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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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After my exciting trip
on the Flying Scotsman,

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I'm now following
its path northwards,

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taking the slow train from London
at a more leisurely pace.

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As I open my Bradshaw's guide,

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a vivid impression of
Victorian Britain tumbles out.

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The metropolis
which I'm just leaving

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contains the largest mass of
human life,

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arts, science, wealth, powers
and architectural splendours

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that in almost all of these
particulars,

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has ever existed in
the annals of mankind.

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London was the capital of
a vast empire,

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which exceeded even ancient Rome.

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As I retrace the tracks
of the Flying Scotsman,

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I hope to grasp
the psyche of a people

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who ruled a quarter of the globe.

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My journey will take me up the
East Coast Main Line

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from London's King's Cross, through
the counties of Hertfordshire

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and Bedfordshire,
and on via Cambridgeshire

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to the market town of Newark.

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I'll visit the former
port of Stockton-on-Tees

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and the coastal towns of
Alnmouth and Dunbar

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before finishing in Edinburgh.

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The first leg of my trip
takes me deep into

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the Hertfordshire countryside,
to Welwyn Garden City.

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From there, I'll travel to
the county town of Hertford,

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crossing into Bedfordshire
to Biggleswade

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and finally on to the
cathedral city of Peterborough.

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'On this journey,
I work up a sweat...'

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Oh, joy!

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Chuck the exercise bike, get a
pump trolley and a mile of track.

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'..discover the archive of one of
our best-known Victorian writers...'

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These were sold on the Indian
book-seller stalls

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in the railways for one rupee.

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'..and get steamed up
in a vintage car.'

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Apply the throttle - hurray!
And we're off!

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I will leave this train at
Welwyn Garden City.

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Bradshaw says, "With its sweet
sylvan scenes and trout streams,

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'there's no county so rich
in associations

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'and in stately seats of gentlemen,

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'as the small inland county
of Hertfordshire.'

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Since the days of Queen Elizabeth I,

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with men like Francis Bacon and John
Dee, and later with Isaac Newton,

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the British Isles have produced
minds that enquired into

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the order of the natural world.

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And, as I hope to discover here,

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it took the Victorians to apply
science to the production of food.

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24 miles north of London's
King's Cross,

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Welwyn Garden City was the creation
of social reformer

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and town planning pioneer
Sir Ebenezer Howard.

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Established in 1920,

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it was designed to offer families
a healthy alternative

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to crowded inner-city living.
80 years earlier, a booming

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Victorian population inspired
new ideas in the science of farming.

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I'm heading to Rothamsted Manor,
where it all began,

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to meet retired plant pathologist
Dr John Jenkin.

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Hi, John. I'm Michael.
Hello, pleased to meet you.

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Lovely to be at Rothamsted Manor.
Whose was it?

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The most famous occupant was
somebody called John Bennet Lawes,

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who was born here in 1814.

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He was a gentleman who has
two principle claims to fame.

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First of all, he started an
experimental station

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now known as Rothamsted Research.

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But he also really established
the fertiliser industry.

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What was the challenge
that they were facing,

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what made the endeavour worthwhile?

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We had a growing population and
so we needed to produce more food.

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We couldn't produce enough
farmyard manure

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to adequately fertilise
all of the crops in a rotation.

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Farmers would have supplemented
that with things like wool,

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but also bones, for example.

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They were a very important
source of phosphate,

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which is one of the important
plant nutrients.

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And Lawes developed a process
for treating bones

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and later other phosphatic
materials with sulphuric acid.

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What this does is make
the phosphate more soluble

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and more readily available to
plants. How did Lawes get started?

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He went to Oxford. He would have
been doing classics, philosophy,

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but we do know he went to lectures
given by a professor of chemistry

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at Oxford, and when Lawes
came back to the manor in 1834,

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without a degree, I hasten to add,

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one of the first things he did
was to have one of the bedrooms here

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converted into a laboratory.

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He proceeded to essentially
teach himself chemistry.

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He did experiments initially
in pots,

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but latterly in small plots on
his home farm here at Rothamsted.

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After eight years of research,

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Lawes took out a patent in 1842
on his super phosphate fertiliser

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and put it into production
the following year.

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With his hands full at his
London factory, he hired chemist

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Henry Gilbert to take charge of
continuing research at Rothamsted.

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Lawes and Gilbert
collaborated for 57 years,

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laying the foundations for
modern agricultural science,

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and amazingly, some of the research
they started continues to this day.

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The most famous example is
the park grass experiment,

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begun in 1856.

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So, John, if you don't
mind me saying so,

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a rather average looking field.
Why is this of such interest?

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Well, they learned very quickly
that the different fertilisers

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gave different yields, but they
also noticed very quickly that

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there were big effects
on the composition,

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and so we have some plots which
have a lot of clover in them,

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other plots that have
practically no clover,

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plots, for example, that are very
typical of acid moorland,

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so there's a great diversity
here now, which is why

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it is considered to be probably
the most important

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ecological experiment in the world.

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'Close by, Rothamsted Research,

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'visited by agricultural scientists
from all over the world,

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'is Lawes' lasting legacy.'

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Hello, Angela. Hello, Michael.

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'Professor Angela Karp is
Associate Director of Science
Innovation at the centre,

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'where there's an archive of
more than 300,000 plant
and soil samples.'

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You have vast quantities of stuff,
dating back to when?

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Actually, here is the first sample
that was taken back in 1844.

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So since this date, we have been
taking samples of grain like this,

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straw and soil, every single year.

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"Wheat grain 1844
from plot number one."

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But what is the point of
keeping wheat that's nearly
two centuries old?

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Well, these samples help us to
study how what we've been
doing in agriculture

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has affected our soils, for example,
our environment around the farm.

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And to understand how our practices
today are going to impact

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on the environment in the future.

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Alongside this historic collection
are these state-of-the-art

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laboratories, focused
on tomorrow's agriculture.

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The Victorian challenge was to
feed a growing mass of people.

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What's the challenge today?

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The complexity has
changed enormously,

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because now we have to feed
more people,

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but with less land
and less chemistry,

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in terms of controlling
pests and diseases,

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but also less in terms
of fertiliser.

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So, really, it's doing agriculture
in a more environmentally friendly

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way, while still
maintaining productivity.

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'Dr Nicola Hawkins is one of 200
scientists at Rothamsted Research.'

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Your experiment is intended
to find out what?

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I'm looking at plant diseases.

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A lot of the crop diseases
are becoming resistant

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to the fungicides
that they used to control them,

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so at the moment
I'm carrying out a DNA test,

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looking at the levels of resistance,

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and we're actually using some of
the samples from the archive.

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So here they've been ground up
and the DNA's been extracted.

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We can analyse them with
technologies that Lawes and Gilbert

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couldn't have dreamed of
and then we'll look at

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what point in history
the resistance genes come in.

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So it's extraordinary, isn't it,
that the care and attention

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that the Victorians took
is still helpful to us today?

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From Welwyn Garden City, my journey
takes me six miles to Hertford,

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over the River Mimram,
and a famous landmark

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with a royal legend attached.

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You get a marvellous view
from the Welwyn Viaduct,

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which Bradshaw's tells me
is a structure of 90 feet high.

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It was opened by Queen Victoria,

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but she didn't put her trust in it
by travelling across it in a train.

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Instead, she visited beneath
in a horse-drawn carriage.

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She need hardly have feared,
it's stood the test of time,

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carrying, what, hundreds of
high-speed trains every day.

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Having come north to Stevenage,
I have to change onto

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the so-called Hertford Loop for
the final journey to Hertford North.

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Bradshaw's tells me that Hertford
is the capital of Hertfordshire,

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a small irregularly-built
country town

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with the remains of
a royal castle or palace,

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which, having been modernised,
has now been turned into a school.

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After my lifetime of gaffes,

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I'm looking for a few lessons
in diplomacy.

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At the time of my guidebook,

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Britain had colonies
across the globe,

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and during Queen Victoria's reign,

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it would become the largest
imperial power in the world.

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The East India Company ran parts
of India on behalf of

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the British government
and educated young men

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to be skilled administrators.

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Just outside Hertford,

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I'm meeting Haileybury College's
archivist, Toby Parker.

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Toby, I'm Michael. Hello.

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What a fine set of buildings
the school has,

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but it doesn't look like a castle,

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which is what I expected
from my Bradshaw's.

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Well, it originally started
in a castle in Hertford,

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but it moved out in 1809 when the
college buildings were completed.

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And they were designed specifically

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to provide a training college
for the East India Company.

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Young men would have been
educated here from the age of 15,

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to go out with the requisite skills
to govern India.

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'2,000 of the East India College's
pupils went on to become
civil servants.'

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In what subjects where the students
expected to be proficient?

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There was an expectation that they
had a good working knowledge

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of languages such as Persian,
Hindustani, Telugu

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and also mathematics,
astronomy, experimental science

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and also political economy.

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The emphasis on the Indian languages
interests me.

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So they were intending to administer
or govern in the local language?

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Yeah. Until we see
English being imposed

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as the language of rule in India,
the administration

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by the East India Company
was done through local courts, etc,

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where, actually, the vernacular,
the local language, was used.

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They could have relied on
translators,

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but there was a growing concern
that actually the translators

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were subverting what the
administrators wanted to do.

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Were they also taught about
Indian culture and customs?

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They had lectures and examinations
on Mohammed and law

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and Hindu culture,
so that the young men

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had an understanding of
the nuances of the cultures

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that they were going to work within.

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'Following the Indian mutiny
against the company in 1857,

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'it was closed by the
British government,

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'who took over direct colonial rule

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'that lasted until India gained
independence in 1947.

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'The college became the independent
Haileybury Boarding School,

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'and I'm intrigued to discover
a lasting connection with India.

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'It became home to the archive
of one of our best-known

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'late Victorian writers,
Rudyard Kipling.'

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Tremendous collection of works.

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What first brings Kipling
to public attention?

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Probably a series of publications

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that are produced in India,
known as the Indian Railway Library,

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00:13:47,400 --> 00:13:53,200
and these were sold on
the Indian book-seller stalls

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in the railways for one rupee.

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Affordable, almost throwaway
editions of Kipling's short stories.

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00:14:01,960 --> 00:14:05,360
In 1889, he leaves India,

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having made quite a lot of money
out of these publications.

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He moves to London.

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00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:15,320
By 1894, he's published
The Jungle Book.

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00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:18,560
Jungle Book is still very
well-known, it was made
into a movie,

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00:14:18,560 --> 00:14:21,880
but by comparison with
all that he wrote,

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00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:24,400
so much of this seems to have
passed into oblivion.

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Why so, do you think?

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00:14:25,960 --> 00:14:30,600
Well, he's become viewed
as a controversial character.

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00:14:30,600 --> 00:14:36,000
The associations with imperialism
and, by default, colonisation,

238
00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:42,160
has made him a less palatable figure
in some of the public's eyes,

239
00:14:42,160 --> 00:14:48,760
but there is probably one poem
that still holds the attention,

240
00:14:48,760 --> 00:14:52,080
the interest of the British public,
and that is If.

241
00:14:54,680 --> 00:14:56,800
"If you can keep your head
when all about you

242
00:14:56,800 --> 00:14:59,240
"Are losing theirs
and blaming it on you,

243
00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:02,360
"If you can trust yourself
when all men doubt you,

244
00:15:02,360 --> 00:15:05,040
"But make allowance
for their doubting too...

245
00:15:05,040 --> 00:15:07,480
"If you can fill
the unforgiving minute

246
00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:10,320
"With sixty seconds' worth
of distance run,

247
00:15:10,320 --> 00:15:13,880
"Yours is the Earth
and everything that's in it,

248
00:15:13,880 --> 00:15:17,280
"And - which is more -
you'll be a Man, my son!"

249
00:15:18,680 --> 00:15:22,520
For the young men at this college
who dream of a civil service career

250
00:15:22,520 --> 00:15:26,680
in India, two years of study
culminated in tough exams.

251
00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:30,640
I wonder whether I have
what it took?

252
00:15:30,640 --> 00:15:35,040
My invigilator is the school's
current master, Joe Davis.

253
00:15:35,040 --> 00:15:37,040
Portillo? Yes, sir.

254
00:15:37,040 --> 00:15:40,440
Sit down.
This is the political economy paper.

255
00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:42,880
One hour. You may begin.

256
00:15:53,880 --> 00:15:57,360
It's hard to imagine what was going
through these boys' heads

257
00:15:57,360 --> 00:15:59,680
as they prepared to leave Britain.

258
00:15:59,680 --> 00:16:03,160
I'm sure I would have found it
more than a little daunting.

259
00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:06,560
Portillo, stop writing now, please.

260
00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:11,760
Let me have a look.

261
00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:18,720
HE SIGHS

262
00:16:18,720 --> 00:16:21,400
Not very good, is it?

263
00:16:21,400 --> 00:16:23,320
No India for you.

264
00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:27,440
Home civil service, I think,
Portillo.

265
00:16:27,440 --> 00:16:29,760
Public works, if you're lucky.

266
00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:46,480
It's a new day on my journey

267
00:16:46,480 --> 00:16:49,760
retracing the route taken by
the famous Flying Scotsman.

268
00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:54,440
My next stop will be Biggleswade.

269
00:16:54,440 --> 00:16:57,800
Bradshaw's tells me it's a market
town in Bedfordshire

270
00:16:57,800 --> 00:17:03,000
and recommends Old Warden House,
property of Lord Ongley.

271
00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:06,120
I hope to discover that
Robert Henley Ongley

272
00:17:06,120 --> 00:17:11,240
was no common-or-garden Baron,
but rather a pleasure peer.

273
00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:17,920
Biggleswade was a farming area,
growing wheat and barley

274
00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:20,720
and supplying vegetables
to the capital.

275
00:17:20,720 --> 00:17:24,360
It became the first town
in Bedfordshire
to have a mainline station

276
00:17:24,360 --> 00:17:27,480
when the Great Northern
reached here in 1850.

277
00:17:28,880 --> 00:17:32,320
Just west of the town is
the village of Old Warden.

278
00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:36,520
Samuel Ongley's 17th-century
mansion, described in my Bradshaw's,

279
00:17:36,520 --> 00:17:39,560
was replaced in the late 1800s,

280
00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:42,080
but its wonderful Swiss Garden
has been preserved.

281
00:17:43,400 --> 00:17:47,160
I'm meeting Christine Hill, who's
written a book about the estate.

282
00:17:50,920 --> 00:17:52,560
Who was Lord Ongley?

283
00:17:52,560 --> 00:17:55,800
Lord Ongley was the fifth
in line of the Ongley Squires

284
00:17:55,800 --> 00:17:59,520
of Old Warden and he inherited
the estate at a very young age.

285
00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:05,160
His father died when he was just 11,
and in 1824 he came into the money.

286
00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:08,280
What do you think would have been
the inspiration for these gardens?

287
00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:12,160
During the 1820s,
a lot of young nobility,

288
00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:16,240
landowners, were going off to Europe
to look at the picturesque scenery

289
00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:20,600
over there, and he developed
a passion for the Swiss.

290
00:18:20,600 --> 00:18:24,800
We don't know whether
he actually went to Switzerland,

291
00:18:24,800 --> 00:18:27,320
but he took on
the picturesque style,

292
00:18:27,320 --> 00:18:29,840
as his theme for both
the Swiss Garden

293
00:18:29,840 --> 00:18:31,720
and the village of Old Warden.

294
00:18:31,720 --> 00:18:35,960
He made his villagers
wear clothing with a Swiss theme.

295
00:18:35,960 --> 00:18:40,920
Red cloaks, tall hats
and red neckerchiefs.

296
00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:47,160
Dotted amongst
the Alpine lawns and pines

297
00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:51,120
are statues and elaborate follies,
including

298
00:18:51,120 --> 00:18:56,040
this Swiss-style thatched cottage
that Ongley used as a teahouse.

299
00:18:56,040 --> 00:18:58,240
Once you've built a garden
like this, I suppose

300
00:18:58,240 --> 00:19:00,920
you want to entertain, is that what
he did? He did entertain.

301
00:19:00,920 --> 00:19:03,960
A newspaper report tells us that
in 1832,

302
00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:07,320
he laid on a big bash
for the local nobility.

303
00:19:07,320 --> 00:19:09,760
They were dancing quadrilles

304
00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:12,520
and had a special band
brought up from London.

305
00:19:12,520 --> 00:19:16,840
It says that from every turn
there were exotic birds

306
00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:19,760
walking in front. And we know
that Ongley had an aviary,

307
00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:23,080
and today, of course, we have
peacocks in the garden still.

308
00:19:23,080 --> 00:19:26,560
Ongley seems like quite an
attractive character to me,
what was his fate?

309
00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:29,280
Well, he wasn't a good businessman,

310
00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:31,000
and his money went.

311
00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:34,880
By 1854, he had given up
in Old Warden.

312
00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:37,880
He moved down to Bushy Lodge
at Teddington,

313
00:19:37,880 --> 00:19:42,480
overlooking Hampton Court, and it
was there he died in 1877.

314
00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:49,600
Old Warden House was bought
by Joseph Shuttleworth,

315
00:19:49,600 --> 00:19:53,080
who made his fortune producing
steam-powered farming machines.

316
00:19:55,360 --> 00:19:59,040
His grandson Richard inherited
his love of engines

317
00:19:59,040 --> 00:20:03,560
and started to amass aircraft
and cars here on the estate.

318
00:20:06,800 --> 00:20:10,800
Following his death in a flying
accident at just 31 years of age,

319
00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:14,480
his mother, Lady Dorothy,
opened his collection to the public.

320
00:20:21,760 --> 00:20:24,680
Richard Shuttleworth's passion
for machinery

321
00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:28,200
has been vigorously sustained
and Shuttleworth now has

322
00:20:28,200 --> 00:20:34,000
a permanent collection of aircraft
and motorcars, all in working order.

323
00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:35,640
Today is gala day,

324
00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:39,000
and the extraordinary engineering
on display is matched

325
00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:42,680
only by the extraordinary crowd
that's come to see it.

326
00:20:48,360 --> 00:20:52,280
Hello, happy picnickers,
how are you all? Lovely to see you.
Lovely to see you.

327
00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:55,320
So, you're beautifully turned out,
congratulations to you. Why?

328
00:20:55,320 --> 00:20:57,120
It's a Roaring '20s race day.

329
00:20:57,120 --> 00:21:00,040
We're re-enactor historians
for Shuttleworth.

330
00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:02,800
Shuttleworth asked us along
to come and be 1920s for them.

331
00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:05,360
Are you sort of paying a tribute
to Richard Shuttleworth?

332
00:21:05,360 --> 00:21:07,400
Very much so and also
Lady Dorothy as well.

333
00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:09,160
Who continued it all. Absolutely.

334
00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:11,360
Yeah, yeah.
And are you enjoying the airshow?

335
00:21:11,360 --> 00:21:13,560
Oh, yes. Brilliant.

336
00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:19,120
As well as 40 airworthy
vintage planes,

337
00:21:19,120 --> 00:21:23,000
this 20th-century collection
includes around 70 vehicles

338
00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:25,240
and it's managed by Stuart Gray.

339
00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:30,400
Stuart, hello. Hello, Michael.
Lovely to see you.

340
00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:33,360
Now, you're leaving a bit of
a vapour trail today.

341
00:21:33,360 --> 00:21:36,720
What are you driving?
I'm driving a 1900 Locomobile.

342
00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:40,160
A Locomobile. A steam car.
American steam car.

343
00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:43,280
An American steam car. And why is it
in the Shuttleworth collection?

344
00:21:43,280 --> 00:21:46,080
Locomobiles were very popular
at the turn of the century

345
00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:51,160
and Richard Shuttleworth actually
bought this car in 1932, I believe,

346
00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:54,680
and it turned out to be one of
his most favourite cars.

347
00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:58,320
And what's it like to drive?
It's fun. You ought to have a go.

348
00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:00,280
I'd love to.

349
00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:07,440
This is your steering, it's a tiller
steer and there's your throttle.

350
00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:09,280
How far can we go in this, Stuart?

351
00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:12,760
Well, Richard did the
London to Brighton run in 1934.

352
00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:15,320
I think we'll do something
slightly less ambitious.

353
00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:17,200
So, foot off brake.

354
00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:18,960
We've obviously got steam.

355
00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:20,960
Apply the throttle - hooray!

356
00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:22,360
And we're off!

357
00:22:27,120 --> 00:22:29,240
At the end of Victoria's reign,

358
00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:32,800
on Britain's roads it was
full steam ahead.

359
00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:51,240
I'm heading back to Biggleswade
station to continue 35 miles north.

360
00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:57,880
Next stop, Peterborough,
which Bradshaw says,

361
00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:01,200
"..is a cathedral town
on the River Nene

362
00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:03,480
"and on the Great Northern Railway,

363
00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:06,800
"where three or four
other lines strike off."

364
00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:09,320
One line, running along
the river valley,

365
00:23:09,320 --> 00:23:12,120
was struck off the map
for a number of years,

366
00:23:12,120 --> 00:23:14,760
but has steamed back into life.

367
00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:32,200
Although it boasts this impressive
12th-century cathedral,

368
00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:35,800
Peterborough was a small market town
until the arrival of the railways,

369
00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:39,360
which transformed it into
a bustling industrial centre.

370
00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:44,960
The London and Birmingham railway
completed the first railway line

371
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:48,720
to Peterborough in 1845,
which ran via Northampton.

372
00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:53,320
It became one of the last victims
of the Beeching cuts of the 1960s.

373
00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:56,680
But today, a seven-and-a-half-mile
stretch of the track

374
00:23:56,680 --> 00:23:59,800
is home to the heritage
Nene Valley Railway.

375
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:04,560
It's based just west of the city
in the pretty village of Wansford.

376
00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:07,080
But, before I board one
of its trains,

377
00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:10,240
I'm going to do something
I've always wanted to do,

378
00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:12,680
helped by volunteer Phil Marshall.

379
00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:14,720
Hello, Phil. Hello, Michael.

380
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:16,960
And what a wonderful vehicle
this is,

381
00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:19,320
an old pump trolley if I'm not
mistaken, is that right?

382
00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:23,280
It is indeed. Built by the North
Eastern Railways in about 1907.

383
00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:25,200
Many of these left?

384
00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:28,120
I would say there's around about
20 of them remaining,

385
00:24:28,120 --> 00:24:31,480
of which there's three or four of
them, maximum, that are operational.

386
00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:33,800
Really? Oh, wow,
so it's really rare.

387
00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:37,640
It's brilliantly simple, isn't it?
It is indeed. There's no gearboxes.

388
00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:42,080
Even to get it from forward
to reverse you simply rock
the handle the opposite way.

389
00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:43,960
And what was its main use?

390
00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:46,880
Before the days of the van,
the only way to get down the track

391
00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:49,920
was for them to actually
jump on one of these trolleys

392
00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:54,320
and the gangers would have probably
have done about sort of ten

393
00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:57,240
to 20 miles on it a day
as they inspected the track.

394
00:24:57,240 --> 00:24:58,640
Well, can we take it for a spin?

395
00:24:58,640 --> 00:25:00,640
We can indeed. So, chocks away.

396
00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:05,240
A bit of elbow grease to begin with.

397
00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:08,040
And she moves!

398
00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:10,800
And off we go.

399
00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:12,920
Once she's rolling,
it's a lot easier.

400
00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:15,760
Oh, joy.

401
00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:18,200
The wind in my hair.

402
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:19,600
No locomotive.

403
00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:22,000
Muscle power!

404
00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:32,760
What gargantuan speed
have we reached now?

405
00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:35,800
About 8mph, I would say.

406
00:25:35,800 --> 00:25:39,640
8mph, and it feels like 120.

407
00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:43,720
Oh, I'm enjoying this!

408
00:25:47,400 --> 00:25:50,680
Chuck the exercise bike,
get a pump trolley

409
00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:52,840
and a mile of track.

410
00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:04,680
I think, after that, I've earned
a more restful ride back to
Peterborough.

411
00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:09,440
After you.

412
00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:17,320
The Nene Valley is one of around 100
heritage railways

413
00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:20,240
across Britain that keep alive
the romance of steam.

414
00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:27,080
It was resurrected in the
1970s and is run by a group of
up to 250 volunteers.

415
00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:31,760
Marketing manager Gerry Thurston
is joining me for tea.

416
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:36,600
Congratulations on
the Nene Valley Railway,

417
00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:38,040
which is absolutely delightful.

418
00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:41,040
When it was in full use,
what was it used for?

419
00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:43,760
Absolutely everything that a branch
line would be used for,

420
00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:46,280
from the, literally,
the schools' specials trains

421
00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:49,160
right the way through to freight
and there was a couple of quarries

422
00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:51,960
so they'd bring the stone
in that way.

423
00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:54,760
There are lots of heritage railways
in Britain, thank goodness.

424
00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:57,120
What's special about
the Nene Valley Railway?

425
00:26:57,120 --> 00:27:00,240
I think probably the fact
that we run between

426
00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:02,960
the wonderful cathedral city
of Peterborough

427
00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:06,040
and out of the rurality
of the Nene Valley itself.

428
00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:10,480
We do have literally one foot in the
city and the other in the country.

429
00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:30,400
The Nene Valley Railway
evokes the age of steam,

430
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:33,880
a time when the urban population
was swelling.

431
00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:37,880
John Lawes wrestled with how
to increase food production.

432
00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:41,760
Meanwhile, the East India College
was harvesting young British minds

433
00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:43,680
to govern India.

434
00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:48,840
Rudyard Kipling won a Nobel Prize,
but is now largely out of fashion.

435
00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:52,200
Perhaps, had imperialism
not been discredited,

436
00:27:52,200 --> 00:27:55,000
his reputation would stand
higher today,

437
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:57,480
but that's one of the big ifs.

438
00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:08,640
'Next time, I rally
a crowd of choristers...'

439
00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:12,320
Has your chanting
ever been atrocious? No.

440
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:15,920
'..get friendly with
a prickly chap...'

441
00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:17,600
Hello, Charles.

442
00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:20,440
Charles is certainly not lacking in
energy or strength, is he?

443
00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:22,120
He's quite a character.

444
00:28:22,120 --> 00:28:25,320
'..and get fired up
with a Victorian chemist.'

445
00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:28,160
Let there be light.