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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'm using a Bradshaw's Guide

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to understand how
trains transformed Britain,

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its landscape, its industries,
society and leisure time.

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As I crisscross the country
150 years later,

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it helps me to discover
the Britain of today.

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This week, I make tracks across the
North West, through areas which

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bore witness to Britain's rise
as the world's leading marketplace.

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I explore the bright optimism,

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but also the dark underside
of the Industrial Revolution.

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My trip started close to
the Scottish border

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and took me to the heart
of the beautiful Lake District,

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before heading further south through
a classic northern mill town.

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From there, I'm travelling onwards to
Merseyside's busy port

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and then I'll reach my final
destination on the edge

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of the Peak District National Park.

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On today's leg, I venture to

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a Lancashire town
built on coal and glass,

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head westwards to the docks that
received the proceeds of empire

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and end up in an affluent
town on the Cheshire Plain.

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At my first stop, I feel the
heat of modern glass-making...

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I've just walked past a furnace
and it's 1,600 degrees Celsius

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and I can tell you
it burns as you're going by.

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..break into song with some
not too drunken sailors...

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ALL SING: # Strike the bell,
second mate, let us go below

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# Look away to windward,
you can see it's going to blow... #

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..experience life in service to a
Lady of the Manor...

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Will there be much more to be
polished this afternoon, Mr Douglas?

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Considerably more, Mr Portillo.
Considerably more.

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..and discover a pioneering
literary voice.

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She was the first female
social novelist.

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I'm now more than halfway
through my journey

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and enjoying my tour of manufacturing
towns in North West England.

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My first stop today is St Helens,
which Bradshaw's tells me

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"is celebrated for its manufacture
of plate and crown glass,

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"got up to great perfection.

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"An hour or two spent in
the inspection of these works

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"would amply repay the stranger."

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I'm hoping that an hour or two will
provide me

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with a window
on the Industrial Revolution.

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I am on the Wigan-to-Liverpool
line travelling south.

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Thank you. Bye.

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St Helens Station features 400 square
metres of locally made glass.

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I'm headed to the World Of Glass,

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a museum built around the old factory
buildings of Pilkington,

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the only glass
manufacturer in St Helens

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surviving from the Victorian era.

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Nowadays, the visitor enters the
glass plant through

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this wonderful recreation of
an old bottle kiln,

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a superb piece of industrial
archaeology

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with, incidentally, an amazing echo.

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Hello, Matt. Good morning. Welcome.
Welcome to the World Of Glass.

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Matt Buckley is from Pilkington's
architectural division.

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So, why was it in the first place

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that glass came to be made here,
in St Helens?

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Well, exactly here we had everything

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we needed that all came
together at the same time.

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You'd got the coal for the power,

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you'd got the sand,
which we then turned into glass,

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and we have the canal here as well

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that gave us the chance to
bring raw materials

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and take the glass before
we also had the railways,

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so everything came together here.

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St Helens sits on the edge

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of the plentiful
South Lancashire coalfields

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and excellent transport links were
built to carry the coal to market.

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That soon paved way
for other businesses -

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potteries, foundries and glassworks
that made crown glass by hand.

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Crown was one of the earliest
types of mass-produced glass,

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so there was a blob of glass
on a tube which was then spun

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to produce,
with centrifugal force, a disc.

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And eventually that disc could
be cut into small panes,

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but in the middle you were left with
a bull's-eye or a bullion,

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and even today you'll see some
people using that in their windows,

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but that was actually the poor bit
of the glass that people threw away.

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A new technique for making much
larger panes of glass

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was developed in the 1830s.

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Large glass cylinders were sliced
open on a table,

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heated and pressed
flat with a roller.

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It inspired an architectural
revolution -

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the advent of grand glass roofs

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on railway stations,
museums and public buildings.

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The most breathtaking example was
the Crystal Palace,

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housing the Great Exhibition
in London's Hyde Park in 1851.

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The building employed 300,000
sheets of glass of the largest

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size ever manufactured -

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a symbol of the United Kingdom's
technical ascendancy.

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I have just walked past
a furnace at 1,600 degrees Celsius

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and I can tell you
it burns as you're going by.

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By 1860, three quarters
of the country's window glass

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was produced in 24 furnaces,
nine of them at St Helens.

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They operated around the clock.

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This is the furnace, here.

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The hot end, as it's called,

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and this is where we take in
the raw materials

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and within there we are actually
melting the glass.

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So, Matt, we are facing here
extraordinary heat.

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Which site is this?

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This is Watson Street site.

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This is the site where we
made our first crown of glass,

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14th February 1827, on this site.

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Now, what is glass and how do you
make it? This is what is in here.

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This is the batch.

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This is sand and soda ash
and dolomite and, really,

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we heat that to
1,600 degrees C

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and then form it through the process
eventually to produce

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the glass as you know it.

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And how are you actually producing
that level of heat?

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OK, we have got...

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Effectively, we were burning gas to
produce the heat.

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We are actually mixing the gas,
the gas and the air,

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using a similar process than
we saw right back from the 1870s.

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We fire gas from this side for 20
minutes, then from the other side,

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and we effectively recycle
and re-use the heat.

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I wouldn't like to see your gas bill.
It is very large, yes.

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£20 million a year.

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St Helens glass-makers were
part of the plate-glass revolution

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of the mid-19th century

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and they still led in glass
innovation 100 years later.

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This here is a float glass plant.

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It was the float glass process

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invented by Sir Alistair Pilkington
in 1952.

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And here we actually melt
the sand in exactly the same way,

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but we float it on a bed
of molten tin

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and that is what makes it perfectly
flat without imperfections.

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So, the type of glass you see in
today's buildings,

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around the world, is float glass,
using the Pilkington technology.

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And this stuff is just streaming
along these machines all the time?

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Yes, the glass comes
down in a ribbon and is chopped

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and then packed, and this line will
run for anything up to 20 years.

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So, even in one week, we can
produce 5,000 tonnes of glass -

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that is half a million
square metres.

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Actually, in a year,
we can produce enough glass

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probably to go halfway around the
world on this line.

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So, massive amounts of glass,

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almost unimaginable in terms of what
architects can now do

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because of the developments in glass
and glazing technology.

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I mean, just looking around,
it seems to me that

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if there was a revolution
in architecture thanks to glass

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in Bradshaw's time, we have had
another one in the last few decades.

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Absolutely.

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I'm back on the tracks that were the
artery of St Helens' economy,

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linking it to the prosperous docks
of Liverpool, my next destination.

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By the 19th century, Liverpool had
overtaken Bristol as Britain's

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second most important port after
London,

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thanks to its proximity to the
industrial powerhouse of Manchester.

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And its railway station was perhaps
designed to emphasise

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this new-found status.

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Liverpool Lime Street station is
a perfect example

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of how glass
transformed British cities.

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The northern canopy
has a span of 200 feet

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and, when it was built, around
the time of my Bradshaw's Guide,

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it was the broadest that had ever
been built

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and Victorian travellers
looked up at it in awe.

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Modern-day Liverpool stands in stark
contrast

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to the city of the mid-1800s.

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The port was a gritty
and chaotic place, but its system

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of interconnected docks was the most
sophisticated in the world.

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It played a vital role
in the world's largest economy,

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receiving materials
from the British colonies

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and shipping out British
manufactured goods.

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The docks in Liverpool,
says Bradshaw's,

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are the grand lions of the town,

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extending in one magnificent range
of five miles along the river.

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Being a child of the 1960s,

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I remember that the Beatles exported
the Liverpool beat to the globe

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but it turns out that,
decades before that,

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a Mersey sound was flowing
out to the world.

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SEA SHANTY

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The docks were swarming with
tradesmen, stevedores and sailors

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from all over the world,
who used song to set the rhythms

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for hauling ropes
and heaving cargoes.

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They worked here at the Albert docks,
where I am meeting a Liverpool girl,

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Julia Batters,
a sea shanty enthusiast.

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SEA SHANTY

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Julia, what are sea shanties?
Where do they come from?

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Sea shanties are work songs.

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The were sung on British
merchant ships to enhance

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the efficiency of the crew.

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Those ships needed to travel fast,

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have smaller crews than
were on the Royal Navy ships,

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and so they were rhythmic tunes

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sung to keep people making
a physical effort.

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British sea shanties have
travelled around the world

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and back again several times.

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You can hear them translated
into Norwegian, into Dutch,

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actually into Polish.

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Some of them were adapted to
singing on the rivers and

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the Great Lakes in the States.

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It encapsulates so much
of the history

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of what made the UK
great and of English working people.

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And this is an important
heritage to preserve.

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What are you doing to keep it up?

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We have started a club.

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Every month we sing sea shanties in
the Baltic Fleet pub,

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which is one of the last
Sailortown pubs left in Liverpool.

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Liverpool is regarded
internationally

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as the spiritual home
of the sea shanty,

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so we are bringing the music back
here where it should be sung.

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00:13:49,440 --> 00:13:52,720
MAN SINGS STRIKE THE BELL

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A quick wetting of the whistle
and I'm ready to join in.

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00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:10,400
ALL SINGING: # Look out to windward
you can see it's going to blow

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00:14:10,400 --> 00:14:14,800
# Look at the glass
you can see that it is fell

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00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:18,720
# We wish that he would hurry up
and strike, strike the bell... #

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00:14:22,560 --> 00:14:26,120
Julia's husband is shantyman
Derek Batters.

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00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:31,480
# There is the larboard watch,
they're longing for their bunks

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00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:35,200
# They're looking out to windward
they can see a great swell

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00:14:35,200 --> 00:14:37,280
# They're wishing that
the second mate

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00:14:37,280 --> 00:14:39,520
# Would strike, strike the bell... #

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00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:44,280
The shantyman had the important
task of keeping up morale on deck

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00:14:44,280 --> 00:14:48,040
and he would vary the song
to match the task at hand.

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00:14:48,040 --> 00:14:51,720
# Look at the glass
you can see that it's fell

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00:14:51,720 --> 00:14:56,240
# We wish that you would hurry up
and strike, strike the bell... #

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00:14:56,240 --> 00:15:00,400
There were short drag shanties for
jobs needing quick bursts of energy

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00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:04,680
and long drag shanties, which gave
sailors a rest between hauls.

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00:15:04,680 --> 00:15:07,400
Derek is singing a pump shanty,

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used when pumping the bilges of the
ship to prevent it from sinking.

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# And he's wishing that the second
mate would strike, strike the bell

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00:15:16,120 --> 00:15:20,080
# Strike the bell, second mate,
let's go below... #

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00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:24,920
But pump shanties also work rather
well for swilling pints to -

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an excellent way to end my day.

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00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:28,120
# See that it's fell

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00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:32,280
# We wish that you would hurry up
and strike, strike the bell

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00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:36,720
# Strike the bell,
second mate, let's go below

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00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:40,840
# Look out to windward,
you can see it going to blow

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00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:44,320
# Look at the glass,
you can see that it's fell

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00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:52,920
# And I wish that you would hurry up
and strike, strike the bell! #

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00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:54,240
Bravo!

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00:15:54,240 --> 00:15:56,560
CHEERING

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00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:09,760
Today, I'm continuing my journey,

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00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:13,120
travelling south-west on the Wirral
line towards Chester.

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00:16:14,800 --> 00:16:17,400
Chester was a welcome break for
Victorians

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00:16:17,400 --> 00:16:21,000
from the grime and frantic pace
of the industrial cities.

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00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:26,280
But I'm not stopping. I'm changing to
the mid-Cheshire line.

237
00:16:43,920 --> 00:16:48,000
I've travelled from salty Liverpool
to leafy Cheshire.

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00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:49,440
Bradshaw's tells me that,

239
00:16:49,440 --> 00:16:52,120
over a distance of
two-and-three-quarter miles,

240
00:16:52,120 --> 00:16:54,720
almost from Ashley to Knutsford,

241
00:16:54,720 --> 00:16:58,680
stretches the fine park
belonging to Lord Egerton.

242
00:16:58,680 --> 00:17:02,240
At one time, it was 250,000 acres.

243
00:17:02,240 --> 00:17:05,560
I shall get off the train at
Knutsford. It seems to me that

244
00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:09,240
Tatton Hall could be a good place
to explore Victorian life,

245
00:17:09,240 --> 00:17:12,360
both upstairs and downstairs.

246
00:17:19,560 --> 00:17:21,320
Have a good day. Thank you very much.

247
00:17:21,320 --> 00:17:24,760
A couple of miles from Knutsford
station lies an imposing

248
00:17:24,760 --> 00:17:26,920
neoclassical country house.

249
00:17:26,920 --> 00:17:31,000
The Egertons were highly regarded
members of the aristocracy.

250
00:17:33,040 --> 00:17:36,840
This was the part of society least
touched by the upheavals

251
00:17:36,840 --> 00:17:38,000
of the 19th century.

252
00:17:39,520 --> 00:17:44,200
The aristocracy may have dabbled in
industrial investments, or banking,

253
00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:48,120
but they exercised hereditary power
in Westminster,

254
00:17:48,120 --> 00:17:49,920
the army and the Empire.

255
00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:54,960
Their large country houses
relied on highly skilled servants

256
00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:58,960
and Carolyn Latham,
from the Cheshire East Council,

257
00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:03,480
knows all about life downstairs
working for the Egertons.

258
00:18:03,480 --> 00:18:06,600
Carolyn, an enormous
establishment like Tatton Park,

259
00:18:06,600 --> 00:18:08,880
how many staff did it take to run?

260
00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:12,520
Over the years, somewhere between
perhaps 40 and 20 was quite typical.

261
00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:15,920
How many best guest rooms
are there in Tatton Park?

262
00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:20,040
This main block of the mansion has
eight guest bedrooms,

263
00:18:20,040 --> 00:18:22,560
all with ensuite dressing rooms.

264
00:18:22,560 --> 00:18:26,320
The middle section of the mansion
here is the family's more intimate,

265
00:18:26,320 --> 00:18:29,280
personal, smaller apartments,

266
00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:33,200
but about eight good guests could be
situated within the household.

267
00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:41,800
An invitation to an Egerton
house party was much sought-after.

268
00:18:41,800 --> 00:18:45,720
On these hectic occasions,
the servants moved smartly up

269
00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:49,840
and downstairs to attend to the
needs of master and mistress.

270
00:18:53,400 --> 00:18:55,600
Well, the kitchens are very large,

271
00:18:55,600 --> 00:19:00,520
although notably lacking in modern
conveniences and machinery.

272
00:19:00,520 --> 00:19:03,400
Let's start with the people who were
here.

273
00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:05,200
What were the butler's duties?

274
00:19:05,200 --> 00:19:09,040
So, the butler is...his main duties
are around making sure that

275
00:19:09,040 --> 00:19:11,040
household's running smoothly,

276
00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:13,560
so he's looking after the male
servants,

277
00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:16,760
the grooms, the footmen,
he's making sure that all the male

278
00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:19,720
servants are all in the right
places at the right time.

279
00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:23,160
That the dinner's served on time,
the drinks are served on time.

280
00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:25,120
You know, he waits on as well.

281
00:19:25,120 --> 00:19:27,720
He's there when the master of
the household is around -

282
00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:29,960
the butler wouldn't be
far away from him.

283
00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:32,880
Domestic service was
Victorian Britain's

284
00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:36,280
largest source of
employment for women.

285
00:19:36,280 --> 00:19:39,960
At Tatton Hall, the butler,
the housekeeper and the chef

286
00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:44,520
were at the top of the pecking order,
while a housemaid was at the bottom.

287
00:19:44,520 --> 00:19:49,320
What was life like for the most
humble housemaid?

288
00:19:49,320 --> 00:19:51,600
Well, quite long and hard
I would think.

289
00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:53,960
They were up early,
they're the first up,

290
00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:56,640
maybe half five, six o'clock
in the morning.

291
00:19:56,640 --> 00:19:59,600
They're getting the fireplaces
ready for the other servants,

292
00:19:59,600 --> 00:20:02,840
the higher up servants as well
as for the household.

293
00:20:02,840 --> 00:20:08,200
Serving breakfast trays,
cleaning bedrooms, emptying bedpans.

294
00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:11,600
The housekeeper would have made
sure their time was really full

295
00:20:11,600 --> 00:20:13,040
and accounted for.

296
00:20:13,040 --> 00:20:15,120
They would have
their set break times,

297
00:20:15,120 --> 00:20:17,040
but also those lowest housemaids

298
00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:20,480
and scullery maids, you know,
there was a hierarchy within even

299
00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:23,800
the servants eating, so they sat
at the end.

300
00:20:23,800 --> 00:20:26,680
They didn't really get to have the
conversations

301
00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:30,120
that the others were having, so
their whole day was very structured

302
00:20:30,120 --> 00:20:33,200
and they'd have gone to bed
really quite late as well.

303
00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:40,800
I'm travelling back in time,
to the heyday of Tatton Hall,

304
00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:44,360
to put my skills to the
test as an under-butler,

305
00:20:44,360 --> 00:20:48,520
eager to make a good impression
on my rather stern superiors.

306
00:20:50,520 --> 00:20:53,680
Will there be much more to be
polished this afternoon, Mr Douglas?

307
00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:57,520
Considerably more, Mr Portillo.
Considerably more.

308
00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:01,640
I think a little bit more
elbow grease is required.

309
00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:04,720
Ah, I can see you set very
high standards, Mrs Cartwright,

310
00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:07,760
here at Tatton Park. Indeed, we do.

311
00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:14,160
What we require, Mr Portillo, is
20% polish and 80% elbow grease.

312
00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:18,040
What time would her ladyship
be requiring her tea, Mr Douglas?

313
00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:20,400
I think I'm correct in
saying, Mrs Cartwright,

314
00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:24,440
her ladyship requested tea at four?
Four o'clock, yes, on the dot.

315
00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:27,920
Four o'clock, Mr Portillo.
On the dot, Mr Douglas.

316
00:21:27,920 --> 00:21:30,480
How's it going now?

317
00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:33,440
A vast improvement, yes.

318
00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:35,160
Can you see your face in them?

319
00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:39,600
Unfortunately, I can, Mrs Cartwright.

320
00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:05,920
Tea, Lady Egerton.

321
00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:17,920
Shall I pour, Lady Egerton?
No, I shall pour.

322
00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:19,360
Yes, your ladyship.

323
00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:27,240
Mr Portillo, a word, if I may.

324
00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:30,880
Your shoes, your socks,
your trousers.

325
00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:32,840
Something amiss, Mr Douglas?

326
00:22:32,840 --> 00:22:35,600
One can only assume
that your previous employer set

327
00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:37,640
a certain lower standard.

328
00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:47,080
It's just as well that
I have other career options.

329
00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:53,960
In the mid-1800s, a factory job might
have tempted a domestic servant

330
00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:57,360
tired of responding to the
master's summoning bell.

331
00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:01,000
A job in the city offered privacy

332
00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:03,320
and freedom at the end
of the working day...

333
00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:07,680
..but urban and factory life
often shocked the new

334
00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:10,040
worker from the countryside

335
00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:12,800
and it appalled many in the middle
classes, who read about it

336
00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:17,880
for the first time in the novels
of a pioneering female author.

337
00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:23,840
I'm back in Knutsford to explore
the life of Elizabeth Gaskell

338
00:23:23,840 --> 00:23:28,240
in conversation with Diana Stenson
from the local heritage centre.

339
00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:32,520
Diana, what is this rather
extraordinary structure?

340
00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:34,120
This is the Gaskell Tower

341
00:23:34,120 --> 00:23:37,720
and it is the only commemoration
that we have officially

342
00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:40,800
in the town to commemorate
our most famous daughter.

343
00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:43,240
So, is she quite
highly regarded in Knutsford?

344
00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:44,720
She was very highly regarded.

345
00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:47,040
She was liked very much as
a child when she lived here

346
00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:49,840
and, of course, when she went on
to have this successful career

347
00:23:49,840 --> 00:23:51,760
and all the things that she wrote,

348
00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:54,520
some of them
had enormous social consequences.

349
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:58,240
She was very highly regarded and the
family were very regarded as well.

350
00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:01,000
And what do you think was
Elizabeth Gaskell's legacy?

351
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:06,520
That she was the first female
social novelist of serious matters.

352
00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:08,440
A sort of female Dickens?

353
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:11,800
Very much so,
and they were good friends.

354
00:24:11,800 --> 00:24:16,120
Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford was
first published as a serial

355
00:24:16,120 --> 00:24:20,640
in Charles Dickens' journal,
Household Words, in 1851.

356
00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:24,800
It's her most famous book,
a collection of comic sketches

357
00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:28,840
which affectionately portray
changing small-town customs.

358
00:24:30,360 --> 00:24:33,320
Gaskell drew on her own
experience of a happy

359
00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:36,560
childhood in Knutsford,
where she was raised by her aunt.

360
00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:44,960
Cranford is famously set in
and about Knutsford.

361
00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:47,640
Is that very clear in the novel?

362
00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:50,520
I think anybody that lived
around here would have recognised

363
00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:55,320
Knutsford as this lovely little
cosy country market town

364
00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:58,440
but quite a distance, as it would
seem in those days, to the

365
00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:02,480
huge industrial belching chimneys
that we had in Manchester.

366
00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:05,000
The railway comes to Knutsford
in 1862,

367
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:07,240
long after Cranford is published.

368
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:09,960
Do the railways get a look in
in the Gaskell novels?

369
00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:13,800
They do. She wrote one particular
short story called Lady Ludlow

370
00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:17,000
and it was heralding the arrival,
or the building,

371
00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:18,680
of the railways in this area.

372
00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:20,640
And the railway was all happening

373
00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:24,520
and, blow me, Lady Ludlow decided,
virtually at the last minute

374
00:25:24,520 --> 00:25:26,480
when they're about to
build a bend,

375
00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:30,440
"I'm not selling you the land after
all." So, it all fell apart.

376
00:25:30,440 --> 00:25:33,000
And what was her attitude
to the railways?

377
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:35,960
She had a feeling of the mood
of the railways

378
00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:39,280
because here we're sitting in an
agricultural area, railway's coming,

379
00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:41,960
then the railways are arriving
and it speeded everything up.

380
00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:44,800
People thought in a different way
with the railway.

381
00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:46,720
And so we would have our seasons
here,

382
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:49,280
which was what dictated what went on
on the farms,

383
00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:51,320
and then the railways were speeding
up

384
00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:54,280
and it seemed to alter people's
perception of time.

385
00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:58,200
Young Elizabeth moved to Manchester
when

386
00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:02,000
she married William Gaskell in 1832.

387
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:06,200
The city opened her eyes to the
plight of the urban working classes,

388
00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:09,800
inspiring her to write her
first book - Mary Barton.

389
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:16,360
She was the first person to write
what you would call social novels.

390
00:26:17,360 --> 00:26:21,800
She touched on and exposed a great
deal of the disgraceful things that

391
00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:25,200
were going on towards the workers
in the Industrial Revolution.

392
00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:27,720
There were hundreds of workers
coming in, nay, thousands,

393
00:26:27,720 --> 00:26:30,640
from agricultural land,
from all over the North West,

394
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:32,800
coming in to work
in the East Midlands,

395
00:26:32,800 --> 00:26:36,280
having no idea that they'd be living
in disgraceful cellars.

396
00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:40,440
They had no... There was no sort of
sewage, there was nothing.

397
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:43,880
It was dreadful
and she exposed all that.

398
00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:47,000
She had a lot of trouble, socially,
because she was ostracised over

399
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:52,880
a lot of these things, but she stuck
to it and we owe her a huge debt

400
00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:54,480
in telling us what was going on.

401
00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:57,360
People who only lived
a mile or two away had no idea.

402
00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:04,840
Elizabeth Gaskell's books were a
counterpoint to the optimism

403
00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:08,800
that the Victorian public had
experienced at the Great Exhibition.

404
00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:13,440
She reminds us that Britain's
prosperous position

405
00:27:13,440 --> 00:27:16,920
as the workshop
of the world carried a human cost.

406
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:19,960
Her work is a valuable window
on the grimmer

407
00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:22,400
realities of the Industrial
Revolution.

408
00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:31,440
The thing that most determined
Victorian architecture was glass

409
00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:35,960
from St Helens and no industry
made greater use of it than

410
00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:39,480
the railways with their
stunning stations.

411
00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:43,400
Elizabeth Gaskell perceived that the
trains were changing not only

412
00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:48,080
the rural landscape
but also the country way of life.

413
00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:51,320
Although, at Tatton Park,
rigid social structures endured.

414
00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:55,600
As for my performance as an
under-butler, I think I would have

415
00:27:55,600 --> 00:28:00,040
been given, in the words of the sea
shanty, the heave-ho.

416
00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:04,760
'Next time, I'm blown away by
beauty...'

417
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:09,880
We just soared over the valley,
absolutely beautiful.

418
00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:12,840
'..I work up a sweat,
the Victorian way...'

419
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:18,920
Stoking up the fire,
giving the locomotive a bit of oomph.

420
00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:20,920
Builds good biceps, that.

421
00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:24,360
'..and experience the ride of my
life.'

422
00:28:24,360 --> 00:28:27,880
THEY SCREAM