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For Victorian Britons,
George Bradshaw was a household name.

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00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:11,520
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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00:00:16,160 --> 00:00:18,040
I'm using a Bradshaw's guide

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00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:21,000
to understand how trains
transformed Britain,

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00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:26,400
its landscape, its industries,
society and leisure time.

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

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00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:33,560
to discover the Britain of today.

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I'm continuing my journey

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00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:57,040
through the verdant landscape
of northwest England

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towards its industrial heart,

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where the Victorian working class
lived and worked

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00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:09,280
in a new cityscape of factories,
railway stations and terraced houses.

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On this journey, I want to find out

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what daily life was like
for the nation's first urban workers

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and how they documented it
in art and poetry.

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This week I'm travelling
through northwest England

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to the West Midlands.

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I started in Cumbria,

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winding south through the spectacular
countryside of the Lake District,

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and I'm continuing on to Lancashire,

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heart of the Industrial Revolution,

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before I head further south
to Staffordshire.

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On today's stretch
I begin in Preston,

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travel southeast
to a market town, Darwen,

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discover a dark tale in Entwistle

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and hear stories of
matchstick men in Salford.

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I'll end this leg on Kersal Moor.

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In this episode, I dabble
in 21st-century technology...

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Feels like some medical procedure.

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..learn a thing or two about art...

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I'm sure you're almost about to
say matchstick figures,

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aren't you, Michael?
Well, matchsticks they are not.

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They are much more observed,
much more acute.

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..and enjoy a good old
Lancashire sing-song.

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# As they did
when he meazur't me finger

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# For th' little gowd ring
last neet. #

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Bravo!

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My journey continues to
take me south,

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today towards the heart
of Lancashire manufacturing.

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Bradshaw's tells me
that Preston possessed,

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before the passing of
the Great Reform Act of 1832,

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"the only real democratic
electoral suffrage in the kingdom.

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"All its inhabitants
above 21 years of age,

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"if free from the taint of pauperism,
were entitled to a vote."

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The 19th century brought
an industrial revolution but also

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a vast extension of the suffrage and
improvements in conditions of work.

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And in those battles, some of the
first shots were fired in Preston.

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The city sits between coastal plain,
river valley and moorland.

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By the time my guidebook was
published in the 1860s,

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Preston had been transformed

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from an unassuming market town
dotted with weavers' cottages

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into a densely-populated centre
of 70,000 people

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built around 60 or so cotton mills.

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Today the factories are long gone,

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but the memory
of their workers lives on.

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I'm meeting local historian
and trade unionist Jim Leigh

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at Preston Market.

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According to Bradshaw's,
there was a lot of industrial unrest

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in the first half of
the 19th century.

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Was there something very special
about Preston?

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There was. Preston had a notoriety
as a very militant town.

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I think it was a combination
of extremely low wages

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paid in the town together with
shockingly poor housing conditions.

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80% of the town depended on
the mills for employment and housing.

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Workers faced long hours
and dangerous conditions.

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Their houses were filthy, cramped and
overcrowded, so disease spread fast.

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Towards the end of the 19th century,

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Preston had one of the highest rates
of infant mortality in the country.

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I believe there was a big event
in 1842.

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What was the background to that?

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A severe recession was gripping
the country, unemployment was high

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and employers up and down the land
began cutting wages.

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So there's a lot of anger
and frustration out there.

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In response, a working-class
movement, Chartism, tried to unite

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workers across Britain in a strike
over pay and factory conditions.

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In August 1842, Preston's mill
workers joined the protest.

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And how did matters develop?

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Groups of men and youths
began assembling about the town.

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Soon these small groups converged
into one large group,

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who then began visiting every mill
and workshop across the town

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and successfully
brought them to a standstill.

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The Mayor and magistrates,

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accompanied by a detachment
of soldiers,

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resolved to confront the protestors.

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What had been a peaceful protest
escalated into a violent one.

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Jim, it comes to be known
as the Lune Street Riot. How?

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They went about stopping the mills
wherever they could find them

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the following day.

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The strikers then began
proceeding up Lune Street

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and it was here that they were
confronted by the military.

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And it was there that
the Riot Act was read out.

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We quite often refer
to reading the Riot Act

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without perhaps thinking
what it means,

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but I've got here what is read out

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by someone like the Mayor of Preston
on such an occasion.

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"Our Sovereign Lady the Queen
chargeth and commandeth all persons

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"being assembled immediately
to disperse themselves and peaceably

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"to depart to their habitations
or to their lawful businesses

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"upon the pains contained in the act

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"made in the first year
of King George I

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"for preventing tumults and riotous
assemblies. God save the Queen."

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The cotton workers
refused to back down

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and the military opened fire,
killing four of them.

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The tragic event of 1842
has not been forgotten

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and 150 years later

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a monument was erected
to commemorate this fateful day.

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Jim, this is a very striking
monument. What was its inspiration?

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I believe it's based
on the famous Goya painting

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that depicted a scene
from the Napoleonic Wars.

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And I see that flowers are laid.

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Yes, these are from Workers
Memorial Day, which commemorates

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workers who died at work each year.

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Jim, you're a trade unionist,

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I'm sure you've been
involved in a few disputes.

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How do you assess
the significance of this event?

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This is extremely important.

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It's part of Preston's radical
history which continues to this day.

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Little changed for the mill workers
in the aftermath of the riot, but

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the event retains a symbolic place
in Britain's working-class history.

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The next leg of my journey
takes me southeast.

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I have to change at Blackburn

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before heading across
the West Pennine moors.

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I'm on my way to Darwen.

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Bradshaw's tells me that
the paper mills of Messrs Potter

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produced 400 miles of paper,
weighing 40 tonnes, per day.

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Increasing quantities of paper
were needed to adorn

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the walls of the middle classes,

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bringing the colours of nature
into the Victorian drawing room.

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The town sits in a valley amid
90 square miles of open moorland.

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Following the arrival
of the railway in 1847,

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Darwen, like many northern towns,
began to develop industrially.

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The manufacture of paper
and textiles led it to become

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one of the largest Victorian
mill towns in Lancashire.

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The mills have long since shut

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but a paint factory rich in
Victorian heritage is still

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going strong in the town today.

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It's here that I'm meeting customer
services director Geraldine Huxley.

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Geraldine, the company mentioned
in my Bradshaw's guide is Potters,

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which was making paper.

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What is the connection between that
and today's company?

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Well, John Potter was
a Manchester businessman

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and he came to live in the area
and he married

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the daughter of the gentleman
who invented the calico printing.

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He actually came into the business
and took over and turned it into

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a mechanical operation
rather than a manual operation.

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In 1839, the Potters developed a
steam-driven surface printing machine

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which enabled them
to mass-produce wallpaper.

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With the repeal of
the wallpaper tax in 1836,

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wallpaper became
a very important element

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of Victorian interior decoration,
replacing panelling and tapestries.

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William Morris's
Trellis pattern of 1864

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influenced generations of designers
and remains popular today.

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Which came first in Darwen,
wallpaper or paint?

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Wallpaper, definitely. Paint wasn't
really experimented with until 1904,

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some 100 years later.

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In the Edwardian period,

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brighter, paler colours were made
using synthetic dyes

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produced by the rapidly-developing
chemical industry.

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Potters paint also played
an important part beyond

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the homes of the middle classes.

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Something of special interest,
I think you will find,

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is the palette of paints
that were specially designed

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for the railway industry.

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"British Railways Eastern Region
standard colour range for paint".

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Now, some of these are what I would
expect, these kind of muted browns

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and beiges, but actually,
some of them are quite bright.

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Look at this vivid yellow and
look at that sort of scarlet colour.

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Very nice indeed.

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Today, the company produces

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a staggering
385,000 litres of paint per day -

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enough to fill 38 Olympic-sized
swimming pools every year.

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I'm heading to the research
and development department

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to meet David Booth.

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There's a vast range of colours here

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and a layman might think that
all possible colours are here.

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But I've been thinking about whether
I could match this jacket here

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and at first I thought
it was something like that... No.

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Uh... No, it's far too orange.

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00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:24,640
Wait a minute, what about this one?

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That's the nearest,
but it's too weak.

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So how will I match that up?

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What we can do is take your jacket
and actually put it onto the machine

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and we'll get a prediction
and make the paint up.

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So I could buy a colour like that
and paint my wall,

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just in case I wanted to camouflage
myself at home. You could, yes.

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Can we give it a go?
Yeah, we can indeed.

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Right, can you please put your arm
in there and push it up tight...

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Whoops! ..against the machine?

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00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:49,520
Leave it there for a moment.

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This is very weird.

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A spectrophotometer analyses
colour composition by measuring

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the reflected light from a sample.

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00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:03,600
Feels like some medical procedure,
like having my blood pressure taken!

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00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:06,600
Now David selects a base paint

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00:12:06,600 --> 00:12:09,280
and the appropriate pigments
from a database.

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Oh! I can see those streams
of colour going in there.

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It's the moment of truth.

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Whoa! Look at that!

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Portillo pink. Stock up now,
it will be in fashion next year!

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00:12:25,640 --> 00:12:28,760
I'd love to stay
and paint the town pink,

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but I have a short journey to make
before the day is out.

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00:12:33,320 --> 00:12:36,520
I'm heading five miles south
through East Lancashire

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00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:40,720
on the Ribble Valley line to
a rural station just north of Bolton.

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00:12:42,280 --> 00:12:45,480
Entwistle. Request stop?
That's correct.

206
00:12:45,480 --> 00:12:47,920
Could we stop at Entwistle, please?
You certainly can.

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00:12:47,920 --> 00:12:50,480
Make it easier to get off.
Yes. Thank you.

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00:12:50,480 --> 00:12:51,760
Don't forget!

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00:12:56,960 --> 00:13:02,000
So we've emerged into the light after
passing through a very long tunnel,

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00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:05,560
the Sough Tunnel, which
I believe was quite an early

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00:13:05,560 --> 00:13:09,200
piece of railway engineering
about which I'd like to know more.

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00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:14,920
On the south side of the Sough Tunnel
sits Entwistle Station,

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00:13:14,920 --> 00:13:17,000
set in a small village overlooking

214
00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:20,040
the rugged countryside
of the lower Pennine hills.

215
00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:22,320
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Nice to meet you.

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00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:25,160
I was afraid you might have
forgotten - to stop, I mean. Oh, no.

217
00:13:25,160 --> 00:13:27,080
Thank you. Thank you, bye-bye.

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00:13:28,280 --> 00:13:32,840
I'm meeting local historian Eileen
Cowen on the platform to find out

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00:13:32,840 --> 00:13:36,840
more about the construction of the
tunnel and the workforce behind it.

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00:13:36,840 --> 00:13:40,040
Eileen. Hello. Lovely to see you.
Welcome to Entwistle.

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00:13:40,040 --> 00:13:43,840
I've just come through Sough Tunnel.
Why did it have to be built?

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00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:48,320
It was to carry the Blackburn-Darwen
line through to Bolton

223
00:13:48,320 --> 00:13:51,960
and on to Manchester, which was
very important for the industry

224
00:13:51,960 --> 00:13:55,520
in Darwen and Blackburn.
And in the way was Cranberry Moss,

225
00:13:55,520 --> 00:14:01,280
which is 1,000 feet high, riddled
with coal mines, water courses.

226
00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:04,560
Very, very bleak in winter,
it really is.

227
00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:11,240
In 1848,
the 1,850-metre tunnel was completed

228
00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:13,480
and the line through
to Bolton opened.

229
00:14:15,160 --> 00:14:16,720
Who built it?

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00:14:16,720 --> 00:14:19,520
2,000 men worked there eventually.

231
00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:23,040
Not mechanised - using wheelbarrows,
picks, shovels.

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00:14:23,040 --> 00:14:27,120
Some expert tunnellers, but a lot
of them just using their strength.

233
00:14:28,240 --> 00:14:32,840
By the height of railway mania
in the mid-19th century a quarter of

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00:14:32,840 --> 00:14:37,200
a million navvies had laid
3,000 miles of track across Britain,

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00:14:37,200 --> 00:14:39,880
transforming
the rural landscape forever.

236
00:14:41,240 --> 00:14:43,000
Where would they be living?

237
00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:46,520
The majority of them
lived up on the hilltops

238
00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:49,920
in shanties made
out of turf and stone.

239
00:14:49,920 --> 00:14:52,760
What were conditions like
in the camps where they lived?

240
00:14:52,760 --> 00:14:55,560
They were living in
very exposed conditions.

241
00:14:55,560 --> 00:14:58,960
The land now is wet and bleak.

242
00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:01,560
In winter it's covered in snow
a lot of the time,

243
00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:04,160
sometimes six foot high
on the roads round here.

244
00:15:04,160 --> 00:15:06,440
And they worked through the winters.

245
00:15:06,440 --> 00:15:11,560
A navvy's life was harsh and
the work was notoriously dangerous.

246
00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:15,200
Five lives were lost during
the building of the Sough Tunnel.

247
00:15:16,520 --> 00:15:19,960
I count myself fortunate
to have a warm bed for the night.

248
00:15:27,880 --> 00:15:32,560
Refreshed, I am ready to continue
my journey across northwest England.

249
00:15:34,280 --> 00:15:37,920
I decided to spend the night
in a delightful pub

250
00:15:37,920 --> 00:15:43,160
with a great view over the moors,
and it's just by Entwistle Station.

251
00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:45,160
My train is at 8:21.

252
00:15:45,160 --> 00:15:48,760
Provided I leave here at 8:19
I should be in good time.

253
00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:58,360
Following my guidebook,
I'm heading 15 miles south

254
00:15:58,360 --> 00:16:02,280
across the Lancashire border
to Salford in Greater Manchester.

255
00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:12,080
Bradshaw's paints
a marvellous picture

256
00:16:12,080 --> 00:16:16,880
of an English manufacturing town
in the middle of the 19th century.

257
00:16:16,880 --> 00:16:20,960
"Thronged streets and narrow lanes
stretch out on each side.

258
00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:24,760
"Mills and factories rise
out of the dense mass of houses,

259
00:16:24,760 --> 00:16:28,200
"and a forest of chimneys
towering upwards

260
00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:32,600
"point out the local seats
of manufacturing."

261
00:16:32,600 --> 00:16:39,240
It took only an artist of Salford to
add the matchstick men and women.

262
00:16:43,400 --> 00:16:46,760
The Industrial Revolution
dramatically transformed Salford

263
00:16:46,760 --> 00:16:51,080
from a small market town on the banks
of the River Irwell into a sprawling,

264
00:16:51,080 --> 00:16:56,000
smoke-filled conurbation
housing a population of over 200,000.

265
00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:57,920
With overcrowded slums,

266
00:16:57,920 --> 00:17:02,840
at the time of my guidebook, areas
of Salford were deprived and squalid.

267
00:17:05,360 --> 00:17:08,360
Lancashire artist
Laurence Stephen Lowry

268
00:17:08,360 --> 00:17:12,920
famously captured the 20th-century
legacy of Victorian Salford,

269
00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:16,640
of which just a hint
still stands today.

270
00:17:16,640 --> 00:17:20,280
A fitting place to meet
art historian William Feaver.

271
00:17:20,280 --> 00:17:23,640
What do you think
attracted Lowry to depicting

272
00:17:23,640 --> 00:17:26,640
an industrial landscape
with all its smoke and so on?

273
00:17:26,640 --> 00:17:30,240
He always lived here,
it was utterly familiar to him.

274
00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:32,920
It was useful to be surrounded
by your subject

275
00:17:32,920 --> 00:17:36,000
rather than to have to
go out and find it too far away.

276
00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:42,000
He recognised that in the tones of
grotty, smoky, dark, wet Manchester,

277
00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:44,560
there were very beautiful things
to be seen.

278
00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:49,920
Born in 1887, Lowry recorded
nearly a century of industrial life

279
00:17:49,920 --> 00:17:52,120
in Salford and Manchester.

280
00:17:52,120 --> 00:17:56,160
He was the first artist to engage
with industrial working-class

281
00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:59,760
culture, which until then
was viewed as unsavoury

282
00:17:59,760 --> 00:18:02,920
and scarcely worthy
as a subject for art.

283
00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:04,520
Do you think he felt an empathy

284
00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:06,960
with the people he painted
in these streets?

285
00:18:06,960 --> 00:18:09,440
Well, yes and no.
His father had been a rent collector

286
00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:12,040
and he was a rent collector
for a living for many years.

287
00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:15,560
He was obviously resented by some of
the people he called on regularly

288
00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:18,720
and also he was familiar to them,
so it worked both ways.

289
00:18:20,040 --> 00:18:23,760
Today, the largest public collection
of his works is housed

290
00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:26,720
at The Lowry in Salford Quays.

291
00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:29,400
The arts complex opened in 2000

292
00:18:29,400 --> 00:18:34,480
as part of a £106 million
docklands regeneration scheme.

293
00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:36,800
Michael, I thought
you'd like to see this drawing

294
00:18:36,800 --> 00:18:40,040
because it's an illustration almost
of what happened to Lowry once.

295
00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:42,600
He was on Pendlebury Station,
missed his train,

296
00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:44,400
looking around for something to do,

297
00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:47,640
looked and saw the industrial
landscape stretched around him -

298
00:18:47,640 --> 00:18:50,600
smoking chimneys,
the people scurrying below him.

299
00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:53,680
And I suppose in a way this
commemorates that eureka,

300
00:18:53,680 --> 00:18:58,320
bingo moment when he suddenly found
himself a life's work ahead of him.

301
00:18:58,320 --> 00:19:01,160
Lowry's contemporaries
often questioned

302
00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:04,400
what he saw in such ordinariness.

303
00:19:04,400 --> 00:19:08,880
ARCHIVE RECORDING: People often
tell me that, "And why do you paint
such and such subjects?"

304
00:19:08,880 --> 00:19:11,400
Well, I say,
why shouldn't I paint them?

305
00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:13,760
I like to paint them, so why not?

306
00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:17,040
So here we see a Salford street,

307
00:19:17,040 --> 00:19:19,880
and, as ever, dominated by
the smoking chimney stack.

308
00:19:19,880 --> 00:19:22,720
The houses and people
are rendered quite simply.

309
00:19:22,720 --> 00:19:24,840
Would we be right
to think of this as naive?

310
00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:26,000
You can say it's naive

311
00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:28,600
but actually I think
it's much more subtle than naive.

312
00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:31,520
And I'm sure you're almost
about to say matchstick figures,

313
00:19:31,520 --> 00:19:34,000
aren't you, Michael?
Well, matchsticks they are not.

314
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:37,520
They are much more observed,
much more acute.

315
00:19:37,520 --> 00:19:41,680
Lowry painted the ordinary people
he saw at work and at leisure

316
00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:44,840
on the streets of
his native Lancashire.

317
00:19:44,840 --> 00:19:48,040
People call them matchsticks,
matchstick figures.

318
00:19:48,040 --> 00:19:49,640
They may be. I don't mind.

319
00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:51,000
I don't think it matters,

320
00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:54,480
I paint the people as I see
the people in my mind's eye.

321
00:19:55,960 --> 00:19:59,360
The people tend to be poor people.

322
00:19:59,360 --> 00:20:03,720
Does he display also a sympathy
for people who are, I don't know,

323
00:20:03,720 --> 00:20:05,280
outcasts or left aside?

324
00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:09,400
He obviously saw that people
worse off than himself were somehow

325
00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:13,600
rather like ants, always engaged
on business, scurrying to and fro.

326
00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:16,240
All sorts of scenarios
take place in his pictures

327
00:20:16,240 --> 00:20:19,480
and they are not as simple as they
look. They are much more subtle,

328
00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:23,120
poetic and ultimately,
I think, rather lonely.

329
00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:25,680
People often say that

330
00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:28,680
but I suppose I reflect myself
in my figures - I'm bound to do.

331
00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:30,720
I'm bound to reflect myself
in the figures

332
00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:32,840
and I'm a very lonely
sort of a person.

333
00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:35,640
As a Salford man himself,

334
00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:38,440
with a concern for the plight
of the working class,

335
00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:41,120
George Bradshaw might have empathised

336
00:20:41,120 --> 00:20:44,000
with Lowry's depiction
of the city's people.

337
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:46,440
Lowry's popularity
is undeniable, isn't it?

338
00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:49,640
I first became aware of him because
my grandfather managed to buy

339
00:20:49,640 --> 00:20:53,280
one or two, but his popularity
has been enormous, hasn't it?

340
00:20:53,280 --> 00:20:57,200
In England, Britain, probably
the most popular artist there is.

341
00:20:57,200 --> 00:21:00,400
In the wider world, less known,
but he is a great artist,

342
00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:03,200
and there's no reason to
plump him more than that.

343
00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:08,760
Lowry and Bradshaw,
one in painting and one in words,

344
00:21:08,760 --> 00:21:11,520
recorded Britain's
industrial landscape.

345
00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:17,000
And today, having read Bradshaw's
vivid description of a manufacturing

346
00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:21,160
town in the 19th century, I like to
hope that Lowry had read this book.

347
00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:23,440
I'm sure he did.
But of course, what he did,

348
00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:25,520
he turned Bradshaw into a vision.

349
00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:32,600
It's time to hit the tracks
and head for my final destination.

350
00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:35,800
I'm taking a short train ride north
to Swinton,

351
00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:39,360
from which it's a ten-minute drive
east to Kersal Moor.

352
00:21:44,120 --> 00:21:45,880
By the time of my guidebook,

353
00:21:45,880 --> 00:21:49,840
industrialisation had made its mark
on the Lancashire landscape

354
00:21:49,840 --> 00:21:53,240
and the old pastoral ways
were disappearing fast.

355
00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:58,440
The desire to preserve local identity
became stronger than ever.

356
00:22:01,680 --> 00:22:05,720
Kersal Moor is a rural haven
in Greater Manchester.

357
00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:09,760
It remains little changed
from Bradshaw's day and I can see

358
00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:14,360
how it captured the imagination
of 19th-century poet Edwin Waugh.

359
00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:19,360
I'm meeting Sid Calderbank,
dialect enthusiast

360
00:22:19,360 --> 00:22:22,600
and member of
the Edwin Waugh Society.

361
00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:25,800
Why should we now remember
the Victorian poet Edwin Waugh?

362
00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:29,680
He was known in his lifetime
as the Lancashire laureate.

363
00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:32,480
He was the prince of dialect poets.

364
00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:37,640
His works, his songs, stories and
poems, spanned the whole of society.

365
00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:40,040
What sort of things
was he writing about?

366
00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:42,520
He wrote about life in the mills,

367
00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:45,160
life in the factories,
life in the towns.

368
00:22:45,160 --> 00:22:51,960
Born in 1817, Waugh penned poems
in his native Lancashire tongue.

369
00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:55,040
He captured people's imagination
at a time when

370
00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:59,480
urbanisation threatened
to dilute local traditions.

371
00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:03,120
Lancashire's cotton industry had
boomed in the mid-19th century,

372
00:23:03,120 --> 00:23:07,960
and its population doubled as workers
from all over Britain migrated here.

373
00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:12,880
His best-known poem
was written in 1856 -

374
00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:15,840
Come Whoam To Thi Childer An' Me -

375
00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:17,760
and it's a poem about a young wife

376
00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:20,520
who's at home and she's got
all the housework done,

377
00:23:20,520 --> 00:23:24,000
she's got the two children off to
bed but she can't settle them

378
00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:26,560
because they're crying.
And she's crying too

379
00:23:26,560 --> 00:23:28,240
because he's down at the pub,

380
00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:31,840
so against all the social
protocols of the time,

381
00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:35,360
she gets his hat and coat
and she goes down to the pub

382
00:23:35,360 --> 00:23:39,920
to appeal, it turns out
successfully, to his better nature.

383
00:23:39,920 --> 00:23:43,600
But when she gets there she finds
he's not all bad after all,

384
00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:46,880
and that his pockets are filled
with gifts for her and the kids

385
00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:48,400
that he's got from the market,

386
00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:52,520
and he's merely stopped off
for a glass on his way back.

387
00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:54,720
So all ends happily.

388
00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:57,600
Waugh's poems were often
set to music,

389
00:23:57,600 --> 00:24:02,800
and Sid has devoted the last three
decades to restoring these works.

390
00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:07,120
To give me a flavour, he's arranged
something rather special.

391
00:24:07,120 --> 00:24:12,480
And here we have the Red Rose String
Quartet, and we can play for you...

392
00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:14,680
Hello! ..if you wish. Hello!

393
00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:18,120
And if you'd like to join in, sir,
there's the words.

394
00:24:18,120 --> 00:24:20,840
Very good! Good afternoon.
Hello. Hello.

395
00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:29,800
# Our Dorothy's singin' i'th shippon

396
00:24:29,800 --> 00:24:33,760
# Our Jonathan's leawngin' i'th fowd

397
00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:37,640
# Our Tummy's at th' fair,
where he lippens

398
00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:41,440
# O' swappin' his cowt for gowd

399
00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:45,440
# Me gronny's asleep
wi' her knittin'

400
00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:49,200
# An' th' kittlins's
playin' wi' yarn

401
00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:53,360
# Our Betty's gone out wi' a gallon

402
00:24:53,360 --> 00:24:57,160
# For th' lads
as in warkin' i'th barn

403
00:24:57,160 --> 00:25:00,920
BOTH: # And it's oh,
yon Robin, yon Robin

404
00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:04,760
# His e'en e'er twinkle't so breet

405
00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:08,600
# As they did
when he meazur't me finger

406
00:25:08,600 --> 00:25:12,280
# For th' little gowd ring
last neet. #

407
00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:18,280
Bravo!

408
00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:29,520
In the 1870s,
Waugh's health deteriorated.

409
00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:32,520
He moved to Kersal Moor
for its fresh air

410
00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:36,160
and was buried here
after his death in 1890.

411
00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:40,640
The moors were important to Waugh.

412
00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:43,200
Are they important to
Lancashire people generally?

413
00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:46,160
Oh, they were important to
the whole population of the county.

414
00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:48,080
They were the lungs of Lancashire.

415
00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:51,840
If you can imagine
19th-century industrial Lancashire,

416
00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:56,240
it was dirty, it was dark,
it was smelly and smoky,

417
00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:59,400
but we've always been very proud
of the fact that you're never

418
00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:01,400
so far from the old moorland.

419
00:26:01,400 --> 00:26:04,000
You can be a quarter of an hour
from the factory gates

420
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:06,880
and you can be up here,
where you can breathe.

421
00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:13,400
Waugh clearly did much to preserve
the Lancashire dialect in his time.

422
00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:18,240
Today the mantle has passed to
a handful of enthusiasts like Sid.

423
00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:20,480
Can you greet me
in the local dialect?

424
00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:21,800
How do?

425
00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:26,120
How do? That's simple enough!

426
00:26:26,120 --> 00:26:29,280
"How do?" It is. You don't need
any more than that, really.

427
00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:30,760
It means, "How do you do?"

428
00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:34,240
"How do?" Which, when it arrived
in America, it became "howdy".

429
00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:40,320
The Lancashire dialect is
full of terrific tongue-twisters,

430
00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:45,040
from polite greetings -
"Aw'm gradely fain to si thi" -

431
00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:49,320
to, "Be sharp!
T'pig's fo'n i'th cut!"

432
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:53,760
which means, "Hurry up, the pig's
fallen in the canal." Of course.

433
00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:57,240
And what are you doing about
keeping the dialect alive?

434
00:26:57,240 --> 00:26:59,360
I'm trying to make it available,

435
00:26:59,360 --> 00:27:03,520
make it relevant to today's
audiences, not only to preserve it

436
00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:05,200
but to bring it back to life.

437
00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:10,160
Sid has certainly brought
back to life for me today

438
00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:12,400
a piece of Victorian Lancashire.

439
00:27:12,400 --> 00:27:16,080
With my lungs filled with
the finest air in the county,

440
00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:18,080
I'm ready to return to the station.

441
00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:24,080
Life was tough for working people
in industrial Lancashire.

442
00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:27,800
Wage cuts caused
a bloody riot in Preston.

443
00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:32,320
The region was the world's most
successful manufacturing hub,

444
00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:36,240
but the cost in terms of
human suffering is visible

445
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:39,800
in the smoky streets
of Lowry's paintings.

446
00:27:39,800 --> 00:27:45,000
At least mill workers could escape,
through the dialect of Edwin Waugh,

447
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:48,080
to the beautiful moors
of the Red Rose county.

448
00:27:56,480 --> 00:28:00,560
Next time, I feel the heat
of modern glass-making...

449
00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:04,280
I've just walked past
a furnace at 1,600 degrees Celsius

450
00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:06,880
and I can tell you
it burns as you go by.

451
00:28:08,120 --> 00:28:11,680
..break into song with
some not-too-drunken sailors...

452
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:15,360
# Strike the bell, second mate,
let's go below

453
00:28:15,360 --> 00:28:18,920
# Look out to windward,
you can see it's going to blow... #

454
00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:22,680
..and experience life in service
to a lady of the manor.

455
00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:25,680
Will there be much more to be
polished this afternoon, Mr Douglas?

456
00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:27,440
Considerably more, Mr Portillo.