In 1840, one man transformed travel in Britain.
His name was George Bradshaw,
and his railway guides inspired the Victorians to take to the tracks.
Stop by stop, he told them where to travel,
what to see and where to stay.
Now, 170 years later, I'm making a series of journeys
across the length and breadth of the country
to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.
Ripped By mstoll
Using my 19th century Bradshaw's guide,
I'm continuing my journey from the cradle of the railways,
the Northeast of England, headed south.
Town and country soon became more accessible.
And this green and pleasant land was soon transformed forever.
Along the way, I'll be stopping off
at some of the sites recommended in this extraordinary book
and finding out how the places that it describes
were changed by the railways.
On this leg of the journey,
I'll be experiencing how tough it was to drive a steam engine...
The heat from the boiler is intense.
And... the coal is heavy.
And the locomotive... is very hungry.
...meeting one of the first locomotives...
It's in beautiful condition. Am I allowed to?
(man) I think you are.
It's quite thrilling actually.
...and sounding out Whitby which inspired the Victorian horror story "Dracula".
(screams)
How was that?
I started this journey in Newcastle.
Now I'm following some of the earliest railway lines built for freight.
My route through Yorkshire takes in the spa town of Harrogate,
and the industrial cities of Leeds and Sheffield.
Then I'll be crossing into rural Leicestershire
ending up at picturesque Melton Mowbray.
On this stretch, I start in Durham,
then cross the Yorkshire moors to Whitby,
and at Grosmont catch a heritage line.
(tannoy) This is Durham.
(guard) Cheers.
My first stop is the historically important city of Durham
whose overwhelming cathedral is rightly praised in my "Bradshaw's Guide".
Bradshaw says of Durham,
"From all the neighbouring points of view,
its appearance is unique and striking."
"The public edifices exhibit a great degree of magnificence."
"The centre of the eminence is occupied by the cathedral and castle."
Victorian writers could be pretty pompous
but the point is well made.
The view is stunning.
In the Victorian era, the cathedral more than dominated the skyline.
It was the one of the most powerful landowners in the county.
When the railway arrived, the Chapter, its governing body,
demanded huge sums of money to allow it to cross ecclesiastical land.
And even today, the cathedral is central to Durham's way of life.
- Are you a native of Durham? - I am. And a student.
That's unusual. You're studying in your own city.
- I am. - Do you go to the cathedral often?
It's such an impressive building and I'm graduating there in January
which will be great for myself personally.
- Is that lovely? - Absolutely.
It's such a good setting. As well, so historic.
The railway reached Durham in the 1840s and in the succeeding decades,
the railway companies promoted the cathedral
as an attraction worth the journey.
They appealed to a new type of Victorian tourist.
The wealthy middle classes seeking to educate themselves through travel.
And a "Bradshaw's Guide" made a perfect tutor.
It records, "This venerable building is a cross, 420 feet long,
built between 1093 and 1220, chiefly Norman,
with many examples of the early pointed style."
I love Durham Cathedral.
As you march up this enormous nave,
you're aware of this impressive, heavy, ancient architecture.
The great big columns and the rounded arches.
It's all one. It's all of a period.
Yet I'm marching towards what I assume is a later, beautiful rose window.
The whole place is majestic and tranquil.
And vast.
In the early 19th century,
the bishops of Durham were powerful and wealthy men.
They were so well remunerated,
a celebrated kerfuffle over the pension paid to one bishop
is highlighted in my "Bradshaw's Guide".
Perhaps unfairly, I put the present-day Dean Michael Sadgrove on the spot.
There is a curious reference in my Bradshaw's.
It says, "In 1856, an Act of Parliament was obtained
to enable the bishops of London and Durham
to retire from their sees with handsome pensions."
What was he referring to?
That was the retirement of Bishop Edward Maltby.
It was a cause célèbre because that was unheard of.
You didn't retire, you simply went on till you died.
He was given permission to retire because the Bishop of London
was also given similar permission at the same time.
And the pensions on which they retired were huge;
I think £4,500 per annum,
which equates to about £350,000 a year in today's money.
With the Victorian press in full cry about the bishop's pension,
the Prime Minister faced angry questions.
I looked up the parliamentary debate, actually.
It's interesting as one MP gets up and says,
"Why should these chaps have £4,500
when the average churchman has only £100?"
So it's all about disparity of income. It's got echoes of the present day.
(choir sings)
Before I resume my journey south,
there is just time to hear the Cathedral School Choir in rehearsal,
led by choir master James Lancelot.
(choir sings)
You must be James. Very good to meet you.
That was lovely. Thank you very much indeed.
Thank you very much, everybody.
How long has there been a choir in this cathedral?
Since it was built, I think probably.
Ninth century.
And with boys since 1416 at least. Yes.
And I mean, the young voices really fill the entire space.
They do.
They know about singing and the people who built it knew about acoustics.
This is not the whole choir; we've got 16 boys, ten men
and we've now got 20 girls since last November.
(Michael) I'm talking not only to a choirmaster
but also a bit of an aficionado of trains, is that true?
That is true, yes.
Both the interest in music and trains go back to childhood.
When you were this age, what did you want to be?
I wanted to be an engine driver. All boys did at that age.
I think it's very difficult to explain to anyone under about the age of 55
just what the romance of railway travel was in those days.
The sheer variety, the complexity and at its heart, the steam engine,
which was the nearest thing to a living creature that any machine has ever been.
I'm safely over 55 so you're OK with me.
I'm sorry to leave such a glorious city behind,
but I must embark on the next stage of my journey.
(tannoy) The next station call is Darlington in 15 minutes' time.
I'm now headed for a place that George Bradshaw would have found very exciting.
Towards the 22 miles of track, that he says
"are memorable as being the first locomotive rail in England."
And he might have added "or anywhere else in the world".
Built between 1821 and 1825 by George Stephenson,
I'm headed for the highly historic Darlington to Stockton railway.
Darlington is considered by many
to be the home of the first modern freight railway ever built.
It is indeed remarkable to think, moving to think,
that in the early 1820s, this was where George Stephenson
laid the first iron tracks to take the coal from the collieries of Darlington
down to the river at Stockton. Lots of people had laid tracks before
but what was to make this railway unique, a first,
was that it wasn't horse drawn, it wasn't driven by stationary engines;
this railway was going to be powered by locomotives, by moving engines.
Are you very aware of the history of this place?
I know quite a bit. I've spent many a year here,
I'm in my 32nd year now. I started 1978 on this station.
The railways here go back even longer than you do, back to 1825.
I'm glad they do as well.
My 19th-century Bradshaw's Guide
says this is the first locomotive rail in England.
But that's to understate it.
It's the first locomotive rail in the world.
Maybe, but England always comes first, doesn't it?
That's a good way of putting it.
- Lovely to talk to you. - Thank you very much.
Close by is the resting place of some of the earliest engines,
where I'm meeting railway expert, Mark Allott.
How did the railway come about between Stockton and Darlington?
It was the usual thing of that period;
the need of the growing industry for coal.
The canals weren't particularly fast at transporting things.
Hence, the decision was made to build a railway in its place.
Initially, it was thought horse-drawn vehicles
would ply the new line.
But engineer George Stephenson was convinced that steam was the future
and devised a new engine called Locomotion No. 1.
(Mark) Locomotion is one of the most important locomotives.
The first to haul passengers on a public railway back in 1825.
It really is the grandfather of all the railways we've got today.
(Michael) What we're looking at, is this a replica of the Locomotion?
(Mark) No, it's the real engine. And it's been preserved since 1841.
So isn't it fascinating to think even when that was only 16 years old,
people had realised the important part that that engine had played in history?
- It's in the most beautiful condition. - It really is.
- Am I allowed to? - I think you are. Absolutely.
It's quite thrilling actually.
Although the new railway was designed for freight,
it soon began to take passengers too who were doubtless also thrilled
even though the first train took over two hours to travel just 12 miles.
What was it like when they began to take passengers?
- Did they have carriages ready? - Not quite.
What you'll see, and I'll show you,
is actually coal trucks like this were some of the vehicles
carrying the first passengers.
Some of them would have ridden on top
and some would be empty with people inside.
- How quickly did things advance? - Really quickly.
A good analogy is looking at how computers
have really changed very quickly in the last few years,
or how mobile phone have shrunk.
In only ten years, you went from a really fragile locomotive like that
through Rocket which had all the essential components
of the end of steam, effectively,
to locomotives like Derwent that were operating in collieries ten years later.
Look at the size of it compared to...
Size and sophistication.
From these small beginnings,
the railways spread rapidly across Britain.
By the time my "Bradshaw's Guide" was written in the 1860s,
the country was linked by nearly 10,000 miles of track.
It was a railway revolution,
with the most deep-reaching industrial and social consequences.
I'm now quitting Darlington for Whitby,
one of the towns transformed by the new railways.
Bradshaw, in his flowery Victorian language says,
"There are among the watering places of England
few that have more greatly benefited than Whitby
from railway communications,
or that have become better adapted for the reception of visitors."
He's really enthusiastic about Whitby's natural beauty
and about the quality of its hotels. I'm looking forward to it.
(announcer) Ladies and gentlemen,
we shall shortly arrive at Whitby where this service terminates.
Train travel came to Whitby in 1847, and by the end of the century,
it had helped turn a small fishing village
into a bustling seaside resort of fashion.
Visitors came to admire the romantic ruins of Whitby's Abbey
but I'm here to investigate its more chilling claim to fame.
- Do you know you're in Dracula's town? - Yes, I do, yes.
Do you know how Dracula arrived in Whitby?
No.
- Do you know the story of Dracula? - Not really.
I thought it was a ship, wasn't it?
It was a ship.
Have you come to Whitby because of Dracula?
No, I haven't. We've come for a girls' night out.
Which we had last night.
Was there much blood-sucking involved?
- Well, I'm not telling. - (all laugh)
- Alright, thank you very much. - Thanks, bye.
What weapon do you use to see off a vampire?
Erm, well, I don't want to brag,
but I do have a lot of garlic in the kitchen ready and waiting.
I'm more than willing to take him on.
What's the way of killing off a vampire?
A stake through the heart, I would think.
Do you have any stakes in the kitchen?
- Probably the wrong sort. - Only meat.
- Thank you very much. - No problem.
Bram Stoker's "Dracula", published in 1897,
recounts how solicitor Jonathan Harker and other innocents
fall victim to the terrifying vampire Count.
Stoker used Whitby as the location
for some of the book's most dramatic scenes.
Famously, Dracula arrived by ship from Transylvania here in Whitby.
What's less well known is that Jonathan Harker writes
of one of his first encounters with the Count in his castle.
"I found the Count lying on the sofa,
reading, of all things in the world, an English Bradshaw's Guide. "
It's not reassuring that Dracula and I share the same taste in books.
As the rain descends, I need no convincing
this is a perfect setting for a tale of horror.
Welcome to Wetby. Whitby.
Ideal weather for my terror tour with Harry Collet.
If I were a betting man,
I'd wager you know something about Dracula dressed like that.
Yes, just a little bit.
Why do you think Bram Stoker chose Whitby for this Gothic novel?
(Harry) He came here as a holiday.
He took residency in the Royal Crescents,
and for the first week of his month-Iong holiday,
he stayed by himself whilst his family came up by rail from London.
During that week, the Irishman started to put pen to paper to write a play.
The play ultimately became the novel Dracula.
The Count brings terror to Whitby
after a shipwreck that reeks of the supernatural.
When the ship arrived, that was a pretty frightening moment for people.
Just describe its arrival.
A big storm, pulled in, crashed onto the beach
and there they found the captain dead,
lashed to the steering wheel, clutching his crucifix and his rosary.
On to Tate Sands, through the harbour entrance,
running aground on Tate Sands.
Off that ship leapt a large black dog
with saucer-like eyes and fang-like teeth
to go and run helter-skelter up the 199 church stairs
and go and hide in the graveyard.
- Who was that fearful hound? - Dracula himself.
(Harry) Welcome to the Screaming Tunnel.
(Michael) Screaming Tunnel?
That's because it's said if you venture in here after dark,
you might meet you-know-who.
(Harry) We did say to you this was the Screaming Tunnel.
So after three, I would like you to fill your lungs
and have a good long scream.
You must be joking? I'll get arrested, won't I?
- I doubt it. - OK, here goes.
(screams)
- How was that? - Excellent.
I feel better for that.
Another fantastic view of Whitby. That's beautiful.
(Harry) It is. It's one of the best views in the town.
One of the first times we meet Dracula in the novel,
he's actually reading Bradshaw's timetable. What's he doing?
He's working out how to get the 50 coffins of earth
which he brings with him from Transylvania into Whitby,
how to get them down to the railway station in Whitby
to catch the 9:30 express to London
which will get him there at 5:30 the following afternoon.
Even to the undead, Bradshaw's railway timetables were indispensable.
The last stop on my Dracula tour is also where I shall spend the night.
Pretty blowy out there.
The Royal Hotel.
Bram Stoker used to write here, is that right?
He did indeed, yes, yes,
in one of our reading lounges upstairs that is now guest accommodation.
Where am I saying?
You're in room 101, which is on the first floor, sir.
- Have a wonderful stay with us. - Will I sleep well?
- You'll sleep very well. - Thank you, bye.
Built around 1850, the hotel is described in my "Bradshaw's"
as "splendid, containing warm baths and every convenience
for the accommodation of visitors. "
From this cliff-top site, Stoker could plot Dracula's nocturnal flits
around Whitby's impressive topography.
Ah, the famous view.
And here I shall stay until midnight.
Unpunctured by any fang,
I've woken to see what Whitby offers other than vampires.
Bradshaw's says, "Whitby has long been admired
for the peculiarity of its position
and the grandeur of its coastal scenery."
"To the eastward, the cliffs rise almost 200 feet above the sea
and towards the south present a procession of bold headlands."
This is clearly a place worth exploring.
Early railway travellers were attracted by the views no doubt,
but many came determined to acquire precious souvenirs
with the highest possible seal of approval.
One item that Victorian tourists latched on to was jet,
a black gemstone that could be carved into jewellery,
which, after the death of her husband Prince Albert,
became very popular with Her Majesty the Queen herself.
Jeweller Chris Sellars will show me where to look for jet,
a search that's continued since Bradshaw's day.
- Interesting journey down here. - Down the cliff? Absolutely.
What is jet?
It's a fossilised monkey puzzle tree. Araucaria.
180 million years ago, these were laid down
and under the pressure have turned into the black magic.
I think of precious gemstones as coming from the heart of Africa.
- Are there many in Britain? - There are only two.
There is obviously Blue John from Derbyshire,
but jet is so highly prized
and going back to Victorian days, it was made and used extensively in jewellery.
The only jet to be found in Britain is on the coast near Whitby.
The Victorian fashion for black jewels
created a huge demand for rare this stone
and jet hunters combed the shore.
How did the Victorians quarry it, if that's the word?
They weren't very eco-friendly I'm afraid.
There is some evidence at certain times you can see here
where they've drilled and they used explosives on these cliffs.
Where do you find it today?
The material today is largely beach combed.
There are some small seams that appear in the cliffs
but we've got people that are collecting it all the time on the beach.
(Michael) Can you see any jet in the cliffs nowadays?
(Chris) Yeah, there is evidence of a few collectors that have been down here
following some very thin, small seams.
It's actually harder to see when it's wet.
But at the back of that there, you can see a very thin seam.
It's lovely the way it glints in the bottom there.
(Chris) It's beautiful stuff.
In Bradshaw's epoch, Whitby had 200 jet workshops.
Only a few remain, including Chris's, established in 1860.
(Michael) Morning.
So what do you do?
(man) I'm making some rings at the moment.
Just a matter of cutting the pieces down to size.
Show me you've got ten fingers. You have.
(Chris) These are some antique pieces.
(Michael) I'm noticing Victorian taste is for big pieces.
They were very bold in what they actually did.
Jet was a material that enabled this to happen because it's so light.
- There is no weight to it at all. - None at all.
It was interesting jet actually found its way
to the Great Exhibition in London in 1851
where some important orders
were actually gained by local manufacturers.
Again, that's the kind of thing that helped put Whitby on the map.
Without the railways, that wouldn't have been possible.
Chris has one last marvel to show me.
(Chris) The largest piece of Whitby jet ever found.
It's absolutely beautiful.
That's enormous, isn't it?
Looking at the edge, though, you see total gem quality all the way through.
An interesting part about it is, on this side you can see
there are all the ammonites that were actually crushed
when the branch actually went down.
(Michael) Covered in tiny little fossils. All the way across.
(Chris) The whole length of it.
I must be on my way
and I shall board the train at Grosmont just outside Whitby.
By now, you may know that I'm thrilled by steam trains.
And so my pulse is quickening.
Bradshaw's says of the Grosmont-to-Pickering line
that it passes through "the most picturesque scenery."
"The vales of Newton and Goathland present a wild country
with bold ranges of rock on either side."
It was referring to what is now called the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
- How do you do? - Will you drive this handsome beast?
Yes, it's a nice handsome beast.
It was built for the Southern Railway in 1934.
Spent all its life in the South of England and now it lives in Yorkshire.
They tell me amongst the heritage railways in Britain,
the North Yorkshire Moors Railway is the one that's most popular now.
Yes, we carried around 350,000 passengers last year.
We made a little bit of money but we spend it all back in on the railway.
It's our love and a lot of us do it for nothing.
I'm a retired railwayman. I used to drive trains for a living.
But I've driven these all my life as well.
- Shall we get on board? - Yes.
Chris Cubitt has been driving steam trains here since 1969.
Once we've got it up and running,
we put it across and she'll just romp up the hill.
Right.
Meanwhile, Harry is shovelling the coal in.
(Michael) Thank you.
Lovely heat, isn't it? Wow.
- It will get a lot hotter than that. - Yes, OK.
- About 3,000 degrees. - 3,000 degrees in there.
(Chris) The engine talks to you, tells you everything.
- (Michael) It talks to you? - Yes.
It talks to everyone, not just me.
(Michael) Only you can hear what it's saying.
If you listen to the chimney, it's nice and soft.
If you put some more steam in, it goes harsh.
Yes.
The louder it is, the more Harry has to shovel.
When I get the chance, it's great to do something I've never done before.
The heat from the boiler is intense.
And... the coal is heavy.
And the locomotive... is very hungry. Very demanding of coal.
I have a lot of admiration for Harry. It is very hard work.
- (Harry) Hard work? - (Michael) Hard work.
You've got to get it right to the front as well.
Oh, right.
I'll leave that bit to you.
In the 30 years after one of the first public railway lines opened
between Stockton and Darlington, Britain was transformed.
Bradshaw's readers would already take for granted rail journeys
behind powerful and reliable locomotives.
In a generation, the train had become an essential part of daily life.
Ever since I was a boy with a train set, I've loved steam engines.
But now as an adult,
travelling along track that was built by George Stephenson,
I share Bradshaw's admiration for the pioneers of locomotion.
They built the future.
On the next leg of my journey,
I'll be hearing how Victorian women reacted to the railways...
Women reputedly used to hide pins in their lips
so if a man actually stole a kiss from them
as they went through a railway tunnel in the dark,
obviously their lips were lacerated.
...sampling the benefits of Harrogate's famous spa waters...
The whole point about the waters was they were a strong purge.
So you would not have breakfast
then come out and drink the waters and parade about the town.
It's explosive power.
Internally explosive.
...and meeting some alpacas whose fleeces made a Victorian fortune.
(woman) This is Holly. She likes smelling hair.
(woman laughs)
Ripped By mstoll