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For Victorian Britons, George
Bradshaw was a household name.

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At a time when railways were new,

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Bradshaw's guidebook inspired them
to take to the tracks.

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I am using a Bradshaw's Guide
to understand how trains transformed

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Britain, its landscape, its
industry, society and leisure time.

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As I crisscross the country,
150 years later, it helps me

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to discover the Britain of today.

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Steered by my Bradshaw's guide,

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I am continuing my journey
across Southern Scotland.

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With the coming
of the Industrial Revolution,

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the famed natural beauty of the
River Clyde had to accommodate ship

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building yards that would supply
vessels to the world.

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Down came the trees
and up went the dockyard cranes

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and factory chimney stacks.

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My route this week has carried me
across Scotland from West to East.

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It began at the Firth of Clyde

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and headed through the Scottish
Lowlands to Glasgow.

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I'll turn North to Stirling and
Perth, skirting the Highlands.

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I'll then moved east to Fife

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and the famous university town
of St Andrews from where I'll travel

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to Scotland's capital
where my journey ends.

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On today's leg,

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I begin in Motherwell in the heart
of the Scottish Lowlands,

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before heading south to the
edge of the Clyde coalfields.

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Then it is back to one of Scotland's
most populated areas,

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and my journey ends at Linlithgow,
birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots.

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I meet the kings of molten metal...

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My goodness, that is an
extraordinary sight,

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absolutely vast, isn't it?
What a scale this is built on.

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..rediscover the Victorian love
affair with Scotland...

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Everybody came to the Falls of Clyde
specifically to see Corra Linn,

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the largest waterfall,

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and the largest waterfall
in Britain as well.

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..and visit the home of a mighty
brew.

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It's still a family secret, I had it
passed down to me by my father

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and I have now passed it
through to my daughter.

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George Bradshaw believed that
tourists should see factories,

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the Dundyvan ironworks
are well worth visiting.

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I'm going to get off at Motherwell
to understand how the vast

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demands of the ship building
industry were met

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during the 19th century.

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Motherwell at the beginning
of the Industrial Revolution

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was a small farming
community of about 700 people.

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The town's fortunes were transformed
by the arrival of the railway

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and by 1901 its population had
swelled to 30,000.

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Central to the town's industrial
boom was David Colville's iron

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and steel works, founded in 1871.

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I am meeting Colin Timmins,
manager at Tata Steel,

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heir to that legacy.

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I really don't need to ask you

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whether railways play a part
in your business, they clearly do.

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What do you use them for?

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They are mainly used for the raw
materials coming in

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from Scunthorpe of steel. We bring
1,200 tonnes in at one time.

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When was this set up, this plant?

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1871, the plant was built.

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Basically, an integrated steelworks

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and basically, we've supplied steel
to a lot of the

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famous railway bridges.

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If you look at the Tay Bridge
disaster

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that we had in the last century,
this plant provided modern

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good-quality steel
for the rebuilding of that bridge.

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If you look at the Forth Rail Bridge,
we provided iron for this

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bridge also, which is quite
unbelievable that the structure

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still stands today,

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and to me is one of the wonders
of the world.

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The Forth Rail Bridge required
a staggering 58,000 tonnes of steel.

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The structure demonstrated
the advantage of malleable steel

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over brittle cast iron.

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And so, really, unbelievable
quantities of steel

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have gone into these works.

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Oh, more than a million
tonnes into the North Sea alone.

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And when you start to
look at shipping, bridge building,

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trains themselves, you have no idea
of the quantities we are producing.

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Over 130, 140 years of history.
Quite unbelievable.

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The company's first steel plant
was the Dalzell steel

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and iron works with 20 puddling
furnaces employing 200 men.

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Under the energetic direction
of Mr Colville, it soon gained a

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reputation for quality

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and Motherwell gained its nickname
of Steel-opolis.

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Today, the Dalzell plate mill
is one of only two

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remaining in Motherwell.

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What we have here is we have
got 16 small furnaces and one very,

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very large furnace.
Absolutely vast, isn't it?

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What a scale this was built on.

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The factory's rolling mill turns out
up to 10,000 tonnes

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of plate steel in a week.

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Its customers come from
construction, shipbuilding

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and offshore engineering.

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What am I going to see here, Colin?

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What you're going to see, Michael, is
a slab which has been unloaded,

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treated and it's then going to come
out of the socking patch,

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it could be anything
from three tonnes.

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In fact we have got the capability to
roll slabs up to 30 tons.

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As you can see now, the operator is
taking the lid off the furnace,

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and the crane is going to
go in and lift the slab.

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The temperature inside the furnace
is almost 1,000 Celsius.

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As you can see, Michael, you can
see the slab on the crane just now.

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Roughly, the slab
weighs 12 to 13 tonnes.

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Those immense pinchers have
gone in there.

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It is a set of pinchers,
we call them tongs,

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which will lift the slab very
carefully out of the furnace.

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Oh, my goodness, that is
an extraordinary sight.

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What the crane will do is take
the slab down onto the roller table.

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Quite an alarming feeling to have a
piece of molten steel rushing

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towards you like that.
Absolutely, it is very, very warm.

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Feel the heat of that.
Fantastic.

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The slab is entering
the descaling process.

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This is where any
impurities in the metal are removed

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before the steel is rolled.

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As you see, the surface of the slab
is now clean. Yes.

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So you minimise any risk of rolling
in some dirt in the mill.

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It is a great feat of German
engineering which was

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put in during the '70s
and modernised many times.

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As you can see, it will go through
here, we will do a number of passes

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through the mill itself and that will
go from slab form to plate form.

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Those plates can be how thick?

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The plates can be
anything from 12 millimetres thick

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up to about 200 millimetres.

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And so you're putting it in again
and again

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and flattening it out bit by bit,
down to the right thickness?

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Yes. We will put it through the mill
15, 16, 17 times

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to get to the gauge that we
require.

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I can understand why educated
tourists in the 19th century

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would gasp in awe visiting
a plant like this.

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I feel the continuity of history
in a facility that manufactured

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steel for the Titanic and
the Lusitania

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and still supply steel
plate for British warships today.

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I never saw anything
on such a scale.

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The crashes and bangs, the heat, the
steam, the whole thing

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is deeply impressive.

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As I make tracks south, I am
reminded that Scotland has long been

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a land of contrasts,
of heavy industry,

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and picturesque countryside
and it was this magnificence

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of nature in the raw that literally
made Victorian ladies swoon.

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My next stop will be Lanark.

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Bradshaw's tells me that travellers
can visit the Falls of Clyde

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and the romantic
scenery in the neighbourhood.

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Independent of the magnificent
waterfalls, the beauty of the

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country, and the picturesque views
are a source of great attraction.

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As even in rural Lanarkshire,

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cotton mills began to spring
up on the river banks.

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Aesthetes yearned for
preindustrial simplicity.

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During the 18th century,

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the grand European tour was a normal
part of the education of young

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aristocrats, but when the continent
was put beyond bounds

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during the Napoleonic Wars, Scotland
became the fashionable destination.

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The route between Edinburgh

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and Lanark became popular with
landscape lovers.

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I am meeting local guide,
Alison Galbraith.

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Alison, Bradshaw's is ecstatic.

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Corra Lin fall, 84 feet, considered
by some to be

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the finest of the falls.

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"To describe the beauties of the
scene is an almost impossible task,

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"requiring the glowing language
of a poet to do justice to them,"

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and I think actually more than one
poet came here in 1802.

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Yes, Wordsworth and Coleridge, and
Wordsworth's sister Dorothy as well.

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They were doing their petite tour,

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they had come from the Lake District

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and were making their way around the
beauty spots, everybody came

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to the Falls of Clyde to
see Corra Linn,

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the largest waterfall in Britain.

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Would this have been an arduous
journey in those days?

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I can't imagine it would
have been easy,

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because this was just before the
trains that Dorothy and William

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and Coleridge came, so they were
definitely with a horse and trap.

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Dorothy doesn't
complain that it is arduous,

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but they certainly got out and walked
alongside their horse quite a lot.

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Their trip in 1802 took six weeks
and covered 663 miles.

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It was a kind of literary
pilgrimage for romantics.

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I mean, you are in a lovely
19th-century costume here

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and I imagine that actually your
long skirt dragging in the mud,

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this would all have been quite
inconvenient. Definitely.

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I think the Victorian ladies must
have had some metal

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and spirit to do what they did.

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Just having to hitch your skirts up
to walk up the inclines is

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exciting enough as it is, but
a lot of the paths had 30 to 40 steps

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chiselled down the gorge to the
falls,

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so they must have been very
game.

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Dorothy made notes on some
of the journey's more challenging

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aspects, describing the road quality
as "most excellent" or "roughish",

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or wretchedly bad.

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But such hardship did not
discourage this romantic trio.

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Wordsworth wrote "Lord of the vale,
astounding flood,

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"the dullest leaf in this thick wood
quakes conscious of thy power.

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"The caves reply with hollow moan."

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Clearly very impressed by the
majesty of the place.

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Yes, certainly when Dorothy
and William where here, the full

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force of the water would have come
over and it really is quite a sight.

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But the falls were tamed in 1926 by
Britain's first hydroelectric

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power station.

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Situated between Corra Linn
and Dundaff Linn,

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this plant can generate up
to 11 megawatts of power.

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January and November, the force
of the water would resemble what

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Wordsworth
and Coleridge were seeing back then.

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J.M.W. Turner painted a classical
scene of naked bathing beauties

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here in 1802.

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Just over 50 years later,

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it was the Caledonian Railway
that provoked controversy.

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There's an interesting piece in one
of the papers of the day that

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describes how the gentleman
on the other side of the falls,

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Lord Cranston, complains about the
cheap train tickets attracting

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day visitors who are no longer
welcome on his estate.

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But Lady Mary Ross was from
Bonnington House on this side

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of the river,
now the wildlife reserve.

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She was instrumental
in maintaining paths

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00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:26,880
and she actively encouraged
the tourists to come.

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They were also treated
in the pavilion, to have cups of tea

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and as they went in there,
the mirrors on the ceiling reflected

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the falls, so apparently
ladies would swoon

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and faint with the awesome view -
it wouldn't be awesome back then,

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though, would it? The majestic,

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sublime view of water cascading down
upon their heads.

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00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:53,560
In this television age,
you don't see tourists swooning,

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but they still travel
to marvel at the falls.

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Dorothy Wordsworth's recollections
of a tour made in Scotland

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remains a classic of picturesque
travel writing.

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The next stop on my journey
is just downstream.

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Bradshaw's tells me that no stranger
ought to omit visiting

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the far famed village of New Lanark.

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It was established in 1784
by Robert Owen's father-in-law.

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00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:26,640
Robert Owen then acquired
the village.

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He was a philanthropist on his way
to becoming a socialist.

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For example, he would buy goods
in bulk which could be sold

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in the village shops to the workers
at little more than cost price,

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and that idea was the origin
of the co-operative movement.

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Within this beautifully restored
18th-century cotton mill,

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which is part of the New Lanark
World Heritage Site,

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00:14:51,560 --> 00:14:53,560
I'll find my bed for the night.

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Excited by the prospect
of a new day,

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I've headed back to Lanark Station
to take the train via Motherwell.

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At my next destination,
the railway station opened in 1848

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and closed the following year
because the village was too small.

234
00:15:27,160 --> 00:15:30,200
You wouldn't say that any more
about Cumbernauld.

235
00:15:30,200 --> 00:15:33,280
Since I visited the steelworks
at Motherwell, I have been

236
00:15:33,280 --> 00:15:37,000
wondering what the workers drank
to keep up their energy levels.

237
00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:39,760
What brew was appropriate for those
men of iron?

238
00:15:42,520 --> 00:15:45,520
These days, Cumbernauld Station
serves one of the most

239
00:15:45,520 --> 00:15:47,360
populated areas of Scotland.

240
00:15:48,560 --> 00:15:52,920
Since 2007, it has been home
to one of Scotland's bestselling

241
00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:57,680
soft drinks, born at the peak
of the country's industrial boom.

242
00:15:57,680 --> 00:16:01,640
I'm hitching a lift to Cumbernauld's
Irn-Bru factory with

243
00:16:01,640 --> 00:16:05,120
delivery driver John Spence,
working my passage.

244
00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:11,640
Hello, John. Hello, sir, how
are you doing? Good to see you.

245
00:16:15,280 --> 00:16:17,720
You've been doing this a while,
haven't you?

246
00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:21,160
Yeah, I've been doing it for 50 year.
50 years?!

247
00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:24,520
So what do you need
if you're going to last in a job?

248
00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:28,760
A sense of fun. Over and above
that you need a good hand,

249
00:16:28,760 --> 00:16:32,600
people that help you, like your
van mate. I've been very lucky.

250
00:16:32,600 --> 00:16:35,360
I've had some quite good van mates
over the years.

251
00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:36,880
Do you think
I'll be up to the job?

252
00:16:36,880 --> 00:16:39,440
Oh, yes, I'm positive
you'll be up to the job.

253
00:16:39,440 --> 00:16:43,120
You'll maybe even last 50 years
the same as what I've done!

254
00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:46,840
'I've always thought that whisky
was Scotland's national drink

255
00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:50,360
'but this concoction also lays claim
to carry the saltire.'

256
00:16:53,120 --> 00:16:55,920
Here we go, Michael.
Whoa, look at all that!

257
00:16:59,240 --> 00:17:04,480
'In 1767, Englishman
Joseph Priestley suspended a bowl

258
00:17:04,480 --> 00:17:07,240
'of distilled water
above a beer vat

259
00:17:07,240 --> 00:17:09,920
'and discovered how to make
carbonated water.

260
00:17:11,200 --> 00:17:13,080
'The water had a pleasant taste

261
00:17:13,080 --> 00:17:16,320
'and spawned an industry
in fizzy drinks.'

262
00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:20,040
Ah, you're doing great.

263
00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:24,080
So would you like to take some stuff
into the shop for us?

264
00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:25,680
Oh, yes, please.

265
00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:27,960
Right. Down.

266
00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:29,560
Bring it in. Hold it.

267
00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:32,040
And then tilt it back. Whoa!

268
00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:37,400
'This beverage owes its origin
to the Barr family,

269
00:17:37,400 --> 00:17:42,320
'who opened their first soft drink
factory in Falkirk in 1875.'

270
00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:44,920
And if you'd like to put them up
on the shelves.

271
00:17:49,560 --> 00:17:52,800
Ah, you're doing a grand job,
Michael. Ah, thank you!

272
00:17:52,800 --> 00:17:54,320
Don't smash any of them!

273
00:17:54,320 --> 00:17:56,160
THEY LAUGH

274
00:17:58,320 --> 00:18:00,320
You need real bottle to do this job.

275
00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:07,680
'And just as in Bradshaw's day,
the bottles are recycled.'

276
00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:12,880
Well, here we go, Michael,
we'll get the empties on the lorry.

277
00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:18,720
Oops!

278
00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:21,080
One down. Health and safety.

279
00:18:21,080 --> 00:18:24,040
I've had nothing to do at this
delivery.

280
00:18:28,240 --> 00:18:31,080
The destination for our
empty bottles is

281
00:18:31,080 --> 00:18:33,840
the state-of-the-art factory
at Cumbernauld which,

282
00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:39,080
since it opened, has produced almost
200 million litres of soft drinks.

283
00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:44,800
Despite its scale,
this is still a family firm

284
00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:48,240
and Robin Barr is showing me
where my empties will go.

285
00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:53,960
Well, this is the return of a bottle
line here which is, I think,

286
00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:57,240
the only returnable bottle line
left in the UK.

287
00:18:57,240 --> 00:19:01,440
The customer gets money back if he
brings a bottle back? Yes, they do.

288
00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:05,240
This was the only pack in 1875

289
00:19:05,240 --> 00:19:09,360
and it was the only pack that soft
drinks were sold in

290
00:19:09,360 --> 00:19:11,360
right up to the 1960s.

291
00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:16,600
'When the Barr family opened
its first soft drinks factory

292
00:19:16,600 --> 00:19:20,080
'it was one of hundreds of Scottish
manufacturers, selling to men

293
00:19:20,080 --> 00:19:24,920
'and women doing tough physical work
in the crowded industrial towns.'

294
00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:28,120
What was the appeal
of the product in those days?

295
00:19:28,120 --> 00:19:31,640
It had a lot of appeals,
it was obviously a nice refreshment,

296
00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:33,440
as it is today.

297
00:19:33,440 --> 00:19:37,920
Partly, it gave a lot of energy
because of the sugar content.

298
00:19:37,920 --> 00:19:41,400
And the quantity of energy
was quite important,

299
00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:45,080
but also there was a slight
safety factor,

300
00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:50,280
that most soft drinks manufacturers
were based on a site where there was

301
00:19:50,280 --> 00:19:55,720
a well, and the quality of the water
was therefore guaranteed to be pure.

302
00:19:55,720 --> 00:19:58,680
'To make the most of
this natural ingredient,

303
00:19:58,680 --> 00:20:01,480
'the manufacturers took full
advantage of everything

304
00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:03,880
'that 19th-century technology
had to offer.'

305
00:20:05,160 --> 00:20:08,920
Do you make use of the railways?
We did in 1875.

306
00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:12,280
But most, if not all,
of our main supplies

307
00:20:12,280 --> 00:20:16,800
came from the south of England,
from London.

308
00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:19,240
It was a firm, Reilly,
who made machinery,

309
00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:22,960
there was a firm, Stephenson
and Howe who made essences,

310
00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:27,480
from whom we still buy essences
today and all these supplies

311
00:20:27,480 --> 00:20:31,800
in 1875 would have come up
on the railway line to Falkirk.

312
00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:35,760
'In the early years, the Barr family
produced all sorts of drinks,

313
00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:38,160
'from lemonade to ginger beer.

314
00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:41,760
'But one particular brand
sealed their fortune.'

315
00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:45,120
Your most famous product,
when was that developed?

316
00:20:45,120 --> 00:20:51,040
That was in Victorian times,
and was introduced to a recipe

317
00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:54,440
that my great-grandfather

318
00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:59,520
and my great uncle put together
themselves.

319
00:20:59,520 --> 00:21:03,040
Do you know that recipe? Yes, I do,
it's still a family secret.

320
00:21:03,040 --> 00:21:07,600
I had it passed it down to me
by my father

321
00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:10,760
and I've now passed it
through to my daughter,

322
00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:13,920
so that there will be a continuation
even when I'm gone.

323
00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:18,520
The magic formula soon became a hit.

324
00:21:18,520 --> 00:21:21,600
Thanks in part to innovative
marketing featuring

325
00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:23,680
the nation's most famous athletes.

326
00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:28,640
The name... Is it connected
with the steam industry?

327
00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:32,320
I suppose it is, in the sense
that clearly people made

328
00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:36,880
an association with the heavy
industries in Scotland at that time,

329
00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:40,640
the iron and steel
and shipbuilding industries.

330
00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:43,560
Does it have any iron in it?
Oh, yes, it does.

331
00:21:43,560 --> 00:21:47,560
Ammonium ferric citrate is
one of the ingredients.

332
00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:49,680
And what does that do for you?

333
00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:53,360
I don't know,
if I say it puts hairs on your chest

334
00:21:53,360 --> 00:21:55,800
I won't sell much
Irn-Bru to the ladies!

335
00:21:55,800 --> 00:21:57,200
MICHAEL LAUGHS

336
00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:03,800
Back on board,

337
00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:07,600
I'm eastward bound
for West Lothian's county town.

338
00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:19,760
I'm on my way to Linlithgow.

339
00:22:19,760 --> 00:22:24,440
Bradshaw says, "This county does not
possess that romantic scenery

340
00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:27,960
"for which the Scottish mountains
are celebrated.

341
00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:32,240
"But the estates are laid out
in the very best of taste.

342
00:22:32,240 --> 00:22:36,160
"In every quarter, the Forth River
assumes a singular variety

343
00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:42,000
"of aspects - hills, promontories,
winding bays, lofty shores."

344
00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:44,760
The Scottish rivers are highly
attractive

345
00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:47,360
but not very suitable for shipping.

346
00:22:47,360 --> 00:22:50,680
That was a problem
until the canals came along.

347
00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:57,000
'Linlithgow is the birthplace
of Mary Queen of Scots.

348
00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:00,240
'And its palace was home
to the Stewart kings.

349
00:23:00,240 --> 00:23:04,160
'I'm interested in its more recent
past and I'm meeting Mike Smith,

350
00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:08,480
'who is chairman of the Linlithgow
Union Canal Society.'

351
00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:10,560
Permission to board. Please do.

352
00:23:10,560 --> 00:23:15,040
'The Union Canal was built to
provide a direct inland connection

353
00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:19,440
'between Glasgow and Edinburgh,
as well as between the coasts.

354
00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:21,400
'It was constructed in 1818

355
00:23:21,400 --> 00:23:24,160
'at a cost of almost
half a million pounds.'

356
00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:29,880
Mike, what was the impact
of the canals on Scotland?

357
00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:35,120
In its local areas where they were,
quite astonishing, this was

358
00:23:35,120 --> 00:23:40,040
the sudden access of a motorway
between the major cities of Scotland,

359
00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:42,640
this canal. And of course,
the Forth and Clyde Canal,

360
00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:46,040
between the two great estuaries,
made a tremendous difference,

361
00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:47,680
particularly to the fishing fleets,

362
00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:50,600
because they could follow the fish
either side of the country,

363
00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:52,800
by going through the Forth
and Clyde as a ship canal.

364
00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:57,040
What were the cargoes?
Mostly coal. Ironstone.

365
00:23:57,040 --> 00:23:59,840
And what they called freestone,
which is a stone

366
00:23:59,840 --> 00:24:02,480
that's easily made into buildings.

367
00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:05,320
A huge appetite for that
in Edinburgh.

368
00:24:05,320 --> 00:24:06,920
And the Slamannan Railway,

369
00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:09,920
which terminated at a basin
on this canal, which

370
00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:13,640
was a joint venture between the canal
company and the railway company,

371
00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:17,800
used to bring these materials up
from the North Lanarkshire

372
00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:21,600
coal fields and put them on the boats
and take them into Edinburgh

373
00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:25,880
lock-free. It was well worth
investing in that railway

374
00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:28,560
because it halved
the journey distance

375
00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:31,400
and knocked 75% off
the time involved.

376
00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:36,320
'The resourcefulness and imagination
of the men who designed

377
00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:38,840
'the canals never fails to amaze me.

378
00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:43,040
'The engineers Hugh Baird and his
mentor Thomas Telford came up with

379
00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:45,200
'impressive navigation solutions.

380
00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:50,200
'64 stone bridges and three major
aqueducts enable a continuous

381
00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:52,920
'ribbon of water
to run through the land.'

382
00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:58,720
This canal was lock-free all
the way to the end at Falkirk

383
00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:03,000
and there was a single flight of
11 locks down to join the Forth

384
00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:06,320
and Clyde, but the whole idea
of gathering them there was

385
00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:09,280
that the rest of the canal
should be rapid transport.

386
00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:13,840
'With a 35 metre difference
in height, it required 3,500 tonnes

387
00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:18,400
'of water per run and took most of
the day to pass through the flight.'

388
00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:22,280
I suppose the locks were the thing
that slowed down the freight.

389
00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:25,760
Absolutely, and that is why this was
built as a contour canal.

390
00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:29,120
What was the locomotion?
On the canal? This canal? Horses.

391
00:25:29,120 --> 00:25:30,560
Exclusively horses.

392
00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:34,320
It didn't survive commercially long
enough to get mechanised.

393
00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:38,280
'With growing competition from
the railways, the canal declined

394
00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:40,840
'and was eventually closed.

395
00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:43,960
'But thanks to
the Millennium Link project,

396
00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:48,080
'in 2001 the canal was
triumphantly reopened

397
00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:52,520
'and Mike wants me to see a marvel
of the 21st century.'

398
00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:00,960
Well, here we are at the top
of the Falkirk Wheel.

399
00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:03,200
I've never seen
a structure like that.

400
00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:05,880
It looks as though we're just
going to go off the end.

401
00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:08,200
It does, doesn't it?
But I hope we're not!

402
00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:12,720
So, in one go, we are going
to do the equivalent of 11 locks.

403
00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:15,160
Effectively, yes.

404
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:17,200
We are an amazing height.

405
00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:19,640
Any idea how far we go down?

406
00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:23,680
It's just short of 100 feet.
Just short of 100 feet. Wow.

407
00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:26,800
Each case in the big tub
that we are sitting in,

408
00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:29,680
each is identical in size
and when they're full of water,

409
00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:32,960
they are identical in weight.
So the thing is perfectly balanced.

410
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:35,600
So, in principle, you could just
give it a little shove

411
00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:38,840
and it would slowly rotate
under momentum.

412
00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:43,200
'It works according to the
Archimedes' principle of
displacement.

413
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:46,600
'The boat will displace its own
weight of water in the tub

414
00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:50,400
'so that the weight of boat plus
water in the rising tub is

415
00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:52,880
'balanced by the one descending.

416
00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:55,400
'Now that's what I call clever.'

417
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:59,080
'And it's also, to my mind,
extremely beautiful.'

418
00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:02,520
Mike, I think that is
the weirdest feeling.

419
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:06,200
We have a very gradually sunk down
but actually watching

420
00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:09,800
the other case rise, that is going
past us quite fast, isn't it?

421
00:27:09,800 --> 00:27:14,080
Yes. It's odd,
how points of view differ.

422
00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:18,360
A massive piece of machinery.
Huge, isn't it?

423
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:32,880
William Wordsworth might lament
the railway age, which brought

424
00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:37,120
hordes of tourists to beauty spots
like the Falls of Clyde,

425
00:27:37,120 --> 00:27:40,640
but in truth, there had been
a transport revolution

426
00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:42,320
before the Victorians,

427
00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:47,160
when a brilliant generation
of engineers built the canals.

428
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:51,760
A young cartographer who was in awe
of their achievements

429
00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:54,360
began his career by mapping them.

430
00:27:54,360 --> 00:27:57,960
His name was George Bradshaw.

431
00:28:01,120 --> 00:28:04,440
Next time, I visit the scene
of a bloody battle...

432
00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:08,360
And eventually the English are forced
back to a position where

433
00:28:08,360 --> 00:28:10,200
they are in complete chaos.

434
00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:13,680
'..enjoy a lesson in the skills
of an ancient craft...'

435
00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:17,600
It doesn't sound like it sounded
with you. You need more porridge.

436
00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:19,120
More porridge!

437
00:28:19,120 --> 00:28:22,640
'..and soothe my traveller's
taste buds.'

438
00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:28,040
Mm, I'm slipping into ecstasy.

439
00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:30,200
Very, very fruity. Lovely.