, from bicycles to motors? 314 00:20:22,820 --> 00:20:26,060 Again, same old story, slump in the cycle industry. 315 00:20:26,060 --> 00:20:30,100 So the businessmen and the entrepreneurs who were making cycles 316 00:20:30,100 --> 00:20:33,580 decided to try these new-fangled motor cars that were being developed, 317 00:20:33,580 --> 00:20:35,620 mainly in Germany and France on the Continent. 318 00:20:37,180 --> 00:20:40,500 The bicycle bubble burst in the late 1890s. 319 00:20:40,500 --> 00:20:44,620 Only 20 years later, the car industry was booming. 320 00:20:44,620 --> 00:20:49,820 By 1939, engineers had developed super-fast production lines 321 00:20:49,820 --> 00:20:53,500 and 38,000 people were employed in making cars. 322 00:20:53,500 --> 00:20:58,500 The average price of a family car was around £150. 323 00:21:00,180 --> 00:21:03,220 This lock up is an education to me, I had no idea 324 00:21:03,220 --> 00:21:05,940 so many different types of cars were made in Coventry, 325 00:21:05,940 --> 00:21:11,020 you've got Jaguar, Triumph, Standard, Alvis, Hillman. It's incredible, isn't it? 326 00:21:11,020 --> 00:21:14,980 It is, isn't it? And we've actually recorded 142 car companies 327 00:21:14,980 --> 00:21:18,060 have been registered in the city over the years. 328 00:21:18,060 --> 00:21:22,820 Ranging from small companies like Hillman, who made small...like the Hillman Minx. 329 00:21:22,820 --> 00:21:29,380 Very large cars like this fantastic Jaguar Mark VIII. Top of the range. 330 00:21:29,380 --> 00:21:31,860 What a lovely car that is, isn't it? 331 00:21:31,860 --> 00:21:37,940 It's beautiful, isn't it? It's got a column gear change so you can have a long bench seat in the front. 332 00:21:37,940 --> 00:21:42,140 It has nothing separating the two seats, which for safety, 333 00:21:42,140 --> 00:21:43,700 is not the best idea! 334 00:21:43,700 --> 00:21:47,460 Stick three people on the front bench. And of course no seat belts. That's right. 335 00:21:51,460 --> 00:21:53,900 Are you going by the station? Why not? 336 00:21:53,900 --> 00:21:56,580 Give you a lift in this, if you like. Thank you! 337 00:22:00,060 --> 00:22:05,580 By the 1960s and '70s, the glory days of making cars in Coventry, like this Alvis, 338 00:22:05,580 --> 00:22:08,540 were over and manufacturing was in decline. 339 00:22:08,540 --> 00:22:10,820 Foreign imports swept the market. 340 00:22:10,820 --> 00:22:15,500 But thanks once more to the adaptability and the tenacity of the people of Coventry, 341 00:22:15,500 --> 00:22:17,500 the re-invention continues. 342 00:22:17,500 --> 00:22:19,380 Along with making London taxis, 343 00:22:19,380 --> 00:22:21,980 Coventry's engineers now make high-end parts 344 00:22:21,980 --> 00:22:24,260 for Land Rover and Jaguar, 345 00:22:24,260 --> 00:22:27,460 highly successful products in the luxury car market. 346 00:22:27,460 --> 00:22:29,260 Thank you, Steve. 347 00:22:30,940 --> 00:22:31,940 Bye. 348 00:22:40,300 --> 00:22:43,340 For the next part of my journey, I'm leaving Stephenson's 349 00:22:43,340 --> 00:22:46,340 London to Birmingham main line and heading east. 350 00:22:54,780 --> 00:22:56,100 Tickets and passes, please. 351 00:22:57,540 --> 00:22:59,380 As far as Nuneaton. 352 00:22:59,380 --> 00:23:02,660 That's lovely. Thank you very much. Thank you very much indeed. 353 00:23:02,660 --> 00:23:06,980 I'm travelling across Warwickshire towards Nuneaton to visit 354 00:23:06,980 --> 00:23:11,980 the childhood home of a great 19th-century author, Mary Ann Evans, 355 00:23:11,980 --> 00:23:16,300 who had one thing in common with Bradshaw...by George, she did. 356 00:23:20,820 --> 00:23:23,980 Mary Ann Evans, or George Eliot, as we know her, 357 00:23:23,980 --> 00:23:27,060 lived in Nuneaton for the first 21 years of her life 358 00:23:27,060 --> 00:23:31,100 before moving to London to become an essayist. 359 00:23:31,100 --> 00:23:36,940 Her success is the more remarkable because women writers in the 1850s were very rare. 360 00:23:36,940 --> 00:23:43,460 And while Britain underwent the Industrial Revolution, women's equality was scarcely on the agenda. 361 00:23:43,460 --> 00:23:47,780 I'm keen to find out from John Burton, who's chairman of the George Eliot Fellowship, 362 00:23:47,780 --> 00:23:51,540 why Mary wanted to keep her female identity a secret. 363 00:23:54,420 --> 00:23:57,260 Why did she take a man's pen name? 364 00:23:57,260 --> 00:24:02,500 Well, by the time her first work of fiction came out, she was living, 365 00:24:02,500 --> 00:24:06,020 the Victorians would have said "in sin" with George Henry Lewis. 366 00:24:06,020 --> 00:24:08,660 She couldn't marry him because he was already married. 367 00:24:08,660 --> 00:24:12,660 And so the first work of fiction, I think they used George Eliot 368 00:24:12,660 --> 00:24:15,660 in order to cover the fact that 369 00:24:15,660 --> 00:24:20,460 the press would have made a lot of the fact this was George Henry Lewis' common-law wife, 370 00:24:20,460 --> 00:24:24,220 rather than concentrating on the literary qualities of the novel. 371 00:24:24,220 --> 00:24:28,900 What perception does she bring to her work, why is it she's so remembered? 372 00:24:28,900 --> 00:24:34,900 I think she's so remembered because of the wisdom and the compassion, 373 00:24:34,900 --> 00:24:37,700 actually that she shows when you read her. 374 00:24:37,700 --> 00:24:43,380 She pulls you up short with her pre-Freudian, but psychological insights into human nature, 375 00:24:43,380 --> 00:24:46,020 which I still find quite extraordinary. 376 00:24:46,020 --> 00:24:49,500 I also feel that her humour is wonderful. 377 00:24:49,500 --> 00:24:55,380 It's not laugh-out-loud humour, but it's wonderful, subtle, very understanding, human nature, 378 00:24:55,380 --> 00:24:58,980 really, I think is at the core of what she's writing. 379 00:25:00,020 --> 00:25:03,540 Eliot started writing in the 1850s. 380 00:25:03,540 --> 00:25:06,540 I'd like to know what today's generation thinks. 381 00:25:06,540 --> 00:25:10,420 I'm joining readers from a Nuneaton book club. 382 00:25:10,420 --> 00:25:13,820 As a young person, do you think George Eliot is very challenging? 383 00:25:13,820 --> 00:25:15,460 Yes, definitely. 384 00:25:15,460 --> 00:25:19,540 Although she's a challenging writer, it doesn't mean it's impossible to read. 385 00:25:19,540 --> 00:25:24,060 You've really got to persevere with it, though, because she does really go into detail. 386 00:25:24,060 --> 00:25:26,060 When you can see it for what it is, 387 00:25:26,060 --> 00:25:29,100 you then start to enjoy it and appreciate what she's written. 388 00:25:29,100 --> 00:25:32,460 How would you rank Middlemarch amongst the novels that you've read? 389 00:25:32,460 --> 00:25:35,300 It's up there. I actually prefer some of her other novels. 390 00:25:35,300 --> 00:25:38,140 I think The Mill on the Floss is one of her best. 391 00:25:38,140 --> 00:25:42,500 When you read George Eliot, can you tell that it's a woman who's writing? 392 00:25:42,500 --> 00:25:45,100 I think so, yes, when we read Silas Marner, 393 00:25:45,100 --> 00:25:48,980 the detail she put in about the emotion, 394 00:25:48,980 --> 00:25:51,020 and describing the feelings. 395 00:25:51,020 --> 00:25:55,500 She published anonymously, her very first work of fiction 396 00:25:55,500 --> 00:25:59,540 and people assumed, a bit like the Brontes, really, 397 00:25:59,540 --> 00:26:02,220 that it was a clergyman writing. 398 00:26:02,220 --> 00:26:09,100 Except Charles Dickens, and he was the one person who tumbled to her identity and he commented 399 00:26:09,100 --> 00:26:13,420 on the range of emotional intelligence, we would say today. 400 00:26:13,420 --> 00:26:17,020 You've got a text over there, what are you reading about at the moment? 401 00:26:17,020 --> 00:26:21,300 It's a passage from Middlemarch about when the railways came in. 402 00:26:21,300 --> 00:26:24,340 "In the hundred to which Middlemarch belonged, 403 00:26:24,340 --> 00:26:27,780 "railways were as exciting a topic as the reform bill, 404 00:26:27,780 --> 00:26:31,660 "or the imminent horrors of Cholera and those who held the most 405 00:26:31,660 --> 00:26:35,940 "decided views on the subject were women and landholders. 406 00:26:35,940 --> 00:26:39,700 "Women both old and young regarded travelling by steam as 407 00:26:39,700 --> 00:26:43,540 "presumptuous and dangerous and argued against it by saying 408 00:26:43,540 --> 00:26:46,340 "that 'nothing would induce them to get into a railway carriage'." 409 00:26:47,900 --> 00:26:51,140 Very good, a lovely social observation. Of course, 410 00:26:51,140 --> 00:26:52,820 I think was largely true 411 00:26:52,820 --> 00:26:57,380 until Queen Victoria was persuaded by her husband to travel by train, 412 00:26:57,380 --> 00:27:00,300 at which point it became respectable for women. 413 00:27:00,300 --> 00:27:03,940 So, George Elliot, George Bradshaw, two wonderful 414 00:27:03,940 --> 00:27:06,220 reflections of the Victorian age. 415 00:27:07,820 --> 00:27:11,660 One difference is George Bradshaw's got a train to catch. Bye-bye. 416 00:27:23,660 --> 00:27:30,180 Watch makers in Coventry had to adapt to manufacturing first bicycles and then cars. 417 00:27:30,180 --> 00:27:34,020 Shoe makers in Northampton had to adapt to survive. 418 00:27:34,020 --> 00:27:36,580 Thomas Arnold, of Rugby School, 419 00:27:36,580 --> 00:27:40,740 believed in fashioning young gentlemen with adaptable minds. 420 00:27:40,740 --> 00:27:45,580 But George Eliot demonstrated that an educated woman could take 421 00:27:45,580 --> 00:27:49,020 her place amongst the most eminent Victorians. 422 00:27:54,020 --> 00:27:58,740 On the next leg of my next journey, I swap hats and view life from the other side of the tracks. 423 00:27:58,740 --> 00:28:02,300 All aboard, all aboard. 424 00:28:02,300 --> 00:28:06,660 I discover an astronomical invention that gave Hollywood a facelift. 425 00:28:06,660 --> 00:28:09,340 Am I on the dot? Yes, you are. Yay! 426 00:28:09,340 --> 00:28:11,340 I never expected to get that right. 427 00:28:11,580 --> 00:28:15,380 And my mettle is tested at the world's largest bell foundry. 428 00:28:15,380 --> 00:28:18,300 To say I'm out of my comfort zone is to put it mildly. 429 00:28:18,300 --> 00:28:22,180 There is molten metal leaping around in the room.