For Edwardian Britons, a Bradshaw's was an indispensable guide to
a railway network at its peak.
I'm using an early 20th century edition to navigate a vibrant
and optimistic Britain
at the height of its power and influence in the world.
But a nation wrestling with political,
social and industrial unrest at home.
I'm nearing the end of my railway adventure in the tracks
of King Edward VII.
My journey, which began in Cromer,
will also end by the sea on England's south coast.
On this part,
I'll learn the ropes in Southampton, I'll horse around in
the New Forest, I'll look at houses built on sand in Bournemouth,
and as I approach Brownsea Island, I'll be prepared.
My journey began on the Norfolk coast and took me
via Cambridgeshire to the capital.
Travelling south, I admired the Sussex countryside,
en route to the coast.
From there, I turned west to explore Portsmouth
and the Isle of Wight.
I'm now continuing through Hampshire and Dorset,
towards my final stop, reached from Poole.
This leg starts at the Hampshire village of Swanwick,
near Southampton, stops at Brockenhurst for the New Forest
and Bournemouth for the seaside.
My last call will be Poole, from where a ferry will carry me
to Brownsea Island.
On my way... Explorers alert.
..I promise to do my best with the Scouts...
Once a Scout, always a Scout.
..find warhorses in the Hampshire wilderness...
Do you like to be brushed? Look at that!
Beautiful sheen to this coast!
..and experience the charms of a British institution,
born in the Edwardian era.
Do you always dress to match your beach hut? Yes. Always.
My first stop will be Swanwick, seven miles east of Southampton.
Today, it's known as a centre for Air Traffic Control,
but given its location, it's long had links to the sea.
My Bradshaw's carries an advertisement for the
American Line, Southampton to New York service, calling at Cherbourg.
Now, any seafarer would want to know the difference between a bowline,
a sheet bend and a clove hitch.
I've often wondered how those bound for a life on the ocean wave
were sent forth on an even keel.
At the time of my Bradshaw's, the British Empire was at its zenith,
sustained by a vast fleet of commercial ships.
There was huge demand for skilled seamen.
And to learn how Southampton met it,
I've come to the Warsash Maritime Academy, on the River Hamble.
I'm meeting former cadet Roger Holt.
Southampton becomes a very important port for the merchant navy,
as we now know it, during the 19th century?
Oh, absolutely. And really this is when it all kicked off.
The channels were dredged to take the ever-larger ships.
And, of course, passenger shipping became immensely important,
particularly transatlantic trade.
It was really getting a head of steam.
How long have we recognised that commercial shipping needs men
and boys to be properly trained for their job?
As far as Southampton is concerned, we can go back to 1909,
when the Gilchrist School of Navigation was established.
In the early 20th century,
sea schools were springing up across the country.
And their graduates would soon face extraordinary perils.
During the First World War, some 15,000 merchant seamen died,
trying to keep the Empire supplied.
Roger, it occurs to me that Navy is a military term,
yet we speak of a merchant navy. Of course.
It goes back to the First World War, after the recognition of the
service provided by the commercial service by King George V.
And he established the term "merchant navy."
From that time, at least, we've recognised that our survival
in time of conflict depends on our commercial shipping.
Yes, indeed.
The Gilchrist School later evolved
into the Warsash Maritime Academy, which moved to this site in 1946.
Were you here as a cadet yourself? Yes, I was. And what was it like?
It was something that possibly today we would know as a boot camp.
Essentially, this place was designed for leadership.
We wore boots, we wore gaiters, we wore battledress.
And we ran everywhere.
Good training? I thought it was fantastic.
I think it was a very good grounding for a life at sea.
Now, I imagine the regime is a bit different from in your day.
Is that right? Yes.
The training has become much more academic, but there is still
room for the knowledge of good seamanship practice.
You still need to know your knots?
You still need to know your knots, Michael,
particularly on a dark night in a storm.
These days, Warsash is part of Southampton Solent University.
Alongside old school rope skills,
today's cadets use hi-tech simulators to prepare for a
life at sea, handling everything from super yachts to oil tankers.
Danielle Blackburn and David Dale are current cadets.
Danielle, you're coming to the end of your course now, is that right?
Yes, that's correct.
I'm just coming to the end of the three years of the course.
And to what extent is it a practical or an academic course?
We do a lot of practical elements here at the college,
alongside the academics, and then obviously, at sea,
it's completely practical and hands-on.
And now, I suppose, a lot of electronics and IT?
Definitely, yeah.
Also matched up with the more traditional
methods of navigation and safety.
Dave, has it been decided what you're going to be doing next?
I'm with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary,
but I don't know which ship at the moment.
And what will your future role be on one of those vessels?
It'll be an Unlimited Officer of the Watch.
As the Officer of the Watch, you are
the Captain's representative at sea. You have control of the ship.
Ships of any size? Yes. After your three-year course here,
do you feel ready for that enormous responsibility?
There's an awful lot of training involved. I do feel prepared.
Picking up the train in Southampton, I'm heading west.
I'm swapping the shore for the stunning wilderness
of the New Forest.
Today, this timeless landscape is an oasis of peace and tranquillity.
But in the past, the forest has played its part in conflict.
Around the turn of the 20th century,
the New Forest was frequently used for manoeuvres
and made another important contribution to the military effort.
I'm alighting at Brockenhurst,
on the trail of some unsung Edwardian war heroes.
New Forest resident James Young will introduce me to their descendants.
Hello, James. Michael. How lovely to see you.
And so wonderful, isn't it, to see
such a large number of New Forest ponies.
They're in good voice today. At the moment, they're shading.
Very hot day. So it's part of their social behaviour that they
shade in the heat of the day.
They're all in groups, so they're calling, one to the other.
There are around 5,000 of the famous New Forest ponies,
roaming freely across the 220 square miles of the National Park.
And what uses has man put them to?
Well, traditionally, they were used for forestry,
a big industry in the New Forest.
They were also used in business, pulling the butcher's cart.
A lot of tradespeople would use them.
But at the turn of the 20th century,
these beautiful animals became warhorses.
New Forest ponies were among half a million horses used
by the British military during the Second Boer War from 1899 to 1902.
And when the First World War broke out,
ponies from the New Forest were called to serve again.
Did they prove their worth in wartime? Yes, they certainly did.
I've read accounts of the end of a long hard day's march,
the finer-blooded, better-bred, thoroughbreds were just tired
and laid down, exhausted, whereas the sturdy,
strong forest ponies, they were the first ones up for their nosebag
and showed great toughness.
Although the ponies are semi feral, they are all owned
and looked after by local people, known as commoners.
How do you fit into it all? Well, I'm a commoner of the New Forest.
There are about 500 of us, practising commoners.
I'm proud that we have the oldest established herd in the forest.
In the mid 19th century,
my great-great-great-grandmother brought eight New Forest mares with
her as a wedding dowry
and our New Forest ponies today descend directly from those ponies.
James also runs a stable and a riding school,
where some of his wild animals have been broken in,
to be ridden or shown.
Horse lover King Edward VII would probably have approved of show
pony Baccarat, named after his favourite card game.
James, that is a beautiful animal, a fine example. Am I right?
You are right, Michael.
And we took her off the forest, as a foal, so she's forest-bred.
And she's been shown successfully all her life
and she's been champion at the breed show.
She's been the mare of a lifetime. Congratulations. And why?
What is it that is so brilliant? The colour is lovely, of course. Yeah.
She has good limbs, short cannon bones.
That's the bone between the knee and the fetlock, which is
the next joint down.
Stands full square, has great strength in her hind leg,
which is the engine, if you like.
Everything you want in a forest pony, she's got it.
Do you like to be brushed? Yes!
Yes!
Look at that!
Beautiful sheen to this coat!
If you brush there, Michael,
you should bring out the dapples in this rich mahogany colour.
Here are the dapples. I'm seeing dapples here.
Oh, beautiful horse! Are these ponies then self-funding?
Do you make enough money from the riding school and from
selling them to be riding ponies, then to support all the wild ponies?
We are very fortunate, in that we're able to combine our hobby with our
business in that we can use some of our ponies in our riding schools.
For most commoners, that's not possible.
We have this wonderful heritage
and it's vital that we keep it for the future.
My next stop is 20 miles down the track.
I'm following in the footsteps of Edwardian tourists who
flocked by train to the booming resort of Bournemouth.
According to a 1913 Bradshaw's Guide to British Bathing Spots,
it can hardly be described in a short compass,
owing to its extent, its diversity and its numerous attractions.
Bradshaw's says Bournemouth has many attractions,
but it's a city set amongst pine trees.
Is this true today?
Yes, there's still quite a few pine trees there.
And there's lots of attractions. Do you live there?
I've lived there for 15 years.
What's the way of life like there? Quite relaxed. Nice climate. Yes.
We seem to get better summers than other places.
Do you own or do you use a beach hut?
I don't own one. I wish I did!
Why? Um, they're rather expensive. Ah!
Especially at Mudeford Spit.
I think they're the most expensive in the UK.
One sold recently for £270,000. Quite amazing. Absolutely amazing.
So if you had £270,000, would you rather have a garage in Chelsea,
a beach hut in Bournemouth, or a very expensive car?
Most definitely a beach hut in Bournemouth. Really? Yes.
Bradshaw's writes of Bournemouth, "The cliffs are somewhat broken,
"but this is their charm,
"as the coast is penetrated by many picturesque chines."
With evening drawing in, I'll save the seaside for tomorrow.
I've set my sights on a hotel with a racy royal background.
Mrs Lillie Langtry was an actress who scored some indifferent
stage reviews, but after her Grecian good looks were
painted by the portraitist John Everett Millais,
she embarked on a successful career as the girlfriend of aristocrats.
A woman of such beauty
and generosity of spirit was bound to catch
the attention of Bertie, later King Edward VII,
and according to her, he made little secret of their affair.
His biographer tells us that she built this Red House,
now a hotel, so I may be laying my head where the King laid his.
Good evening. Good evening, sir. Welcome to Langtry Manor.
Thank you so much. Is there still great interest in Lillie Langtry?
Oh, absolutely. She really was quite a star of her day.
Why? What sort of thing?
Well, not only was she a Shakespearean actress,
she was the Prince's mistress and, of course,
she was on every journal cover, she was even on Pears' soap.
She was the face of that product.
So everyone knew about her. And which room have you put me in?
Upstairs and up on your left. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you.
Well, I've enjoyed the four-poster bed
and the Red House is a fine piece of real estate.
It must have cost a pretty penny in its day.
Now, I'm going to go in search of something much smaller.
One of the most striking things about Bournemouth is the long
line of beach huts that edge the sand.
Nearly 2,000 of them altogether.
Author Karen Averby knows their history.
Karen. Hello. Hello, I'm Michael. Nice to meet you.
Now, these beach huts, so multicoloured,
so beautiful, what is their origin?
They emerged towards the end of the 19th century into the 20th
century and really came into their own in the Edwardian period.
They're often seen as sort of the direct
descendent of the bathing machine,
and while that's true physically, they're both wooden
constructions on the beach, they had very different functions.
Bathing machines were invented in the 18th century.
Inside, you could don your bathing costume,
then be wheeled into the sea.
The bathing machine had been all about protecting modesty
and that changes in the Edwardian period, does it?
It does, very much so.
From the 1890s, we see a call for the end of segregated beaches.
So you would have families coming to the beach, they wanted to
enjoy it together, and so beach huts were perfect for that.
How did they eventually become so regimented? In the early days,
people were setting up their own sort of constructions,
quite raggedy, and Bournemouth became a borough
right at the end of the Victorian period.
And in 1900, it had more powers to regulate these kinds of activities.
So the councils had very strict stipulations.
So, Karen, it has its own plaque.
The first municipal beach hut in the United Kingdom.
Indeed, and we can see that it was designed by Frederick Dolamore,
the Chief Assistant Borough Engineer
of Bournemouth Council, and he was responsible for these designs,
which were actually copied and used elsewhere as well.
So, Dolamore has gone down in history, has he? Dolamore has, yes.
He was responsible for much of the regeneration of this
part of the seafront in the Edwardian period.
Ah, there we are. So, all the basic requirements.
Everything you could possibly need for a day at the beach.
You've got the fold-down table, some lovely cupboard space there.
And the ubiquitous deckchair, of course.
In the early days, there would have been an awning stretching out,
so you could sit outside and just enjoy the view from here.
I've never quite understood the appeal of this British
seaside staple.
But perhaps beach hut owners Monica Adams
and Lyn McDonald can convert me.
Hello, ladies. Hello. I'm Michael.
Hi, I'm Lyn. Hi. Hi. Monica? Monica. Very good to see you, Monica.
What a beautiful beach hut. You've really made it jolly, haven't you?
I just love it. How long have you had this one?
Since 2009. And were you on a waiting list? Yes. For eight years.
Eight years?!
So that is the demand for beach huts.
Yeah, and you have to be a Bournemouth resident.
Do you? Yes.
Now, have you heard of Majorca, Ibiza...? Have you heard of them?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, we've been there too.
But this is just at the end of the road.
But what about the weather?
There must be days that you're inside with the door shut
and the rain pounding on the roof. But we're dry.
We're in there and we can have our fish and chips
and look out on a blustery day.
It's lovely down here on days like that as well.
Our 6ft by 6ft space, it's very important.
Simple pleasures, isn't it? Bottle of prosecco, have afternoon tea.
Do you always dress to match your beach hut? Yes. Always.
I'm waving goodbye to Bournemouth
and taking a short hop along the coast in search of adventure.
This is Robert Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys.
I remember dipping into it when I was a Boy Scout,
with its exhortations to develop your moral fibre,
create a healthy body and keep a clean mind.
Published in 1908, it is an iconic product of the Edwardian age.
It was an extraordinary bestseller, until the Second World War
exceeded only by the Bible in the English-speaking world.
I'll take this train to Poole and head to Brownsea Island,
where it all began.
Hello. Welcome aboard. Thank you very much.
To reach the island, I'm taking one of the distinctive yellow ferries.
For over 100 years, this service has carried
passengers across the water, from Poole and Sandbanks.
Brownsea Island strikes me
as being at just the right distance for a Boy Scout camp.
Not so remote that you couldn't get back in an emergency, but this
ferry ride puts distance between you and your home and your parents.
Bye. Welcome to Brownsea Island. Thank you.
Brownsea Island now belongs to the National Trust
and is still used by the Scouts.
I'm meeting Tim Kidd, who is the chief commissioner in the United
Kingdom of a movement that today has over 400,000 young British members.
So, Tim, this very site, this open space, plays a
really important part in the history of scouting? Yeah, absolutely.
This is the place where the first experimental camp took place,
where Baden-Powell tried out his ideas of how
he could help young people to learn to work together.
Who was Robert Baden-Powell? He was a military man.
And he ended up commanding forces in the Second Boer War.
He returned to the UK to find, I think to his surprise,
he was something of a celebrity.
Scouting is about survival and understanding nature.
Where did he pick up those skills?
So those were definitely through his military career.
The term "scouting" I think really started from the Americans,
who taught a lot of bush craft.
What Baden-Powell did is saw the potential in this
to make a programme for young people,
and not just about the outdoors, but also about self-reliance
and giving young people skills they could genuinely use in their lives.
Baden-Powell had already written one popular book,
a military training manual.
Now, he wanted to rework it for young people.
To try out his ideas, he organised a camp.
What sort of children came here? Were they middle class?
They were 20 young people from mixed backgrounds.
Some were the children of friends of his,
others were from the local area. Was it a success? Brilliantly so.
The following year, 1908,
Scouting for Boys was published in six instalments.
It was an immediate hit.
The book is a colossal bestseller.
Did the movement grow at the same rate? Absolutely the case.
In the UK, we've been growing every year for the last 12 years.
We've grown year-on-year. And one other question.
What has happened to the woggle?
Well, the woggle is still very much around.
If I wear my uniform, then I wear my necker with a woggle.
But when I'm wearing my T-shirt, my iScout stuff, I wear it in
a more relaxed way. This is called a friendship knot.
Scouting is of course no longer just for boys.
And this mixed group of Scouts has been set
the task of improvising a shelter, using natural materials.
Greetings, happy campers!
Hello!
Where does this fit in? Just there. Just there.
There we go.
Ready for the ferns.
Ah, so, is this fun?
Yes. This is very enjoyable. Why is it very enjoyable?
It's just the whole sort of Scout atmosphere. Yeah.
You know, the sort of being together and out and about in the wilderness.
This is what scouting's all about and especially being
here on Brownsea Island, where it all started. It's especially nice.
And would you be willing to spend the night in a bivouac
like that, do you think? Give it a go.
Yeah? How long have you been involved in scouting?
About two years. Two years.
What do you tend to do when you have your meetings?
We learn about different life skills, like map reading
and basic cooking.
How is your cooking coming on? All right.
And what about the washing up? That's pretty tedious, isn't it?
Yeah, but I enjoy it, so... You enjoy the washing up?
Mm-hm. You ARE going to be a good Scout!
Ceremonies have been important to Scouts, ever
since Baden-Powell's day.
Unfurling, or breaking,
the Union flag is intended to remind them of duty to Queen and country.
Explorers alert!
Michael, would you like to break the flag? Oh, thank you.
And a necker with a friendship knot. Once a Scout, always a Scout.
Thank you very much.
In 1901, they changed the guard at Buckingham Palace and
King Edward VII was fundamentally different from Queen Victoria.
He would hardly have been Baden-Powell's model
of a clean mind in a healthy body, but new technology brought
about deeper change, as electric trains and motor cars
and aeroplanes gradually pushed aside the age of steam.
Mechanisation brought its dangers, as well as progress.
And many of the young men who were the first Boy Scouts would
apply their skills in leadership and survival on the Western Front.
Next time, I burn rubber in the hot seat... Wow! This is exciting!
What speed are we doing? About 70.
..follow in the footsteps of the great Welsh bard...
So, I suppose Dylan Thomas came here, did he?
I don't think there's a pub in Swansea that he didn't go to.
..and uncover a spiritual renaissance.
"I stir up a few friends who turn back to Jesus.
"But he will need thousands of friends in Wales."