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For Victorian Britons, George
Bradshaw was a household name.

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At a time when railways were new,
Bradshaw's guidebook inspired them

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to take to the tracks.

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I'm using a Bradshaw's Guide
to understand

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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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I'm now completing my railway
journey from Dover to Land's End.

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These tracks over the years have
brought millions of holiday makers

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to beaches in Devon and Cornwall, but
today, my focus is more strategic.

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I want to know how we kept the navy
supplied with rum,

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and how Victorians shrank imperial
connections from weeks to minutes.

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Following my Bradshaw's, I'm
travelling from east to west.

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My journey started at the crossing
point closest to France

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and took me through military
defences and seaside resorts

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and across glorious countryside.

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I'll end at the first

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and last place in England.

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My final leg starts in Plymouth.

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I make a stop in Saltash
and St Austell,

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before travelling
on to the last station in England.

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'On this journey, I attempt to learn
the difficult art of crimping...'

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Don't think
much of yours, Jason.

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'..marvel at one of
Brunel's finest feats...'

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It's lovely to see a structure
that's still here so long after

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it was built, still in use
for its original purpose.

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'..discover how
a small bay in Cornwall

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'effectively controlled
the British Empire...'

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Cornwall is still the hub
of communication.

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They carry
messages all over the world.

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'..and pick up the essentials
of the Cornish language.'

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Yeghes da!

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As I near the end of my journey,
my first stop today will be Plymouth,

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described by Bradshaw's as,

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"a first-class fortress
and dockyard in Devonshire.

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"The dockyard and harbour
are at Devonport,

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"the victualling office
is at Stonehouse,

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and there are other establishments,

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but Plymouth is
the common name for all.

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"Victualling" - that's an
interesting word, bearing in mind

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that a navy fights on its stomach.

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Built up around the natural harbour
of Plymouth Sound,

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the city has forever been defined
by its maritime location.

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It's been home to the Royal Navy
since the 17th century,

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and today is the largest
naval base in western Europe.

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The vast site employs 2,500 personnel

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and generates about 10%
of Plymouth's income.

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This railway station opened in 1877,
connecting Plymouth to London.

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Intrigued by how the navy
kept itself in food and drink,

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I'm at the
Royal William Victualling Yard

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to meet Bob Cook, a volunteer
from the Naval Heritage Centre.

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Bob, according to Bradshaw's, the
victualling office is "a quadrangle

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"which costs £1.5m and includes

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"biscuit-making machinery, cooperage
and immense provision stores."

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Why was this built and when?

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It started, the concept,
from 1822, to centralise

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much of their storage
and their manufacturing processes,

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instead of depending
on local contractors

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for their various supplies.
In the Napoleonic Wars,

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the Victualling Board was
responsible for servicing at least

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250,000 men - the population
of Plymouth - all over the world.

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Following the Napoleonic Wars,
the Royal Navy

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wanted to improve its logistics,
ready for any future conflict.

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Architect Sir John Rennie
was commissioned to build

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a fine collection
of food-provisioning buildings.

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How did the provisions
move from here to the men o' war?

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Basically, by being transported
from the harbour here

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on small sailing barges called hoys.

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They could take them either up to
the ships or else out towards

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Plymouth Sound if anything was
anchored in that direction.

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What was the range
of facilities here?

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Range of provisions, basically,
very simply, a pound of meat a day,

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a gallon of beer, a pound,
usually, of hardtack ship's biscuit,

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things like this.

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Rum was one of the things
supplied from here.

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The rum was supplied and, of
course, that was one feature

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of the building behind me,
the brewhouse -

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massive, very tall, rum vats.

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Rum for the men
and gin for the officers?

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Not necessarily. Yes, it was
one of the spirits available,

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different strengths
for different ranks of the sailors.

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Only the officers
could stand the hard stuff!

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Bob, thank you very much, indeed.
Good to meet you. Bye-bye.

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Spirits formed part of the
daily ration up until 1970,

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when the Admiralty Board
decided that alcohol might be

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incompatible with the safe operation
of machinery and weapons.

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Tots of rum and gin
were staples on any outgoing ship.

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I'm meeting master distiller
Sean Harrison at Plymouth Gin,

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founded in 1793.

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Hello, Sean. Hello, Michael,
welcome to Plymouth Gin.

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What an amazing building -
what is the history?

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It's very old and very interesting.

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The oldest part
is about 600 years old,

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which was built
by Blackfriars monks,

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which is why we're called
the Black Friars Distillery.

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The bit we're in at the moment
is about 400 years old,

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and this is where
every single drop

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of Plymouth Gin
has ever been made.

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What about its relationship
with the navy?

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Because the navy went around
the world, and the Empire grew

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during the Victorian era, and
everywhere the Royal Navy went,

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they took gin with them.
What is navy-strength gin?

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Navy-strength gin is gin at 57%.

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A couple of hundred years ago,
they couldn't work out how much

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alcohol there was in the product,
so they used to prove it,

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mix it with gunpowder
and light the gunpowder.

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At 57% and above, the gunpowder
would still fizzle and go bang,

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so it proved there was
alcohol in the product.

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How did gin begin
its happy marriage with tonic?

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It goes all the way
back to the Indian Raj.

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The guys wanted to have
their gin because they liked it,

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and they wanted to have their tonic,

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which was a quinine-based drink, to
protect themselves against malaria.

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So, the two
just got brought together.

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What's all this hubble-bubble here?

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What we see here is a spirit safe,
and this is gin.

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And this is our first chance
to see it,

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and making sure that the still
is doing what we hope it will do.

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It's raining gin.
It's raining gin, yep.

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In the 17th century, gin reached
Britain from the Netherlands,

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where it was prized
for its medicinal properties.

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It soon became a cheap tipple,
taken up by the poor

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and the cause of many social ills.

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In the mid-18th century, laws
regulated its manufacture and sale.

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During the Victorian era,
the quality of gin was improved

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and it climbed the social ladder.

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OK, Michael,
here's a chance to make some gin.

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Whoopee! So what we have got in front
of us is eight ingredients.

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The one in the middle, which is
juniper.

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Right, junipers we've got to have.

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That'll be fine. Slowly, slowly tip.

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You've now made gin,

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so now what we're going to do is
massage the flavours a little bit.

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What was newly popular
at the time of my Bradshaw's Guide?

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Well, the great thing about gin is,
it's linked to the flavours

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we discovered as we go through that
150-year period, from 1750 to 1900.

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So, liquorice was becoming quite
popular at that time. No. Not good?

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We've got orange and lemon,
coriander seeds, angelica root.

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So there's loads of different
flavours you can play around with.

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Being Spanish, a touch of lemon.

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So you just need to rip it up so it
goes through the hole. Quite small.

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Think I might just have
one more flavour. Coriander.

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And if that's all your ingredients,

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that's the makings of your gin.
Now you need to pick it up

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and we need to take it
over to the heat source,

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where we're going to boil it
and create gin.

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That's it, just put it into there,
and then what we're going to do

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is connect it from one side to the
other with this piece of glass here.

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And then we put on some water.

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Effectively, what we are going
to do is heat this up,

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turn it into a vapour,
it's going to come over here

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to this water condenser,
where we're going to take the heat

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out of it and collect 100ml.
And that will be your gin.

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That will be Portillo's Ruin. Yes.

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As Royal Navy ships conveyed
Plymouth Gin around the globe,

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it became, by 1900, the world's
largest volume brand of gin,

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with 1,000 cases a week
going to New York alone.

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I wonder whether I've made
an equally-appealing blend.

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So, Michael, here's your gin
that you made earlier.

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Fantastic.

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Ooh!

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That is powerful.

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So if we pour a little measure
into each of the glasses.

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Those Spanish lemons are really
coming through. They are.

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Here goes the taste...

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I...am a gin-ius.

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I'm joining the Cornish Main Line,
constructed by two railway companies

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during the 1850s.

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As I leave Devon behind, I pass into

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my eighth county of this adventure,

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and a moment I've been anticipating.

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And now, one of the great
treats of my journey,

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the Royal Albert Bridge,
crossing the River Tamar,

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carrying us into Cornwall.
Built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel,

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one of his finest achievements
and one of the most

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beautiful pieces of infrastructure
on all of the UK rail network.

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'I'm alighting at Saltash,
the nearest station,

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'to meet local railway historian
Paul Burkhalter.'

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Hello, Paul, it's lovely to be in
Cornwall, and what a way to arrive.

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The Admiralty insisted on a bridge
with a 100ft clearance.

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Isambard Kingdom Brunel responded
with an engineering masterpiece

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which he called
"the bowstring suspension bridge"

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Paul, how complicated was it
to build this bridge?

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Well, you've got to remember,
Michael, that this was

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at the forefront of engineering
intelligence of the time.

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There was no big bridge building
expertise in that era,

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they had to evolve as they built.

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How long did the project take?
This took six years to build.

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They started in 1853, finished,

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as the bridge says, 1859.

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Is it really a suspension bridge?

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Yes, suspension chains are holding
the bridge deck, and the tubes,

194
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the huge tubes at the top,

195
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are forcing the piers outward,

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so, yes, it is a form
of suspension bridge.

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What difference did it make
having the bridge?

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Oh, tremendous.
It opened up Cornwall

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00:12:19,080 --> 00:12:21,200
to all sorts of new ventures,

200
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particularly in
the agricultural world.

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So, the railway bridge
was not built for the tourists?

202
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No, it wasn't,
but it came very soon after,

203
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because the Great Western Railway
was a great self-publicist

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and promoted the tourist industry.

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You had the posters, the artwork
talking about the Cornish Riviera,

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so yes, it came
very quickly after that.

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00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:45,080
It's looking pristine
and handsome at the moment.

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00:12:45,080 --> 00:12:46,760
It's just had a big restoration.

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00:12:46,760 --> 00:12:51,840
It has, Network Rail, £15m project,
took them five years.

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00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:54,360
It's only just finished
this year and, a few weeks ago,

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they organised a celebration walk

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00:12:56,840 --> 00:12:59,920
across the bridge
to mark the end of that project.

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00:12:59,920 --> 00:13:03,280
You sound quite emotional about
this bridge. Would that be right?

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00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:05,520
It's lovely to see
a structure still here

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00:13:05,520 --> 00:13:07,080
so long after it was built,

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00:13:07,080 --> 00:13:09,360
still in use
for its original purpose.

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00:13:10,360 --> 00:13:13,640
Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
He's just an amazing man.

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Yes. And of course,
he died not long after the bridge

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was opened later that year, in 1859.

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So, it stands as his headstone. Yes.

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Back on the rails,
I head out of Saltash, with a last

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backward glance at Brunel's work.

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I'm travelling to my final
destination of the day - St Austell.

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Bradshaw's notes
the tin and copper mines

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being worked in his day.

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But as that industry
has been largely worked out,

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I'm interested in a Cornish element
that's on the rise.

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Bradshaw's quotes what it claims
is a well-known rhyme.

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00:13:57,080 --> 00:14:00,680
"By Tre, Pol and Pen,
you may know Cornish men."

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00:14:00,680 --> 00:14:03,560
Then, it gives examples
from place names -

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00:14:03,560 --> 00:14:05,520
Tregothnan, Polperro, Penryn,

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00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:08,080
and it strikes me that,
now I'm in Cornwall,

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I should learn
a few words of Cornish.

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00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:14,800
The Cornish language
was in decline for centuries.

235
00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:17,040
It's undergone a revival
in recent decades

236
00:14:17,040 --> 00:14:20,160
and now, around 2,000 people
are said to be fluent.

237
00:14:23,240 --> 00:14:27,760
Matthew Clark, Jerry Jeffries
and Loveday Jenkin

238
00:14:27,760 --> 00:14:30,480
meet up regularly to keep
their language alive.

239
00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:33,440
SHE SPEAKS CORNISH

240
00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:36,840
HE RESPONDS IN CORNISH

241
00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:39,320
I hear you all speaking Cornish.

242
00:14:39,320 --> 00:14:42,080
How unusual does that
make you these days?

243
00:14:42,080 --> 00:14:43,920
Not as unusual as it used to be.

244
00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:47,960
Is that right? Yeah, the language
is expanding quite a lot.

245
00:14:47,960 --> 00:14:51,280
Would it be an exaggeration
to say it was once a dead language?

246
00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:54,160
Well, it's quite interesting
to think about that,

247
00:14:54,160 --> 00:14:57,440
because actually, although it wasn't
used as a means of communication

248
00:14:57,440 --> 00:15:01,440
for about 70-80 years,
it's never really died out,

249
00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:05,240
the knowledge of Cornish,
its just as a spoken language.

250
00:15:05,240 --> 00:15:08,600
How closely related is it
to other Celtic languages?

251
00:15:08,600 --> 00:15:11,240
Strongest link, I suppose,
is between Cornish and Breton.

252
00:15:11,240 --> 00:15:15,240
And, in fact, up to the 1500s,
it was mutually intelligible,

253
00:15:15,240 --> 00:15:17,480
Cornish and Breton, at that time.

254
00:15:17,480 --> 00:15:21,680
The three prefixes that people might
know who know nothing of Cornish -

255
00:15:21,680 --> 00:15:25,280
tre, pol and pen -
what do they actually mean?

256
00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:27,920
Tre, which is like
a hamlet or a homestead.

257
00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:30,240
Pol, which is a pool.

258
00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:33,280
Pen, which is a headland or a hill.

259
00:15:33,280 --> 00:15:37,480
And you find those in Brittany
and all across the map in Wales

260
00:15:37,480 --> 00:15:42,080
as well, that really makes a strong
distinction of Celtic territory.

261
00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:43,880
So, how do I say hello?

262
00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:47,120
Dydh da. Dydh da? Dydh da. Dydh da.

263
00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:48,880
How do I say thank you?

264
00:15:48,880 --> 00:15:50,880
Meur ras dhis. Meur ras dhis.

265
00:15:50,880 --> 00:15:52,840
How do I say please?

266
00:15:52,840 --> 00:15:54,760
Mar pleg. Mar pleg.

267
00:15:54,760 --> 00:15:56,920
And how do you say cheers?

268
00:15:56,920 --> 00:15:58,800
Yeghes da. Yeghes da.

269
00:15:58,800 --> 00:16:01,400
Yeghes da! Indeed, yeghes da.

270
00:16:07,520 --> 00:16:11,760
It's the morning of my second day
and I'm heading out of St Austell,

271
00:16:11,760 --> 00:16:16,280
to enjoy my final stretches of track
towards the end of the rail network.

272
00:16:18,440 --> 00:16:20,800
My next stop will be Penzance.

273
00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:24,320
Bradshaw's says, "This flourishing
port is at the further end

274
00:16:24,320 --> 00:16:28,880
"of Cornwall and the terminus
of the West Cornwall Railway."

275
00:16:28,880 --> 00:16:32,760
But surprisingly,
in this region's spicy history,

276
00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:35,440
there's been
a strong influence from the east.

277
00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:44,240
End of the line.

278
00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:47,000
'Cornwall is the last county
coming from London,

279
00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:49,320
'but the first
approaching from the Atlantic.'

280
00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:52,680
'So its links across the sea
have been as important as those

281
00:16:52,680 --> 00:16:54,680
'with Britain's hinterland.'

282
00:16:54,680 --> 00:16:59,880
"St Michael's Mount - a conspicuous
granite rock. At the top,

283
00:16:59,880 --> 00:17:04,080
"the remains of a priory
founded before the Norman conquest

284
00:17:04,080 --> 00:17:07,800
"and, for ages,
resorted to by pilgrims.

285
00:17:07,800 --> 00:17:13,640
"In olden times, this was called
'Ictis' and was a tin depot."

286
00:17:13,640 --> 00:17:17,640
Hundreds of years before
St Michael appeared as a vision

287
00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:22,400
to fishermen, Greeks had been coming
here with their ships, to carry

288
00:17:22,400 --> 00:17:28,320
the tin to their own land, bringing
with them saffron and pepper -

289
00:17:28,320 --> 00:17:32,840
ingredients that have had
a lasting effect on Cornish cuisine.

290
00:17:36,480 --> 00:17:41,120
The pepper and spices came from afar,
but the vegetables

291
00:17:41,120 --> 00:17:45,320
came from the Cornish earth, as did
the minerals hewn by the miners.

292
00:17:45,320 --> 00:17:49,840
The miners' needs helped to shape
the famous Cornish pasty.

293
00:17:49,840 --> 00:17:53,360
I'm calling in on Jason Jobling,
a master baker.

294
00:17:56,200 --> 00:17:58,720
Jason, you, then,
have your own very special -

295
00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:00,960
and, I take it, secret -
recipe for Cornish pasty?

296
00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:02,920
Yeah, we have.
We've been making pasties

297
00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:05,920
since 1860 and we've developed
the recipe over a number of years,

298
00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:08,400
so we're quite proud of it, as well.

299
00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:10,680
All right, so not everything
is secret about it,

300
00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:14,960
because I know it's got potato,
onion and swede. That's right.

301
00:18:14,960 --> 00:18:18,560
And I think you've got some
spicy secrets in that mixture there.

302
00:18:18,560 --> 00:18:21,480
Definitely, we've got
a long history of trading

303
00:18:21,480 --> 00:18:25,120
with the peppercorn spices.
Aha. How do we begin?

304
00:18:25,120 --> 00:18:28,320
So, if you can out roughly
a quarter of that bowl of

305
00:18:28,320 --> 00:18:30,680
sliced potatoes into the new bowl...

306
00:18:30,680 --> 00:18:32,600
One quarter exactly? Great.

307
00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:34,640
Half as much swede in there, please.

308
00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:36,960
Precisely one half
of the quantity of swede.

309
00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:40,200
And then, half as much
of the onion as the swede.

310
00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:47,080
Ooh! Lovely, fragrant,
tear-jerking onion.

311
00:18:47,080 --> 00:18:53,080
So, we need some salt.
And then the special pepper.

312
00:18:53,080 --> 00:18:55,880
Then, combine that together.

313
00:18:55,880 --> 00:18:58,760
Turning it through.
What do we do with this now?

314
00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:01,480
Just turn it through
the same as the vegetables.

315
00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:03,880
Oh, that chill of the meat.

316
00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:07,160
Am I right in thinking the tin
miners were great devotees

317
00:19:07,160 --> 00:19:08,640
of the Cornish pasty?

318
00:19:08,640 --> 00:19:11,680
Yes, the pasty suited the tin
miners, they used to take it down

319
00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:14,400
the mines and they used
to eat it by the crimp edge,

320
00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:15,680
and then, after eating it,

321
00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:17,720
throw the crimp edge
down the mine. Why?

322
00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:20,400
In the mining process, they had
arsenic and other minerals on

323
00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:21,920
their hands, and they didn't have

324
00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:23,680
that touching the food,
didn't eat it.

325
00:19:23,680 --> 00:19:25,400
So, it's not just there
for decoration?

326
00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:27,120
No, there's a story behind it.

327
00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:31,960
These pasties are made
with skirt beef.

328
00:19:33,640 --> 00:19:36,320
The miners would have been
used to all sorts of fillings,

329
00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:38,120
from rabbit to mackerel,

330
00:19:38,120 --> 00:19:40,680
flavoured with
wild lemon grass and garlic.

331
00:19:42,720 --> 00:19:45,120
Put a handful of vegetables
on your round.

332
00:19:46,520 --> 00:19:49,160
Some skirt beef over the top.
Over the top.

333
00:19:49,160 --> 00:19:51,880
Little tip, we want to create
a nice little bit of gravy,

334
00:19:51,880 --> 00:19:53,920
so we add a little
bit of butter on top.

335
00:19:53,920 --> 00:19:56,440
Such a simple idea,
but I bet that is really effective.

336
00:19:56,440 --> 00:19:59,880
So, the next stage is folding
the pastry over to make a D shape.

337
00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:05,600
I fear that was the easy bit.
That was the easy bit.

338
00:20:05,600 --> 00:20:10,440
So, now we take the corner and make
a triangle. Make a triangle.

339
00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:13,680
And then, another triangle,
making this roping effect.

340
00:20:13,680 --> 00:20:17,520
Ooh. Everyone's got their own unique
style. The staff in our bakery

341
00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:21,200
can tell who's crimped each pasty,
each crimp is that different.

342
00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:25,760
I think they may be able
to quite easily tell who crimped

343
00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:28,000
THIS particular pasty.

344
00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:31,680
OK, let's hold them up,
for the sake of comparison.

345
00:20:31,680 --> 00:20:33,680
They're similar.

346
00:20:33,680 --> 00:20:35,160
THEY LAUGH

347
00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:38,880
Don't think much of yours, Jason.

348
00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:42,640
After cooking them in the oven
for almost an hour,

349
00:20:42,640 --> 00:20:46,400
I take my version
of the Cornish pasty around town

350
00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:48,440
to try it out on the locals.

351
00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:50,680
I've been making
some Cornish pasties.

352
00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:53,520
Are you not put off by the fact
it's not nicely crimped?

353
00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:56,920
You could do better.
Well, with practise, with practise.

354
00:20:56,920 --> 00:21:01,480
Hello. You're not put off
by the way I've done them, are you?

355
00:21:01,480 --> 00:21:03,880
It's not crimped
properly at all, sorry.

356
00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:07,160
I'm not very good at crimping.
What do you think of that?

357
00:21:07,160 --> 00:21:08,640
That looks better than I could do

358
00:21:08,640 --> 00:21:11,160
and I've got an A in
catering and hospitality, so...

359
00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:12,280
Have you really?

360
00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:14,760
Did you make them?
Yeah. That's nice.

361
00:21:14,760 --> 00:21:17,120
Oh, good, thank you very much.
You've done a good job.

362
00:21:17,120 --> 00:21:18,200
THEY LAUGH

363
00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:21,680
The secret of a satisfactory pasty
is, don't skimp on your crimp.

364
00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:33,200
To end my coastal journey, it's
fitting that the final destination

365
00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:36,000
be at the end of Great Britain.

366
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:39,840
In Bradshaw's day, this headland
protruding into the Atlantic

367
00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:43,400
pointed to America and sea routes
to the British Empire.

368
00:21:45,960 --> 00:21:48,440
This is Porthcurno,
about eight miles from Land's End.

369
00:21:48,440 --> 00:21:52,400
But Land's End is just another
way of saying "ocean's beginning"

370
00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:55,840
and ,at the time of my Bradshaw's
Guide, the challenge was

371
00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:58,400
how to connect to the world beyond.

372
00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:04,480
The telegraph system was developed
in the early 19th century.

373
00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:08,600
Railway companies established
and expanded the network on land,

374
00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:11,800
running cables
alongside their tracks.

375
00:22:11,800 --> 00:22:16,640
The next challenge was to take
telegraph cables across the seas.

376
00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:22,920
I'm meeting Gareth Parry, a volunteer
at the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum.

377
00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:25,880
Gareth,
when did they first lay ocean cables

378
00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:28,880
terminating here at Porthcurno?

379
00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:32,320
That came in in 1870
and that was the first occasion

380
00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:35,040
when people in this country
could communicate

381
00:22:35,040 --> 00:22:37,440
with any other part
of the British Empire.

382
00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:40,880
Prior to the cable arriving
here at Porthcurno, any message

383
00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:43,520
to Bombay, as it was called then,

384
00:22:43,520 --> 00:22:46,040
could take six or seven weeks.

385
00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:49,240
With a cable,
that dropped down to nine minutes.

386
00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:51,960
So, it dramatically changed
the way in which this county

387
00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:54,040
controlled the British Empire.

388
00:22:54,040 --> 00:22:57,320
So, the cables that arrived from
the Empire came later in history

389
00:22:57,320 --> 00:22:59,640
than the first transatlantic cable -
is that right?

390
00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:02,640
Yes, the first successful
transatlantic cable

391
00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:04,800
would have been 1866.

392
00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:11,040
These first cables across the
Atlantic went from the west coast

393
00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:14,640
of Ireland to a place called
Heart's Content in Newfoundland.

394
00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:19,480
Wealthy industrialist John Pender
was the leading financier.

395
00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:24,240
The epic undertaking
faced major challenges.

396
00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:28,240
Did they know that
it was going to work?

397
00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:32,000
No, the first attempt involved
two ships having two sets of cable

398
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:34,400
and trying to connect up.
And that failed.

399
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:38,920
Second attempt in 1858
did establish communication,

400
00:23:38,920 --> 00:23:43,360
but the cable failed after a
relatively short time - a few weeks.

401
00:23:43,360 --> 00:23:45,200
A lot of effort went into improving

402
00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:47,480
the purity of the copper
in the cable.

403
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:51,680
The cable that had
been manufactured was so heavy

404
00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:53,760
there was only one ship
that could carry it,

405
00:23:53,760 --> 00:23:55,920
and that was
Brunel's SS Great Eastern.

406
00:23:55,920 --> 00:24:00,400
There was an attempt in 1865
and they lost the cable.

407
00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:04,840
They returned and John Pender raised
capital to get another cable made.

408
00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:08,600
That was successful in 1866.
It was primitive communication,

409
00:24:08,600 --> 00:24:10,120
but it was communication.

410
00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:14,840
Even after some
very expensive failed attempts,

411
00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:16,800
the backers persisted.

412
00:24:18,240 --> 00:24:22,560
Once the technical obstacles
had been overcome, the cable network

413
00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:25,760
centred on Porthcurno spread rapidly.

414
00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:28,720
By 1887, the undersea cable network

415
00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:31,880
connected Britain,
via relay stations,

416
00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:34,040
to every corner of her Empire.

417
00:24:36,120 --> 00:24:39,120
Porthcurno was the hub
of communications

418
00:24:39,120 --> 00:24:41,800
and the largest telegraph station
in the world

419
00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:46,560
What did the transatlantic cables
look like?

420
00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:52,240
I've got some samples here.
You have a copper core,

421
00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:55,920
which carries the signal,
but you have to insulate it.

422
00:24:55,920 --> 00:24:58,440
They used a material
called gutta-percha,

423
00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:02,000
which comes from a plant
in the Far East, it's like rubber,

424
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:06,440
but more tolerant of sea conditions.
Well, up to a point.

425
00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:10,000
Certain sea creatures
are rather partial to gutta-percha,

426
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:12,240
so you have to cover that.

427
00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:15,400
The biggest concern
for the cable manufacturers was

428
00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:18,440
they would get damaged
by busy shipping lanes.

429
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:21,200
If they were near the shore,
you would have

430
00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:24,120
a heavy armoured section, which is
what you see on this one here.

431
00:25:24,120 --> 00:25:27,160
You can see,
they're quite heavy. Ooph.

432
00:25:27,160 --> 00:25:30,320
Imagine a couple
of thousand miles of that.

433
00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:34,320
Well, you can see why they needed
the SS Great Eastern to carry it.

434
00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:39,120
In telegraph stations
across the globe,

435
00:25:39,120 --> 00:25:41,120
operators sent and deciphered

436
00:25:41,120 --> 00:25:45,400
messages that had
been framed in Morse code.

437
00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:48,640
Thousands of operators
were trained at Porthcurno,

438
00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:50,960
up until 1993,

439
00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:54,520
when the original cables
were replaced with modern fibres.

440
00:25:56,400 --> 00:26:01,200
It's interesting to compare
what we see here with...one of

441
00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:03,920
today's optical fibre samples.

442
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:06,400
Now, if you hold that to the light

443
00:26:06,400 --> 00:26:09,480
you can see very thin strands.
They are about the thickness

444
00:26:09,480 --> 00:26:14,080
of a human hair and this has
dramatically changed communication.

445
00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:17,440
Each one of these
would be capable of carrying

446
00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:19,720
several million telephone calls.

447
00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:25,000
Interestingly, these are coming up
on the beach here at Porthcurno.

448
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:28,480
Cornwall is still the hub
of communication for fibre optics.

449
00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:31,280
And these carry messages
all over the world.

450
00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:37,520
With foresight and ambition,
this venture laid

451
00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:40,520
the foundations
for today's World Wide Web.

452
00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:52,080
Since I began my excursion
in Dover Harbour,

453
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:56,280
celebrating the achievements
of the first cross-Channel swimmer,

454
00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:59,320
I've come across
several Victorian heroes.

455
00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:01,240
From inventors to writers,

456
00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:05,280
and not forgetting one nurse -
Florence Nightingale.

457
00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:08,880
As I travelled
along the south coast of England,

458
00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:10,760
defence was much on my mind.

459
00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:13,800
I encountered the
19th-Century fortifications,

460
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:18,080
designed to keep the French at bay.
And the Royal Navy,

461
00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:22,560
whose dominance of the high seas
guaranteed the citizens

462
00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:27,080
of our island a century of peace,
from John o'Groats to Land's End.

463
00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:40,680
Next time...
I have a blast in Birmingham...

464
00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:43,760
WHISTLING

465
00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:46,160
Brilliant. That is the sound
of the railways, isn't it?

466
00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:53,520
..pay homage to a magnificent organ
that inspired a great composer...

467
00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:56,520
The City Fathers were very proud
of this instrument, so it was

468
00:27:56,520 --> 00:28:00,520
a feather in their cap that somebody
like Mendelssohn should deign

469
00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:01,560
to play on it.

470
00:28:03,120 --> 00:28:07,360
..and get a dose of quack doctors
and their bizarre remedies.

471
00:28:07,360 --> 00:28:11,920
"Mother Siegel's Curative Syrup."
There is one here called simply

472
00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:14,680
"The Ills Of Humanity".

473
00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:18,840
And "Pink Pills For Pale People".