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For Victorian Britons,

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George Bradshaw was a household name.

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At a time when railways were new,

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Bradshaw's guide book inspired them to take to the tracks.

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I'm using a Bradshaw's guide 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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My rail journey that began in

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Blackpool is now concluding in Suffolk and Essex.

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On this part of the journey I hope to discover how the Government tried

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to stoke up a railway boom that was running out of steam,

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why a Suffolk manufacturer built a cathedral,

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what made Ipswich wet and how an Essex town hooked up with Holland.

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My route has taken me south-east across the country to the southern edge of East Anglia.

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I began in Lancashire and headed east to the mighty

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northern conurbations of the industrial age.

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In Manchester, I joined the route of the North Country Continental Rail Service

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and descended south-east-wards through the Peak District and the Fens.

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I'll finish in Harwich - gateway to the Continent.

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The final leg of my journey begins in Stowmarket.

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I'll head east to the home of the world's first purpose-built assembly line at Leiston.

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I'll visit Ipswich and finish at the terminus of the North Country Continental.

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Along the way, I uncover an industrial pioneer in Suffolk...

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I have never been in a building like this.

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It is absolutely extraordinary.

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'Discover that train companies didn't always win their battles.'

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The plans of the Great Eastern were so huge that the town council objected

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to the idea of having half their town demolished.

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'And witness a railway renaissance.'

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The Middy closed before I was born, and yet the Middy rides again.

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My first stop today will be Stowmarket which Bradshaw's tells me

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has a brick-built station in the Elizabethan style.

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Railway Mania had created many fortunes and many bankruptcies.

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I'm going to visit a line whose trains first tooted when the boom was out of puff.

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Stowmarket is a small town mid-way between Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich.

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It was granted a market charter by Edward III in 1347,

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and a market still takes place there twice a week.

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Seven miles north-east lies Brockford,

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home to the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway Museum.

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I'm meeting volunteer and editor of the railway's magazine John Reeve.

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John, the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway, what makes it light?

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Well, this is going to sound terribly train spotter-ish,

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but the 1896 Light Railway Act meant that certain levels of railway could

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be built without having to have their own

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separate Act of Parliament,

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which obviously used up enormous amounts of money and time.

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So, why would the government want to promote a new sort of railway?

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In the 1880s, this was a fairly depressed area.

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And, as you know, Michael, this is very much a rural and agricultural area,

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and they were hoping, frankly, to bring a bit more economic recovery into the area.

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The Act reduced legal costs and permitted cheaper construction methods in

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return for a speed limit of 25mph.

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This was at a time when trains on the main line could travel at 80mph.

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The plan was to link the Great Eastern Railway stations at Haughley and Halesworth,

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but financial difficulties prevented the line from being completed beyond Laxfield.

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So it extended for only 19 miles.

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The line became affectionately known as the Middy.

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From 1908, two passenger trains ran in each direction every weekday.

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But passenger numbers were low.

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The stations were situated far from the communities that they were intended to serve.

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So, it opens, actually the beginning of the 20th century.

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Yes. It opened in receivership.

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When the first locomotives were delivered by Hudswell Clarke of Leeds,

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they actually chained them to the lines, because the cheque hadn't arrived.

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THEY LAUGH

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- How long does it run? 
- Just under 50 years.

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So it closes in the 1950s?

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'52, yeah.

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- Long before Beeching. 
- Long before Beeching.

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'The Middy made its last run on 26 July 1952.

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'Passengers crowded on to the platform at Haughley to say farewell.

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'Some in Edwardian costume.'

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What's the recent history, because evidently there are trains running on the tracks.

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Well, there was a gang of four who discovered under a great

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mountain of brambles that there was a bit of this platform left.

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And, with a great deal of effort and getting planning permissions and talking to the landlord,

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they were able to reopen the station as you see it now, and we now have our track

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and our engines and we're up and running again.

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Probably busier than when the railways actually operated first time round.

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What sort of rolling stock, do you have, carriages?

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Well, the carriages are deliberately what would've run on the original railway.

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So Victorian four-wheel coaches, both of which were found in relatively local fields.

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One of which had been lived in for nearly 90 years, and when we took it

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into our works, it'd still got the bedroom wallpaper on it and all that

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sort of stuff, and they were both restored here.

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John, you may be railway train spotters, you may be veering on fanaticism,

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- but you do a huge public service actually. 
- Yes.

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Well, I'd like to think so, because this is the only standard

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gauge railway museum in Suffolk,

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and we're now going for planning permission to extend our line.

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Absolutely fantastic. I feel the pressure rising in my boiler.

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I want to take to the tracks. JOHN LAUGHS

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- Hello. 
- Hello, Michael. 
- I have the privilege of riding with you today.

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Tell me about this lovely locomotive.

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This locomotive was built in 1928 by the North Eastern Railway.

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Would similar locomotives have run on this line?

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Very similar, yeah.

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Does she behave well?

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- She behaves quite well for her age. 
- THEY LAUGH

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- I know the feeling. Can we give it a go? 
- Indeed.

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- Thank you. Hello. 
- Hi.

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First of all, check that we have brake.

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This gauge here.

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- Reading 20. 
- 20, 21 inches of vacuum which is what we need.

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So we're safe to go.

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Just open the regulator up now.

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If you bring it to about here before anything starts to happen.

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- And then something will start to happen? 
- Something will start to happen.

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What about a whistle? WHISTLE BLOWS

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Now they know we're coming.

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Regulator.

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Open. That's it.

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And we're off!

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LIGHT CHUGGING

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- What incline is this? 
- One in 46.

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One in 46.

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Which is quite steep by railway standards.

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Because of the incline, we can keep

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steam on right till the last minute.

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Excellent. Quite a nice rhythm to this locomotive.

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The Middy closed before I was born, and yet the Middy rides again

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thanks to the enthusiasm of people like this.

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Coming into the station.

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- What do we do now? 
- Shut the regulator.

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Shutting the regulator.

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- Put your brake on. 
- And brake...

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Or be ready to brake rather than put it on.

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Brake about now.

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TRAIN BRAKES HISS

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That's it.

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And pulley on.

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- We made it! 
- We made it.

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- Thank you, Paul. 
- Pleasure.

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- Thank you, Ed. 
- Pleasure.

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Excellent.

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- Bye. 
- Bye.

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I'm picking up my next train at Halesworth, where the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway

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was intended to finish.

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From there, I'll take a 14-mile journey south on the East Suffolk line.

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I'll be leaving this train at Saxmundham headed for Leiston.

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Bradshaw's remarks that Suffolk may be called almost exclusively a farming

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county, agriculture being conducted on the most improved principles.

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Improvements, because the feeding of the masses increasingly required mass production.

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A ten-minute drive east from Saxmundham is Leiston.

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During the 19th century this rural Suffolk town became an unexpected

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trailblazer for the Industrial Revolution.

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Until the age of steam, agriculture relied on human labour and horsepower.

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Richard Garrett & Sons was established in 1778, and the company

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made sickles, scythes and other farm equipment.

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Steam revolutionised the production of the tools.

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I'm hoping to learn more from Anna Mercer,

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curator at the Long Shop Museum.

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Anna, I have never been in a building like this.

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It is absolutely extraordinary and beautiful and so well-preserved.

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It's fantastic, isn't it?

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The workers called it a cathedral.

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For reasons that you can see.

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It has these fantastic windows, lots of light.

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It's a magnificent building.

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We believe it was the world's first purpose-built assembly line production building.

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Richard Garrett had built steam engines at Leiston since the 1830s, and the

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Long Shop enabled him greatly to increase his company's productivity.

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Inspiration came to Garrett at the Great Exhibition in 1851, where he

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met American gun-maker Samuel Colt, who'd introduced assembly lines

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to the workshops that produced his revolvers.

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The meeting proved a breakthrough for Garrett, and on his return to

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Leiston he built the Long Shop.

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The engines were actually moving through the building?

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They were, yes. They came in at the door at the end there.

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Obviously with their wheels and with the boiler, and then they had parts

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fitted to them as they moved along this central aisle, and there were

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lathes and machinery all down either side, and parts being made in the upstairs floor as well,

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the smaller parts, and lowered down using the crane.

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And engines like this one were produced?

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- Yes. 
- "Choo-choo," but not quite?

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No, this is a portable engine, it's not a traction engine,

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it doesn't move itself,

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so you have to hitch it up to horses, and then it's got this big drive

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belt wheel on here, which when the engine is moving,

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it spins the wheel and then the belt can be used to drive all sorts of

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- machinery. 
- Typically what?

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Typically a threshing machine.

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Steam transformed the productivity of agriculture,

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increasing yields and helping to feed a growing population.

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Around 15,000 portable steam engines were built at the Long Shop,

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95% of them sold abroad.

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With all these lovely steam engines, did they make use of the railways?

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They did, indeed. In fact it was Richard Garrett's works here in Leiston

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that helped bring the railway to this part of the country.

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In the 1850s, when they were increasing production here,

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it was obviously much more convenient to get them out by railway.

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Could you get from the factory to the railway by train?

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Yes, Garrett's had sidings and they had a special little works railway

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which was a sort of tramway which was pulled either by horses or by

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cable-driven trucks, and after that they introduced their own little works locomotive, Sirapite,

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and that drove the trucks to and from the station and the station sidings.

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The 20th century was less successful for Richard Garrett & Sons.

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After the First World War, the company failed to invest in the internal combustion engine and was

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forced to write off bad debt from the sale of steam engines to revolutionary Russia.

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And the company did in fact go into decline?

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It did. It went into liquidation in 1931.

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Richard Garrett & Sons was purchased in 1932.

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Business continued, but the long history of family control was over.

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The Leiston works finally closed in the 1980s, bringing a chapter of

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British industrial history to a close.

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The end of my journey is approaching, and I'm rejoining the railway for my

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final morning's travel.

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My next stop will be Ipswich.

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The guidebook tells me that it's favourably positioned for commerce.

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'Vessels of any burden can navigate the Orwell to the town itself,

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'where a wet dock of considerable magnitude has been constructed.'

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Another 19th-century mega-project,

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and possibly another Victorian engineering hero.

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Ipswich is one of the oldest continually inhabited towns in England.

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Historic buildings such as the Ancient House stand in a network of streets

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which is still recognisably medieval.

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The imposing Orwell Bridge just south of Ipswich carries vital freight traffic

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from the Port of Felixstowe across the River Orwell.

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The river has been the source of the town's prosperity.

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Stuart Grimwade is a director of the Ipswich Maritime Trust.

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Stuart, Bradshaw's tells me that Ipswich is favourably positioned for

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commerce. Has it been going on for a long time?

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Absolutely, yes, since the seventh century.

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There's evidence of wine trade in those days.

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Ships were brought across the North Sea.

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After that, there was a period of Viking raids into Ipswich, so perhaps

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that was not a growth period.

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Although the Vikings settled in this area immediately.

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They are famous for raping and pillaging,

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but in fact they realised the value of this place to trade,

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and so this led to a very successful merchant business in wool to the Continent with

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merchants' houses all along the quays here where we are now.

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The guidebook also mentions one of the virtues of the place,

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that you can get into the middle of the town on the river, but I assume the river is tidal.

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The river's tidal and the dock quay here was tidal.

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That was no problem in the Middle Ages when ships were smaller,

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but in the 18th century ships were getting larger,

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but the river was silting up, and ships got larger and couldn't get up

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to the quays so easily.

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By the 19th century, Ipswich had become a major industrial centre,

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producing farm machinery and railway parts for Britain and abroad.

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But the tidal port limited the town's trading potential.

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The river commissioners raised £25,000 to put towards the development of a wet dock,

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which was to be the largest dock of its kind in Britain.

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In 1837, as Queen Victoria ascended the throne,

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an Act of Parliament authorised the Ipswich dock commissioners to begin work.

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The water level in the wet dock was to be maintained at sufficient

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depth to enable ships to float.

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- Well, the best way to see the dock is from the water. 
- Mmm. Thank you.

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A 16-year-old, Edward Caley, was commissioned to draw up detailed

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plans and to survey the town.

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His exquisite sketch books survive today.

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When construction began,

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the chief engineer Henry Palmer appointed Caley assistant engineer,

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and this young prodigy took on sole responsibility for the building of the wet dock.

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Edward Caley became the site engineer for the project aged 20.

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A remarkable achievement at that

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age to be responsible for what was the

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largest construction project of its kind in Britain.

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Give me an idea of how big a project it was to build the wet dock.

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Well, it was a massive project.

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There were 33 acres of mudflats to be excavated by hand.

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There were 55 men employed to do the digging.

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It took three years to dredge out

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the mud and create the start for the laying of

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the foundation and the stone of the lock.

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So you make a big hole and then you edge it presumably in stone or rock, do you?

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Well, yes, the engineer Henry Palmer specified the best quality brick,

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the best quality stone and there was a lot of controversy about the cost,

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as always, but his specification was so good that the quay that you see

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now is still there as he instructed, and as he built it.

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The wet dock opened in 1842.

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It cost around £130,000, an expensive project,

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but Ipswich was transformed.

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Immediately it had the effect of attracting industry.

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Prior to that, there'd been small warehouses and merchants' warehouses.

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The industrial age brought factories all around the dock.

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What other trades were here around the dock?

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Lots of trades associated with shipping.

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Mills, warehouses of all kinds,

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importing everything you can think of.

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- And railways? 
- Railways came as soon as the dock was built.

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A railway all around the edge of the dock.

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Most goods were transported by rail in those days, and so the railway

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system was integral to the success of the dock.

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Rail freight traffic to the Victorian wet dock ceased in 1992.

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Today there's a marina, and its mercantile past has given way to

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modern housing and leisure developments.

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I'm on my way to Harwich, changing at Manningtree.

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I'm approaching my terminus.

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The final leg of my journey on the route of the North Country Continental

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takes me to the end of what is known as the Mayflower line, which links

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Manningtree in Essex with Harwich.

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I'll leave this train at Harwich Town.

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I'm told that it's a sea port and packet station with a number of maritime advantages.

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'Built on a peninsula,

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'close to where the Rivers Star and Orwell join the German Ocean.'

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I want to see how Harwich used those advantages to become a major gateway

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for the Continental explorer.

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Harwich received its charter in 1318,

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and today the entire old town is a conservation area.

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Seafaring is in its blood.

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Sir Francis Drake and his fleet took refuge at Harwich during the battle

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against the Spanish Armada in 1588.

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And one of history's most famous vessels, the Mayflower,

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which transported the pilgrim

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fathers to the new world, was built here.

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Author Stephen Brown has lived in Harwich for much of his life

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and spent 18 years working at the port.

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We're now walking down from Harwich Town station,

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where Victorian passengers would have made their way from the station down

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to the pier front to catch their steamers to the Continent, and you

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can imagine in the old days, with all the hat boxes and luggage and steamer trunks,

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it would have been quite a hike to have dragged all that with them,

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seeing as the journey's about a quarter of a mile.

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As the railway network expanded,

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the companies were keen to seize the opportunities offered by Continental

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travel and ran services to Europe using their own vessels.

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Harwich was one of the most successful examples.

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00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:25,840
So, Stephen, when did boat services begin between Harwich and the Continent?

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In 1854.

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00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:30,400
The then-operator of the railway, the Eastern Counties Railway,

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00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:33,520
first set sail from along this pier here, which is commonly known as

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Halfpenny Pier, when it was one old halfpenny to access the quay if you

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weren't actually travelling by steamer.

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The Great Eastern Railway was created in 1862 and they were then given

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Parliamentary permission in 1863 to actually own and run their own steam

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ships. Prior to that, they had to use chartered vessels.

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The service was daily and they would sail to Rotterdam and obviously to

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Antwerp as well.

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These services were eventually marketed to people in the north of England, weren't they?

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00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:05,640
Yes, they were. Originally most of the market was for the people travelling out of London,

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but when they built the north curve at Manningtree Station which links

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on to the main line between London and Norwich,

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they then could get access to the North Country Line and it was possible

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for people in the very north to come by boat train down to Harwich.

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In 1874, an ambitious decision was taken to build a completely new deep water port

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two miles upriver.

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It was named Harwich Parkeston Quay after Charles Parkes,

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chairman of the Great Eastern Railway, and it opened in 1883.

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Why was it necessary to build a new port upstream?

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Well, basically the operations of the Great Eastern Railway had totally

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outgrown facilities and the availability of land

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in Harwich Town.

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The plans of the Great Eastern were so huge that the town council objected

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to the idea of having half their town demolished, and so the railway then

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looked around for some other land, and they found an area of pretty much

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marshland, tidal saltings and just rough grazing, and they set about

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reclaiming about 600 acres of land, building a whole brand-new terminal,

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a huge place which was likened to the Liverpool of the east in its day.

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I'm retracing my steps along the Mayflower Line to the terminus of the old

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North Country Continental.

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Harwich became Britain's most important passenger port.

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It endured heavy bombing in the Second World War and survives today

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00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:52,280
despite the competition from other ports,

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the Channel Tunnel and air travel.

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It plays host to cruise liners departing for Scandinavia and has

359
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morning and evening ferry sailings each day

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to Rotterdam and the Hook of Holland.

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You could easily mistake this for a cruise liner.

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I've entered the ship at deck number nine, and below me

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there are many decks of cars and lorries, and all the public spaces

364
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here are simply vast.

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00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:29,160
Those decks conceal close to 5km of roadway

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and there's room for 1,200 passengers.

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00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:36,720
It's like a very long, thin hotel and, indeed,

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with corridors about 200 metres long,

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you don't want to forget where your room is.

370
00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:43,640
- Hi. 
- Hello.

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What an amazing cabin.

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With just over three hours to prepare the ship for its next voyage,

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I've offered cabin attendant Marvin a helping hand.

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Tuck that in nice and firmly at the top.

375
00:25:55,640 --> 00:25:57,240
First you need to do this here, sir.

376
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Do the other side.

377
00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:04,000
- You take such care over it. 
- Thank you.

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00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:08,120
Lovely sheets. How is that looking?

379
00:26:08,120 --> 00:26:09,760
It is good.

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00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:11,840
Lovely soft pillows. MARVIN LAUGHS

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00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:24,480
MICHAEL LAUGHS

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Not quite.

383
00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:34,680
Captain Neil Rice is preparing for the morning crossing to Holland.

384
00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:38,200
Good to see you. I'm just amazed by how high we are here.

385
00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:41,800
A huge vessel. These ships actually fill up, do they?

386
00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:43,920
Yes, about four times a week we get

387
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full up on the night crossing from the Hoek van Holland.

388
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Do you get big seas between here and Holland?

389
00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:52,520
If the wind's from the south, which is mainly is,

390
00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:54,120
it's quite a comfortable crossing.

391
00:26:54,120 --> 00:26:55,880
If the wind's from the north,

392
00:26:55,880 --> 00:26:59,400
then the swell can pick up and it can be a little bit more uncomfortable,

393
00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:03,280
but we have stabilisers and it's not a bad crossing.

394
00:27:03,280 --> 00:27:05,200
I want to wish you a calm and prosperous voyage.

395
00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:06,440
- Thank you. 
- Thank you.

396
00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:20,480
Travelling through Manchester and Sheffield to Harwich by train,

397
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I've retraced the so-called North Country Continental route.

398
00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:29,120
The Victorian boarding his steamer could be confident

399
00:27:29,120 --> 00:27:31,480
of Britain's superiority.

400
00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:35,880
The Royal Navy was easily the largest in the world.

401
00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:40,640
Britain was the first to industrialise and to build railways.

402
00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:45,200
Men like the Stephensons and Charles Darwin had kept Britain at the

403
00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:48,560
forefront of engineering and science.

404
00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:54,160
The Britons on this ferry today must venture forth with rather more humility.

405
00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:04,000
'Next time, I take to the seas in a 100-year-old lifeboat...'

406
00:28:05,120 --> 00:28:08,880
It's wonderful to feel the sense of teamwork

407
00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:12,520
as I pull the oars with this wonderful crew.

408
00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:18,120
He deserves to be remembered as

409
00:28:18,120 --> 00:28:20,600
someone who spoke up for Irish culture and

410
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:24,760
Irish political rights at a very, very dark time.

411
00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:28,280
'..and abandon the trains for a taste of the travelling life.'

412
00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:30,520
Reigns in hand, and we're all ready.