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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 industry,
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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The southern shores of Britain
inspired creative Victorians.

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On today's journey,
I want to find out how,

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during a period of great social
change, works of art, literature

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and design helped to transform,
improve and even save lives.

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With my Bradshaw's Guide in hand,

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I'm travelling the length
of England's south coast.

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I began in the east,
taking in forts and resorts.

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I'll pass through the literary
landscape of the West Country

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before concluding at the most
south-westerly tip of England.

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Today, my journey begins
by the sea in Lymington.

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Travelling inland to the town of
Dorchester, I pass through Axminster,

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before concluding my journey
back on the coast in Exmouth.

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'Today, I investigate
the ins and outs of carpets...'

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This is how you weave.

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MACHINERY GRINDS

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'..discover the little-known
railway verse of Thomas Hardy...'

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"And the wheels moved on.

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"Oh could it but be
that I had alighted there."

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He missed his chance.
He did indeed.

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'..and brush up
on a forgotten artist.'

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You're doing a grand job, Michael.

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I think, um,
Danby would be proud of you.

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You old flatterer!
LAUGHTER

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My first stop will be Lymington.

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Bradshaw's tells me that it's
a "prettily situated town, whose

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"maritime operations are chiefly
confined to the Isle of Wight."

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Intriguingly, in 1901, there was
a plan to build a train tunnel

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from Lymington to the island.

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For me, that is one of the great
railway might-have-beens.

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As it is, tourists have been
left to cross the brine,

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with all its charms and perils.

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With no tunnel, the pretty Georgian
market town of Lymington has been

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connected to the Isle of Wight
by ferry since the mid-19th century.

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Located at the western end of the
Solent, sailing defines Lymington.

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There have been boatyards here
since medieval times

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and it's famous for yacht building
and racing.

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With such a watery heritage,

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it's appropriate that
I'm arriving on a wet day.

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Heading to
the Berthon Boat Company,

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which builds lifeboats
and began in Bradshaw's day.

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It's run by Brian May.

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Hello, Brian? Good morning, Michael.
What have we here?

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We have a genuine original

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19th-century
Berthon collapsible boat.

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And I'd like you
to help me build it. Let's go.

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What an intriguing object.

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'The Berthon collapsible boat
was invented by

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'the Reverend EL Berthon.'

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'He was Vicar of Romsey
from 1860-1892

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'and displayed a keen interest
in mechanical science.'

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Wow, this is quick to do, isn't it?

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It is. It was designed to be
a very quick object to put together,

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so that the users could either
use them for safety on board ships,

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or for deployment
in exploratory expeditions.

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We've locked the seat in
with that pin!

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'Even as a novice, I could
assemble it in just two minutes.'

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And these could be used as a mast,

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so some of them
would be used for sailing,

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Otherwise you would get in and
row the boat with your passengers.

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All set! Brian, come and join me.

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At the beginning of the 19th century,

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what was the legislation
regarding lifeboats on ships?

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There was none, literally.

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Um, the SS Orion in 1850
was what started it all.

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She was a packet boat that
went between Liverpool and Glasgow

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and she foundered
and the Reverend Clark,

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who was a friend of the
Reverend Berthon, was on board

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and he was one of the very few
to escape with his life.

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And he then went to visit
the Reverend Berthon and said,

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"You must, with your inventive mind,
be able to do something about this,"

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so he set about inventing this boat.

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Obviously, you could pack
a lot of these onto a ship.

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How does it work?
What are the sides made of?

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The sides are made of flax,
a canvas, double skinned.

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And he came up with a turpentine,
linseed and soap mixture

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to make it waterproof and, because
the canvas was so well protected,

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it was sold as
"for use in all weather",

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whether it was 40 or 50 degrees
outside, or minus 40 or 50.

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'This ingenious craft was

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'demonstrated to Queen Victoria
at the Great Exhibition of 1851.'

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However, before it was used
as a lifeboat,

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other applications
presented themselves.

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During the Crimean and Boer wars,
the military appreciated a light,

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collapsible vessel, which could be
hauled into remote environments.

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It took a catastrophe for its value
as a lifeboat to become evident.

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Now, one of the most infamous cases,

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where there were
not enough lifeboats,

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was the sinking
of the Titanic in 1912.

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Were there Berthon boats on board?

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No, they did have
a competitor's boats on,

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that took about 20-25 people,
but the sad thing was,

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they could only cater for
a third of the maximum capacity.

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On the first voyage,
there was two thirds capacity,

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so they only had enough lifeboats
for half the people,

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which is why so many people died.

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When the Titanic sister ship,
the Olympic,

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came into port a week later,
there was a furore, so 24 boats

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immediately were put on board -
Berthon boats - for the hands,

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cos the deckhands wouldn't go to sea
without sufficient boats.

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But shortly afterwards,

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another 300 were placed
on board for the passengers.

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Essentially, it took 62 years to
achieve its status as a lifeboat.

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In the meantime, it had been used
for theatres of war and exploring.

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'Thousands were made for
lifeboat use up to the 1930s.

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'As lighter materials were developed,

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'collapsible lifeboats
of Berthon's ilk were superseded.

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'Today, the company
that bears the Reverend's name

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'still produces boats to save lives,
but they're on a larger scale.'

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Evidently, Brian, the business is
still lifeboats today? That's right.

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We've built 14 lifeboats for the
Royal National Lifeboat Institute

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in the last 2½, 3 years.

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Quite a complicated thing,
a lifeboat, these days? They are.

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They're £2.5 million each,
for a 45-foot boat.

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These ones are designed
very shallow, with jet engines,

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so that they can go up beaches
and go very shallow.

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Up beaches?
They actually come up the beach?

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They get deployed off the beach
and, when they come back,

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they whizz up the beach at 30 knots
and the passengers,

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or the people being saved,
can get off the boat.

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'The life-saving work,
begun by the Reverend Berthon,

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'is continued in the modern era.'

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Leaving Lymington behind,
I return to the rails

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to continue my journey, rejoining
the main line at Brockenhurst.

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My next stop will be Dorchester.
The guidebook says that it's

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"The capital of Dorsetshire
in a pretty part of the South Downs,

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"at the termination
of the South Western Railway."

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Strange to think that the line
didn't yet go on as far as Weymouth.

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For Thomas Hardy fans,
Dorsetshire will always be Wessex

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and Dorchester
will always be Casterbridge.

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The arrival of the railways
in rural areas like Dorset

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was met with a mixture
of excitement and concern.

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Many believed that rural life
would change forever,

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and none more so than Thomas Hardy,
writer and poet,

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who was born in the small Dorset
hamlet of Higher Bockhampton in 1840.

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In his novels,
the fictional county of Wessex

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was based on people
and places around Dorchester

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and his writing heavily featured
the coming of the railways.

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'A short walk from the town,

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'I'm meeting Thomas Hardy expert,
Dr Jane Thomas, at Max Gate.'

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Jane? Hello, Michael,
welcome to Max Gate.

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'One of the Victorian era's
most noted authors,

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'creator of Tess of the d'Urbervilles

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'and the Mayor of Casterbridge,
Hardy wrote with earthy realism.

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'The working-class son
of a servant and a stonemason,

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'he criticised the Victorian
constraints, which made it hard

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'for people to rise through the
social ranks, as he aimed to do.'

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What impelled Hardy to better
himself? I think it was his mother.

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He had a very ambitious mother

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and she was very careful
of his education,

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um, and so she was responsible
for getting him

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apprenticed to an architect,
so he'd become a professional

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middle-class man and not a builder,
like his father and his brother,

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and, um, it's interesting,

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when he first went to London
in the 1860s to seek his fortune,

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he tried very hard to lose his
rural bearing and his rural accent.

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'As an architect in London,

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'he oversaw the excavation of the
graveyard of St Pancras Old Church

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'during the construction
of the new railway terminus.'

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But given that Max Gate
became his house, evidently,

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he returned from London
to Dorchester?

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Yes, he didn't get on
very well in London.

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He found the pace of life there
very stressful

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and he found the pollution
very injurious to his health.

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And he also felt that he didn't
write very well in London,

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that he was really inspired
by the area that he grew up in

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and knew well in his childhood

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and so, he moved back
to Dorchester fairly soon.

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'Continuing as an architect in
Dorchester, he wrote on the side.

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'Far From The Madding Crowd was
so successful that, at the age of 34,

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'he committed to writing full-time.'

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This house is obviously
the house of a successful man.

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Yes, he designed it himself
and, in 1885, it really represented

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the height of middle-class
convenience and comfort.

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He received some
very important writers,

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such as JM Barrie, Rudyard Kipling,
George Bernard Shaw and Edward VIII,

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the Prince of Wales then,
also came here.

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'Hardy took his place
in polite society,

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'but the impediments
to social mobility

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'were a continuing theme
of the novels.'

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Jude the Obscure is the great novel
of social climbing,

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where a young boy,
a young orphaned boy,

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decides he wants to go to university

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and the whole of Jude the Obscure
is really about his attempt

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to better himself, but of course,
it doesn't work for him at all.

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'Hardy published 14 novels,
49 short stories

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'and nearly 1,000 poems,

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'much written in this study.'

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How does he make use of railways
in his novels?

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Railways are an opportunity
for dramatic speculation,

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because you've got
lots of strangers meeting,

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transient populations, people
who may or may never meet again,

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lots of brief encounters
we might say, um,

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so they provide him with quite
a lot of material for what-ifs.

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I confess I only know
Thomas Hardy as a novelist,

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but he was also
a considerable poet, wasn't he?

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Yes, he was, um, he claimed to
have spent more time writing poems

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than writing novels and being a poet
was his first calling

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and, perhaps as an example of how
he sees the romantic possibilities

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in railways, you might want to read
Faintheart In A Railway Station?

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00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:29,960
Hmm, thank you.

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"At nine in the morning,
there passed a church

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"At ten, there passed me by the sea

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"At 12, a town of smoke and smirch

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"At two, a forest of oak and birch

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"And then, on a platform, she

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"A radiant stranger, who saw not me

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"I said, 'Get out to her! Do I dare?'

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"But I kept my seat
in my search for a plea

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00:13:51,960 --> 00:13:53,800
"And the wheels moved on

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"Oh, could it but be
That I had alighted there!"

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He missed his chance. He did indeed.

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Thomas Hardy lived at Max Gate
until his death in 1928.

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I'm making my way back into the town

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which was Hardy's inspiration
for Casterbridge.

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I end my day at a hostelry,
referenced in both Bradshaw's

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and Hardy's Mayor or Casterbridge -
The Kings Arms.

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It's the morning of my second day.

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Leaving Dorchester,
I continue my travels westwards,

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00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:49,160
rejoining the mainline at Yeovil in
Somerset and continuing into Devon.

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00:14:54,280 --> 00:14:57,400
My first stop of the new day
will be Axminster,

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apparently situated on the River Axe.

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"Some of the best and finest
description of carpets

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"are made here." As I weave my way
towards Devon, carpet making looms.

232
00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:19,440
The route to Axminster skims along
the river and past lush pasture.

233
00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:25,520
The landscape suited
farming sheep for wool

234
00:15:25,520 --> 00:15:27,520
and the river drove the mills.

235
00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:36,120
I'm keen to discover how Axminster
became synonymous with carpets.

236
00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:40,000
At the town's new heritage centre,

237
00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:44,080
I'll find out more from local
historian Laurence Hitchcock.

238
00:15:45,800 --> 00:15:47,880
Hello, Laurence.
Good morning, Michael.

239
00:15:47,880 --> 00:15:50,560
Good morning,
welcome to Thomas Whitty House.

240
00:15:53,800 --> 00:15:58,320
Laurence, this is an extraordinary
object. Tell me about this carpet.

241
00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:02,480
It is wonderful,
it's recently come back to its home.

242
00:16:02,480 --> 00:16:06,280
It was handmade in this location
and we're very privileged to

243
00:16:06,280 --> 00:16:09,520
actually have it back here
after 246 years.

244
00:16:09,520 --> 00:16:11,200
So handmade by whom?

245
00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:15,600
Well, Thomas Whitty, who invented
the Axminster weave construction,

246
00:16:15,600 --> 00:16:17,120
had a very large family.

247
00:16:17,120 --> 00:16:22,080
He had six daughters, three sons and
they all worked in his manufactory.

248
00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:24,360
They had small fingers,
nimble fingers,

249
00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:28,080
and he was able to produce
the carpets slightly cheaper than

250
00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:30,760
other manufacturers
by having a vertical loom

251
00:16:30,760 --> 00:16:34,120
instead of a horizontal loom
and so his business grew and grew

252
00:16:34,120 --> 00:16:37,440
and became really quite
worldwide famous.

253
00:16:37,440 --> 00:16:39,160
Apart from using his own family,

254
00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:41,960
did he use child labour
more generally? Yes.

255
00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:44,320
Generally speaking,
it was children and women

256
00:16:44,320 --> 00:16:46,480
who did the weaving for him.

257
00:16:46,480 --> 00:16:51,720
Shocking today, child labour was the
norm in the 18th and 19th centuries.

258
00:16:51,720 --> 00:16:56,680
Only in 1833 did the Factory Act
ban children from working

259
00:16:56,680 --> 00:17:00,800
in textile factories, but even so,
only if under the age of nine.

260
00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:05,600
When Whitty founded
the factory in the 1750s,

261
00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:10,480
a big workforce was required to meet
the demands of the world of fashion.

262
00:17:11,840 --> 00:17:15,320
The greatest day of his life
was when King George III visited

263
00:17:15,320 --> 00:17:18,680
this manufactory with Queen
Charlotte and three princesses,

264
00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:21,600
and it was a huge thing and
she bought some carpet, the Queen,

265
00:17:21,600 --> 00:17:24,000
and that promoted his business.

266
00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:32,040
'Thomas Whitty died in 1792 and,
43 years later, the business closed.

267
00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:35,160
'Some of his carpets survive,
such as this one,

268
00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:41,040
'which adorned the dining room of
Rockbeare Manor in Exeter from 1769.'

269
00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:44,800
I call them works of art.

270
00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:47,360
You go to these lovely old palaces
and houses

271
00:17:47,360 --> 00:17:50,200
and everybody knows about
the Renoirs and the Chippendale,

272
00:17:50,200 --> 00:17:53,360
but these are works of art as well
and they're remarkable.

273
00:17:55,280 --> 00:17:58,640
'When the Whitty factory
closed in 1835,

274
00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:02,720
'production of carpets switched
from Axminster to Kidderminster.

275
00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:07,240
At the time of my Bradshaw's Guide,

276
00:18:07,240 --> 00:18:09,840
when the Victorians were
carpeting their homes,

277
00:18:09,840 --> 00:18:11,880
none was made in Axminster.

278
00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:20,520
'But the story didn't end there.'

279
00:18:20,520 --> 00:18:23,160
Hello, Josh. Hello, Michael,
pleasure to meet you.

280
00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:27,040
'Josh Dutfield is the commercial
director of today's factory.'

281
00:18:30,400 --> 00:18:34,800
How was it that your ancestors came
to have the Axminster business?

282
00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:37,440
My family's been holidaying
in Cornwall for some time

283
00:18:37,440 --> 00:18:39,080
and originated in Glasgow

284
00:18:39,080 --> 00:18:42,120
and moved into the carpeting
industry in Kidderminster,

285
00:18:42,120 --> 00:18:45,080
so whilst on holiday, they decided
to stop off at Axminster,

286
00:18:45,080 --> 00:18:48,760
went to see the local vicar,
just for a tour around the town,

287
00:18:48,760 --> 00:18:51,760
and the local vicar advised them
that, actually, there hadn't been

288
00:18:51,760 --> 00:18:54,760
carpet production in the town
for nearly a century at that time,

289
00:18:54,760 --> 00:18:58,240
so they took the decision - my great
grandfather and my grandfather -

290
00:18:58,240 --> 00:19:01,960
to move their factory
from Kidderminster to the location

291
00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:04,280
we have now,
predominantly because the rail line

292
00:19:04,280 --> 00:19:06,440
actually backs onto
the back of the factory,

293
00:19:06,440 --> 00:19:08,760
so that gave them
a logistical advantage as well.

294
00:19:08,760 --> 00:19:12,680
And did they just kind of pick up
the old Axminster method and design?

295
00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:15,520
What they use is
the basis of the weave,

296
00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:18,160
but added what's called
in our industry an eight pitch,

297
00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:23,000
which is the finest specification
Axminster weave you can get.

298
00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:26,560
'The luxurious weave
devised by Whitty endures,

299
00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:30,640
'but the scores of women
and children operating looms

300
00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:33,040
'have been replaced by machines.

301
00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:40,520
'These durable products carpet
hotels, shops and railway carriages.

302
00:19:41,760 --> 00:19:44,960
'The man responsible
for these bespoke pieces is

303
00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:47,240
'Gary Bridge, head of design.'

304
00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:49,040
So this, I guess, would be

305
00:19:49,040 --> 00:19:51,320
the traditional way of designing
a carpet, would it?

306
00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:54,280
Yeah, this is a good example of how
we used to do carpets originally,

307
00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:57,400
so we used to draw them by hand and
then paint them on this graph paper,

308
00:19:57,400 --> 00:19:59,680
so this whole process
could take about a month

309
00:19:59,680 --> 00:20:01,240
to mix the colours to paint it.

310
00:20:01,240 --> 00:20:03,880
Now, this design on the floor,
which is a lovely looking thing,

311
00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:05,320
what is that you're up to there?

312
00:20:05,320 --> 00:20:09,080
This is the carpet we're making
for the saloon at Brighton Pavilion.

313
00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:12,520
Originally done in 1830, it was
an original Thomas Whitty carpet.

314
00:20:12,520 --> 00:20:15,680
Because there isn't much of the
carpet left, we've had to base this

315
00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:19,360
on paintings done from the 1840s,
1850s, of the original carpet.

316
00:20:19,360 --> 00:20:22,280
Then, in total, this'll probably
take about 15 months to design,

317
00:20:22,280 --> 00:20:25,000
cos of the intricacy and the size
of the rug. Extraordinary!

318
00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:26,480
That looks like a railway carpet.

319
00:20:26,480 --> 00:20:29,760
Yeah, one of the railway carpets
we do. And that's nicely resistant

320
00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:32,720
to anybody who throws his tea
or coffee over the carpet? Yes.

321
00:20:32,720 --> 00:20:35,040
I mean, the beauty of what
we do here is we do anything

322
00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:37,600
from quite a simple design,
for this rail company here,

323
00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:40,480
to some historic works
for beautiful locations

324
00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:43,840
to, obviously, the cream of the job,
which is the Brighton Pavilion.

325
00:20:43,840 --> 00:20:45,440
I think I will go downstairs

326
00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:47,960
and see how the boys
put your designs into action.

327
00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:50,680
OK, nice. Thanks very much, Gary.
Thank you. Bye-bye.

328
00:20:52,520 --> 00:20:56,440
'Operating one of the
computerised looms is Steve.'

329
00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:01,760
I've been seeing some of the designs
that Gary's got upstairs.

330
00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:03,960
How are they sent down to you
to weave them?

331
00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:05,640
Well, from the design department,

332
00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:07,680
Gary will send it down
through the network,

333
00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:12,040
which comes in through the cables
into our Jacquard computer here.

334
00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:14,760
The Jacquard will then turn that
into motion movement,

335
00:21:14,760 --> 00:21:16,920
where it will lift the carriers to

336
00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:20,560
the required height at the required
time for the required colour.

337
00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:23,080
It picks each thread
as it's needed? Yes.

338
00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:27,160
And all of that is seamlessly
done by computer? Yes.

339
00:21:27,160 --> 00:21:29,560
Yeah. Can we give it a whirl?
We certainly can.

340
00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:31,400
This is how you weave.

341
00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:32,800
MACHINERY GRINDS

342
00:21:38,680 --> 00:21:41,480
'This carpet is a special design.'

343
00:21:51,360 --> 00:21:53,600
Steve, that is beautiful!

344
00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:57,640
Great British Railway Journeys
and a lovely picture of a locomotive.

345
00:21:57,640 --> 00:22:00,680
That carpet is
in the best possible taste!

346
00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:10,120
Leaving Axminster behind,
the final leg of my journey arrives

347
00:22:10,120 --> 00:22:15,520
at the coast alongside the River Exe
on a beautiful section of track.

348
00:22:17,280 --> 00:22:19,280
My next stop will be Exmouth.

349
00:22:19,280 --> 00:22:22,280
"Situated on the eastern side
of the Exe,

350
00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:26,800
"two projected sandbanks
form a partial enclosure.

351
00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:29,600
"The river is about
a mile and a half across.

352
00:22:29,600 --> 00:22:32,600
"The landscape has a rich softness."

353
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:35,360
It makes you want to
dip your toes in the sea

354
00:22:35,360 --> 00:22:38,040
and your paintbrush in the oils.

355
00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:41,120
'Until the 18th century,

356
00:22:41,120 --> 00:22:46,080
'Exmouth was a backwater fishing port
compared to its neighbour Exeter.

357
00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:47,640
'But in the Victorian era,

358
00:22:47,640 --> 00:22:51,280
'it started to attract
a fashionable summer crowd.

359
00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:59,600
'The railway arrived in 1861, helping
Exmouth to become a scenic resort.

360
00:23:01,360 --> 00:23:05,800
'My guidebook notes that
it's a popular place for artists.'

361
00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:09,120
Bradshaw's says,
"Probably at no place in England

362
00:23:09,120 --> 00:23:11,920
"are the effects
of sunrise and sunset

363
00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:15,160
"more surprising or beautiful
than at Exmouth.

364
00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:18,400
"Here Danby,
the celebrated landscape painter,

365
00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:23,240
"fixed his residence and produced
most of his famous pictures."

366
00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:25,880
Danby? Danby?

367
00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:27,640
Who on earth can that man be?!

368
00:23:29,880 --> 00:23:34,680
Excuse me, sir? Yeah?
Have you ever heard of Francis Danby?

369
00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:38,200
Ladies, have you ever heard
of Francis Danby?

370
00:23:38,200 --> 00:23:40,120
No, afraid not. OK.

371
00:23:40,120 --> 00:23:42,360
No. Francis Danby?

372
00:23:42,360 --> 00:23:45,360
No, I'm not sure... I can't say
I have. No, we can't say we have.

373
00:23:45,360 --> 00:23:48,040
Francis Danby? No.
Never heard of Francis Danby? No.

374
00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:51,040
I can't find anyone
who's heard of him. Aw. Goodness.

375
00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:53,680
That is such a shame, isn't it?
Such a shame.

376
00:23:53,680 --> 00:23:55,880
Someone will know,
someone will know him.

377
00:23:55,880 --> 00:24:00,440
'So how is it that a painter
so well-known to Bradshaw

378
00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:03,520
'is virtually unknown today?

379
00:24:03,520 --> 00:24:07,160
'One man keen to revive
Francis Danby's memory

380
00:24:07,160 --> 00:24:08,840
'is artist Ray Balkwill.'

381
00:24:11,120 --> 00:24:15,600
Ray, who then was Francis Danby and
what's the connection with Exmouth?

382
00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:18,160
Well, Francis Danby was
one of the leading painters

383
00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:21,680
of the Romantic period
in the 19th century and,

384
00:24:21,680 --> 00:24:25,120
in his heyday,
he was more popular than Constable.

385
00:24:25,120 --> 00:24:29,960
Um, his connection with Exmouth,
he moved down here in 1846,

386
00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:34,880
really for the quality of light and
the magnificent sunsets we get here.

387
00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:38,800
You've got a couple of examples of
his work here. May I see those? Yes.

388
00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:44,360
Well, this one was The Deluge,
which was painted in 1839.

389
00:24:44,360 --> 00:24:46,440
As you can see,
it's quite melodramatic

390
00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:49,880
and, to be honest, he was very,
very popular for this type of work.

391
00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:54,280
This was at the height of his fame,
really. This doesn't really appeal

392
00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:57,520
very much to the modern taste,
except of course if you happen

393
00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:01,400
to want 20 naked women in your
painting, I suppose. Absolutely.

394
00:25:01,400 --> 00:25:05,720
And when he came to Exmouth,
his mood changed dramatically

395
00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:08,360
to one of tranquillity,
peacefulness and calm

396
00:25:08,360 --> 00:25:10,560
and it was more naturalistic.

397
00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:14,200
These ships and masts remind me a bit
of late 19th-century French painters

398
00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:15,880
and, the sky and the sea,

399
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:18,160
these colours remind me
rather of JMW Turner.

400
00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:19,880
They are very Turner-esque.

401
00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:22,440
But I think,
if you see the sunsets in Exmouth,

402
00:25:22,440 --> 00:25:25,320
you realise actually
these colours are very, very true.

403
00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:27,320
They look a little bit over the top,

404
00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:31,280
but we get the most fantastic
sunsets down in Exmouth and I think

405
00:25:31,280 --> 00:25:35,680
this is one of the reasons that
drew him here in the first place.

406
00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:41,720
'So popular was he that he exhibited
at London's Royal Academy 48 times

407
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:44,640
'and, reputedly,
Queen Victoria bought a work of his

408
00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:46,640
'to hang in Osborne House.'

409
00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:51,120
Ray, why do you think that Francis
Danby has been largely forgotten?

410
00:25:51,120 --> 00:25:54,200
Well, I think the main reason,
Michael, is that his work

411
00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:56,920
more or less went out of fashion
as soon as he died,

412
00:25:56,920 --> 00:25:58,840
but some of his best work was lost,

413
00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:03,800
so therefore, you know, I think
he's forgotten for that reason.

414
00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:07,680
'Ray is taking me to one
of Danby's favourite locations.

415
00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:14,000
'I'm intrigued to see what captivated
him and attracts artists today.'

416
00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:19,440
So, Ray, you've got, er, your easel
here and your artist friends.

417
00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:21,880
Nice to meet you, Michael.
This is Mark and Marcia.

418
00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:26,240
Hello, Marcia. Hi. Very good to see
you. Two very accomplished painters.

419
00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:29,840
Ray, you're an artist yourself.
How are you finding the light today?

420
00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:32,520
Oh, it's fantastic.
The clarity of light is amazing!

421
00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:36,520
This is the Halden Hills across here
and you can almost see every tree.

422
00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:39,720
But I thought you might like to have
a go at putting the sky in? Hmm.

423
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:42,080
Well, I'm no kind of artist at all.

424
00:26:46,640 --> 00:26:50,120
Ray, here I am just
sort of daubing a bit.

425
00:26:50,120 --> 00:26:55,280
But how...how would you describe
what it is to paint a good sky?

426
00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:57,680
Well, I think you've got
to have a love of the subject

427
00:26:57,680 --> 00:27:02,560
first of all, Michael, and, um,
in a way, skies are so inspiring,

428
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:07,360
which is why Danby was so good
at them - he loved the subject.

429
00:27:07,360 --> 00:27:09,120
You're doing a grand job, Michael.

430
00:27:09,120 --> 00:27:12,280
I think, um,
Danby would be proud of you.

431
00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:15,080
You old flatterer.
LAUGHTER

432
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:26,800
Tomas Whitty made wonderful
Axminster carpets,

433
00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:31,080
but his use of child labour
would horrify us today.

434
00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:35,520
Thomas Hardy wrote about the harsh
living and working conditions of

435
00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:41,000
the rural poor and the injustices and
the tragedies that they might suffer.

436
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:45,480
Edward Berthon was a religious man
with a highly practical streak,

437
00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:49,640
as he demonstrated when he invented
his collapsible lifeboat.

438
00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:54,600
He set out to improve the value
the Victorians placed on human life.

439
00:27:58,360 --> 00:28:03,240
'Next time, I attempt to learn
the difficult art of crimping...'

440
00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:04,920
I don't think much of yours(!) No.

441
00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:08,680
'..get to marvel at one
of Brunel's finest feats...'

442
00:28:08,680 --> 00:28:11,280
It's lovely to see
a structure that's still here

443
00:28:11,280 --> 00:28:14,720
so long after it was built still
in use for its original purpose.

444
00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:17,000
'..discover how
a small bay in Cornwall

445
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:19,720
'effectively controlled
the British Empire...'

446
00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:21,960
Cornwall is still
the hub of communication.

447
00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:24,480
They carried messages
all over the world.

448
00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:27,600
'..and pick up the essentials
of the Cornish language.'

449
00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:29,000
Yeghes da!