In 1840, one man transformed travel in Britain.
His name was George Bradshaw,
and his Railway Guides inspired the Victorians to take to the tracks.
Stop by stop, he told them where to go, what to see and where to stay.
And now, 170 years later, I'm aboard for a series of rail adventures
across the United Kingdom, to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.
Today, I'm beginning a new journey,
curving my way up the spine of England, using mainly branch lines.
These tracks put local trades in touch with big markets
in the city, led to the invention of the commuter
and, most importantly, enabled the Victorian masses to explore
their own country, an experience which I'm repeating today.
On this stretch, I learn to set table aboard an ocean liner.
Thank you very much.
You're faster than me!
MICHAEL LAUGHS
I visit a suspected Solent smugglers' hideaway.
Whoa! What a view!
Isn't that magnificent?
And I discover the tactics employed
by the Victorian temperance movement.
All of a sudden, a group of uniformed invaders come along, shouting,
"Come out of the devil's house! You're going to hell!
"You will not be saved if you carry on drinking this foul liquid!"
My journey starts on the south coast,
heads to Hampshire's garrison town,
takes in the cloth makers of Newbury,
an engineering triumph in Bristol,
and concludes in the West Midlands at Wolverhampton.
This leg starts amidst the luxury cruise liners of Southampton docks,
heads West to the town of Totton,
south east to Netley and ends in riotous Basingstoke.
My first stop today is Southampton.
Bradshaw's says that, "Owing to the advantageous effects
"of the railways, it's become one of our leading commercial ports,
"formed on a scale of great magnitude."
I first visited the city when I was a schoolchild
on a primary school outing
and I remember being so impressed by the scale of everything.
In particular, in those days,
by the magnificent three-funnelled Queen Mary.
Set upon the River Itchen and adjacent to the Solent,
Saxon Southampton was such an important port that,
in the 9th century, it even had its own Royal Mint.
Famous for its docks, and as the port from which
the doomed ocean liner Titanic sailed in 1912,
Southampton received its railway in 1840.
But in those Victorian times
a train ride ended in a different location.
Bradshaw's refers to Southampton Terminus Station.
This is Southampton Central, not, I think, the same place.
I'm going in search of the old station.
A merchant city for hundreds of years,
Southampton prospered during the 19th century,
importing the timber, coal and slate
that would build the factories and urban housing
of Southern England's Industrial Revolution.
And many of those buildings still remain.
This street, Oxford Street, has the feel and shape of a street
that Bradshaw's might have known
and unless I'm much mistaken, that elegant building ahead
must be the old Terminus Station.
When the new docks opened in 1842
the London and South Western Railway was here to transport
passengers and freight from Southampton Terminus Station.
Local historian, Dave Marden, knows more.
Dave, hello. Hello, Michael.
I feel a tear in my eye because this was clearly once a railway station.
Yes, it was a really marvellous station at one time.
It was the main station from Southampton.
We're under the canopy here. Where were the platforms?
The platforms were dead ahead.
It was built in 1839 and the railway through to London
was opened completely in 1840.
Southampton Terminus initially comprised just two platforms and an engine shed
but by the late 1860s, the opulent Imperial Hotel had been added.
Known as "the Ritz of the South",
this glamorous accommodation catered for a surprising clientele.
Not travellers making connections to far-off destinations
but fun seekers who flocked to bathe in the waters of the Solent
and to enjoy the pleasures of Southampton's Royal Pier,
which they reached by train.
Here we are, Michael. This is what's left of the pier.
What was it like in its heyday?
It was generally referred to as "the fun centre of the south".
In the Victorian period we had the pavilion with its ballroom,
exhibitions, bandstand,
paddle steamers taking people on trips up and down the coast.
And the railway came first to the pier and then ran along the pier?
That's right. Originally,
they had just a bare wooden platform on the pier
but when the pier was rebuilt in 1892 it was expanded into
a double platform with canopies, a rather grand place for stopping off
and seeing the delights of the pier.
Thanks so much, Dave. You're welcome. Bye-bye.
As well as a holiday destination,
Southampton remained an important port.
By 1830, 100,000 people were travelling by steamship
from here each year.
And in the early 20th century,
the numbers taking their leave of Britain increased dramatically
as first White Star and then Cunard made Southampton THE place
from which to embark upon a transatlantic journey
aboard an enormous cruise liner.
And that tradition continues today.
Cunard's Queen Elizabeth has just docked.
How are you? Very well, Mr Portillo!
You've just come off the Queen Elizabeth? Yes.
How was it? Very nice. Excellent.
Where have you been? The Canaries and Madeira.
Now, are you habitual cruisers? Yes!
So how long before your next cruise? Three weeks! Three weeks?!
Yeah, it's only a four-day one! Are you just going on?
I am going on, I'm going to have a little look around.
Thank you, bye-bye. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
When you're alongside the Queen Elizabeth,
it really does inspire awe, towering above me, as elegant as a cathedral,
as tall as an office block, as long as a train, and I get to go aboard.
In 1839, Nova Scotian, Samuel Cunard,
founded the British and North American
Royal Mail Steam Packet Company
to transport post between Britain and North America.
As the revenue from passenger journeys gradually outstripped
that gleaned from delivering the mail, Cunard's steamers
became renowned as the fastest across the Atlantic
and in order to remain so, in the early 20th century,
the company built the super-liners Mauretania and Lusitania.
The Queen Elizabeth entered Cunard's service in 2010,
a tribute to her luxurious 1938 namesake.
The first thing you come to on this ship is the grand lobby.
It is spectacular.
Suspended balconies, suspended staircases, chandeliers,
marble floor and this wonderful evocation
of the old Queen Elizabeth, the one built in the 1930s.
One of the ships I remember from my childhood.
Famous as brave Second World War troop carriers
globetrotting ships have always been glamorous, too.
Cunard's current president is Peter Shanks.
Peter, hello. Welcome on board.
Thank you so much.
You've had a lot of very famous people on board.
All the way back into the 19th century and through the 20th.
Who might you pick out?
Well, in 1840, Charles Dickens himself sailed on the Britannia,
our first ship. Now, we weren't particularly pleased
with what he wrote about the experience.
And then there've been presidents, be it Roosevelt,
Churchill was a regular traveller
and then some of the famous Hollywood and British stars,
be it Liz Taylor, Laurel and Hardy, Frank Sinatra, many, many people.
Walt Disney himself loved to travel on the Queen Elizabeth.
Each voyage of the Queen Elizabeth
sees the consumption of almost 12,000 bottles of wine,
nearly 5,000 toothpicks and more than 50,000 eggs.
Resupplying and making ready for each sailing is a mammoth task.
Now, as I came on the ship, people were leaving.
They'd come off the cruise.
How long is it until you'll get a new set of people
and you'll be off again?
2,000 people have left by about ten o'clock
and we'll sail at half past four, full with a new 2,000 people,
and during that time we're working miracles
with the team on board to get everything ready.
Well, that is astonishing. That's an amazing rate of turnaround.
How on earth do you do it?
Well, I thought we could have some fun by asking you to help do it,
Michael, and what better way than to ask our maitre d'
to help you lay a table and see how we get on?
Welcome aboard, sir. Thank you.
It's lovely to see you. What do I do, then?
Well, this is a set of our cutleries here. If you like to help me out,
you start from the other side, I will take a set
and I will start from this side for you, sir.
OK, and I suppose speed is important here.
Speed is important, sir. Very good, sir.
On the left...
Spoon goes on the right. Oh, wait, soup spoon, right.
We can put our dessert cutlery on top.
About the side knives...
Side knife. You haven't given me any side knives...
Oh, yes, you have. There we are, thank you. Thank you very much.
Oh, you're faster than me!
MICHAEL LAUGHS
Bravo!
Thank you very much.
Now. The table isn't complete, because we don't have any napkins.
We'll be doing some napkins.
So we're going to fold the napkin into half.
You can use a chair, if you like, so it will be easy for you.
Now, all about is that you have to be synchronise yourself.
One up, one down,
one up, one down.
And the pleats should be nice, and the same of size.
Leave a little gap.
Mine's going a little bit wild.
Well, that's good.
Turn into half.
Very good. This little quarter of this left napkin, we're going to tuck it in.
Napkin is ready. Oh, yes!
MICHAEL GUFFAWS
Oh, dear. A little more practice, I think!
Sanjay, that's absolutely brilliant. That looks beautiful.
The opulence of the Queen Elizabeth is a reminder that, for those who
could afford it, passage aboard a liner was a luxurious experience.
But they were the lucky few,
because in Bradshaw's day, most travelled steerage.
Your theatre is superb.
But it makes me think, amidst all this elegance,
of people who travelled in less fortunate times.
They were emigrating away from starvation and famine in Europe.
Yes, many to North America.
And we think that, over our history, over the last 170 years,
around ten million people have emigrated to North America
through Cunard Line.
Here we are on the bridge.
It's an amazing space, isn't it?
What a fantastic position from which to control this monster ship.
This is our captain, Alistair Clarke.
Alistair.
I find it quite alarming to park a small BMW.
I mean, what does it feel like to bring one of these things alongside?
It's a very satisfying experience.
And these really rather small levers,
control the whole ship, do they? These do.
So although they're small, it's like power steering in your car.
You don't need to move them far.
Just a little wiggle. Just a little.
If you've got a choppy sea, what do you do about maintaining stability?
Well, we have stabilisers which counteract any roll, but generally,
this ship is an excellent sea ship and she rides very well.
As the Queen Elizabeth sets off on another voyage,
after a long day in this city,
it's time for me to head to my next destination.
As my evening train runs alongside Southampton's busy port,
I thought I would find somewhere more rural to seek my rest
and Bradshaw's tells me, "There are seats", meaning country houses,
"and pretty spots in the neighbourhood
"such as Eaglehurst, near Calshot Castle."
Eaglehurst. That sounds like a pleasant estate
and there I shall spend the night.
Travelling just three stops on the main line toward Poole,
I've crossed the River Test
and I'm alighting at Totton Station to make my way to Eaglehurst.
But my overnight bolt hole is not the grand bungalow
built here by the 7th Earl of Cavan.
My bed for the night lies within a tower
whose history is known to Caroline Stanford from the Landmark Trust.
Caroline, hello. Hello.
Well, what is this? It looks to me like a folly.
Yes well, welcome to Luttrell's Tower.
It is indeed a folly - castellated, 18th-century,
rather picturesque tower, standing on the edge of the Solent.
And named after?
It's named after Temple Simon Luttrell,
who was the gentleman who built it.
He came from an Irish family of slightly disreputable figures.
He was a very, very quarrelsome, cantankerous fellow
so he challenged lots of people to duels, including his own son, even.
Temple Luttrell wasn't just a parliamentarian who liked a duel.
He was also a suspected smuggler,
whose folly comprises a tower reaching high into the sky
for a bird's-eye of view of local shipping,
and a tunnel leading suspiciously to the shore of the Solent.
Do come in.
Surprisingly tall tower when you're going up the steps.
I'm sure the view's going to make it absolutely worth while.
Yeah, it'll all be worthwhile when we get to the very top.
And here we are.
Right on the top.
Oh! It's smaller than I thought. Whoa! But what a view.
Isn't that magnificent?
Yes, it's rather wonderful, isn't it? You can see why he built it here.
Yeah, as follies go, it's really worthwhile.
Such a great place to watch the great liners and ships go by.
Yes, and there've been some very famous ships that have gone past the tower,
including the Titanic.
Radio pioneer Marconi rented Eaglehurst for his radio
experiments and his wife and his daughter stood where we're standing now,
as the Titanic sailed from Southampton on her doomed maiden voyage
and waved together a red silk scarf, with all the passengers
on the ship waving back at them with handkerchiefs and scarves as well.
That's a sad story.
And did the Victorians like this tower?
Yes, even Queen Victoria liked this tower.
As a young princess, she looked at it and seriously considered
buying the estate before she found Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.
I'm really delighted to have found such a beautiful place to spend the night.
Apart from the perfect porridge, this is perfection in every other way.
The sun is streaming through the windows,
the view of the Solent is beautiful and a few hardy souls
are already out in their sailing boats just to decorate the view.
Fully fuelled and ready for the day ahead, I'm heading back to
Southampton Central to catch a connection to my next destination,
located about 20 minutes south east towards Portsmouth,
a line my guide book recommends for its aesthetic charms.
Bradshaw has beautiful descriptions.
"On each side breaks in a view of the Southampton sea, deep blue,
"glistening with silver and vessels."
I'm headed now to Netley. Bradshaw's tells me that,
"Near the ruins of the old abbey, a noble military college has
"recently been erected, and the drum leads me in that direction."
GUARD: Tickets please.
Thank you very much, sir.
Going as far as Netley. OK, nice day for it.
Do you remember a hospital there, do you have any memory of that?
Yes, there was a wartime military hospital at Netley, the chapel is still left there.
Interesting history, eh? Indeed, certainly. Have a good day.
Thank you very much indeed.
ANNOUNCEMENT: The next station is Netley. Please mind the gap.
Upset by the poor standard of care she saw in Chatham on a visit to soldiers wounded in the Crimean War,
Queen Victoria spearheaded the development of an institution
that would revolutionise the treatment of injured troops.
Commissioned in 1856 and set within 200 acres,
the enormous Royal Victoria Hospital took seven years to build.
Deemed too costly to run, in 1966 the hospital was demolished and only the chapel remains.
But curator, Captain Pete Starling, knows what once stood here.
Hello, Pete. Good morning. Nice to meet you.
And this was a military hospital here?
It was, it was our first purpose-built military hospital.
It was a quarter of a mile long... Amazing.
..138 wards and 1,000 beds.
If we look down you can see this line of bricks here,
well, this is the extremity of the hospital.
So if we now look at the chapel and look that way,
you'll see that is actually in the centre of where the hospital was.
So you've got the same distance from here to the chapel, the other side
and that gives you some sense on the size of it. Awe inspiring.
It's in a somewhat remote spot. How did they bring the wounded men here?
Well, in its heyday they brought them here by train.
At the time of the South African war, 1899 to 1902,
they extended the railway line from Netley into the back of the hospital,
and they had this purpose-built covered platform and these
ambulance wagons would be shunted up to the back of the hospital
and all the patients would be off-loaded and wheeled in to the reception.
At a time when many thought faith as powerful a healer as medicine,
the chapel, big enough to house all 1,000 patients,
was at the heart of the hospital.
Even the tower of the chapel is enormous
and it gives you a spectacular view, doesn't it?
Magnificent, isn't it? Particularly over the Solent. Yes.
You have to admire the scale of what they attempted to do here,
and even if we can't see most of the hospital now,
we could attempt to listen to at least one of its sounds.
BELL TOLLS
But not everyone was impressed.
Florence Nightingale voiced serious concern that Netley's cramped wards,
long corridors and lack of ventilation were a perfect
breeding ground for infection.
But the Lady of the Lamp's warnings went unheeded,
and Queen Victoria herself laid the institution's foundation stone.
As she was about to lay the foundation stone,
she placed beneath it a copper casket, and we've got the copper casket here,
with one or two objects that were placed inside it.
A sort of time capsule?
Yes, because she put plans of the hospital inside it,
she put coins of the realm, a Crimean war medal with
the four bars commemorating the four great battles on land of the war.
But more importantly, the Victoria Cross.
The Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the armed forces.
Absolutely. So, this was one of the first Victoria Crosses ever made,
and she placed it in this copper box with that Crimean medal
and it was put beneath the foundation stone,
and the foundation stone was lowered onto the top of it. Amazing.
The wounded of two world wars passed through the wards of this hospital,
and it's become a place of homage.
You've been showing a lot of interest in the chapel today.
Do you have a special reason for being here?
Yes, I have memories of my grandfather.
He was shell-shocked during the First World War
and he was in Netley hospital for quite a long time.
And because we're on holiday here, I wanted to see the Netley hospital.
Where had he been in combat?
In France. I remember hearing him speaking about Mons and the Somme.
And you're clutching some old-looking photographs there. What do they show?
Yes, there is this photograph of my grandfather in hospital.
This X is my grandfather. He was in the Black Watch.
And here in Netley, this?
Yes, because on the back of the photograph, this writing is very old writing. Yes.
"Willy in Netley hospital."
Absolutely clear.
How does it feel today being, there's only the chapel left,
but you are in the place where your grandfather was hospitalised. How does that feel?
Well, I feel a bit emotional. I was only 15 when he died.
Ah, well, I've met you on a special day, thank you for talking.
Thank you, it's a privilege, thank you. Have a safe journey back to Aberdeen.
Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
Bradshaw's is not entirely complimentary about my next stop.
"Basingstoke is a straggling, ill-built town.
"It is nevertheless a place of great antiquity
"and appears in the Domesday Book.
"The inhabitants now mainly depend on the corn and malt trades."
And at this stage of the day, I fancy a cooling glass of beer.
In the Middle Ages, the small market town of Basingstoke grew prosperous on wool and textiles.
And by the 18th century,
its location made it an important watering hole
for the many stage coaches heading south and west from London.
Breweries sprang up to quench the thirst of travellers.
Although the railway's arrival in 1839 saw the trade decline,
in the 1880s there were still four breweries
and almost 60 pubs in a town of less than 7,000 inhabitants.
It was a boozy place, which soon attracted the attention of the growing temperance movement.
I'm meeting Local historian, Bob Clark, to find out about an incident
that placed Basingstoke firmly on the moral map of Bradshaw's Britain.
Well, Bob, you've chosen a lovely quiet spot for a glass of beer.
But it wouldn't have been like this back in 1881.
Can you imagine? We're just sitting here enjoying our beer quietly,
all of a sudden a group of uniformed invaders come along,
dressed in quasi Army uniforms banging a big bass drum,
shouting, "Come out of the Devil's house! You'll go into Hell!
"You will not be saved if you carry on drinking this foul liquid."
You're referring to the Salvation Army, aren't you?
I am indeed, but the Salvation Army is not as we now know it,
a benign organisation that does a lot of useful social work.
They wanted to ban all drink, and of course, because there were so many
people who were dependent on drink for their livelihood in the town,
they felt under threat, so there was a kind of war between the two sides.
In 1878, William Booth's Christian Mission
changed its name to the Salvation Army and declared war on sin.
In 1880, Christian soldiers marched onward into Basingstoke,
where local brewers had whipped up the so-called Massagainians,
a mob to disrupt Booth's campaign against beer and drinking establishments.
In March 1881, matters came to a head in an incident that
became known nationally as The Battle of Church Square.
In the morning the two armies clashed,
Charles Elms, described in court as a muscular Salvationist,
managed to rest the Massagainians' Union Jack, their flag of honour, from them
and that really started the fighting.
There was fighting in the morning.
Charles Elms, for his pains, got his arm broken.
People tumbling over, one poor soul went through a plate glass window of a shop.
The poor chap who had his arm broken in the morning had his head broken
in the afternoon when somebody hit him over the head with a stick.
Somebody else had his jaw broken. Apparently lots of people lost lots of teeth.
This is the most extraordinary, and to me completely unknown story. What were its consequences?
Well, its consequences were that Basingstoke, which nobody had heard of before,
made headlines in the national press.
One journalist described Basingstoke as a benighted little town that
appears to be populated chiefly by a set of barbarians. Now that's fame!
Thank goodness, Bob, you've shaken off that reputation since.
And was this riot unique to Basingstoke?
Oh, no, there were riots in 60 towns, but Basingstoke was the first.
Where Basingstoke leads, other towns follow.
One of the great ocean liners sailing from Southampton bears the name of Queen Victoria.
She made her home on the Isle of Wight, from which she could contemplate the Solent,
sharing a view with those of her soldiers who'd
been wounded fighting to defend her Empire.
I thought I knew the names of the great battles of her reign - Balaclava, Khartoum and Mafeking.
But now I can add another to the roll call...The Battle of Church Square, Basingstoke.
Next time, I encounter the Duke of Wellington's impressive funeral car.
It is the most colossal thing, isn't it? Absolutely enormous.
I get my marching orders from the Army.
Get those knees up, Portillo, get those knees up nice and high.
Ahh!
And I learn of the surprisingly enlightened 19th-century attitude towards the criminally insane.
The Victorians established that people with mental illness who'd committed crime
needed health care. They needed a hospital, not a prison.