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.
The next train to depart from Platform 8
will be the 0930 National Express service to Norwich.
I'm continuing my journey from Brighton to North Norfolk.
150 years ago, businessmen, commuters, even politicians
realised the railways,
with their power and speed, were transforming lives.
You could bathe in the sea at Brighton in the morning, have lunch in London
and you could be in Newmarket for a race meeting in the afternoon.
And luckily, George Bradshaw was on hand
with his handbooks and his timetables
to enable Victorians to maximise their social opportunities.
All along this route, I'm gliding over the tracks
that got the Victorian bourgeoisie on the move,
whether for business, sport or sightseeing.
Each day, I'll depend on my "Bradshaw's" to be my guide.
Today I'll be seeing how trains changed the fortunes
of Newmarket's famous races...
It's a sign of a smart town to have one station for people from the North,
one for people from the South
- and one for the horses. - Absolutely.
...following my tracks back to my student days...
That's where my all-important cocktail bar was.
I probably had a desk as well, but I don't remember.
...and finding out that Cambridge has a rather surprising claim to fame.
Football really started to blossom as clubs could be formed,
competitions could be organised and teams could travel some distance.
So far, I've journeyed 68 miles from Brighton through London.
Now I'll head north out of the capital
following a major commuter line into Cambridgeshire.
I'll explore the Fens en route to King's Lynn,
then pass through East Dereham and Norwich
on the way to my final stop, Cromer.
Starting in Enfield today,
I'll travel via Newmarket
to my old university town.
My first train takes me north out of London
through the suburbs of the capital.
One of the things that fascinates me about suburban railways
is that you can see into people's windows and into their back gardens.
The railways didn't just change life for people travelling by train,
they changed the lives of the people living by railway tracks.
And how many movie plots and novels have been based
on some incident glimpsed from a fast-moving train?
London's suburbs snaked out along the railway lines.
Once distant places were, by the mid-19th century,
only minutes from the city.
But I'm surprised to find one that is very familiar to me
recommended to tourists.
Enfield.
Bradshaw's says, "The environs of Enfield are exceedingly pretty,
and the scenery quite picturesque."
Having been an MP in this borough, of course I agree with that.
And returning stirs cheerful memories.
It's not principally the scenery
that makes Enfield score highly in "Bradshaw's Guide".
It says, "A visit should be made to the government arms factory,
an order for which must be previously obtained
from the Ordnance Office in London. "
You probably wouldn't think of visiting a weapons plant,
but Victorian tourists sought self-improvement through knowledge
and they took pride in Britain's superior technology.
The machine shop at Enfield was the biggest in Europe
and attracted trainloads of admiring visitors.
- Hello, Ray. Good to see you. - Pleasure to meet you.
Ray Tuthill worked here in the 1950s.
This is a magnificent building. What was it?
It was the machine shop that was built in 1856
to house machinery brought from Springfield in America.
It went in here and mass production as we know it today
started in this machine shop.
At the Great Exhibition, the Americans brought rifles
and amazed everybody with this wonderful process
where you could take a random selection of components for a number of rifles
and put them together in any order and get a number of complete rifles.
Prior to that, all engineering components were made by hand.
This new American method of constructing guns
from machine-made parts was revolutionary.
It's often seen as the beginning of modern-day mass production.
The Enfield factory was the first in this country to adopt the system.
Since the mid-1800s, every major type of rifle for the British armed services
has been made here.
I imagine the weapon most people will have heard of is the Lee-Enfield.
It was first produced in this machine shop
at the beginning of the 1900s as a service weapon.
The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield or the Lee-Enfield No.1
that saw Great Britain through the First World War
into the Second World War and indeed through it.
The factory was so large that from 1855,
it had its own railway station on the main line.
Later, special trains were ferrying workers to Enfield
in time for the 7 am shift.
My Bradshaw's Guide from the 1860s refers to a railway station here
called Ordnance Factory.
Was that used for bringing materials in and taking them out?
Not at that stage.
As the factory expanded and the population of workers expanded,
all the housing around here grew up
and also workers started coming in from further afield.
It would have been transport for people
but not for materials until the 20th century.
From Bradshaw's day until the factory closed in the 1980s,
the Enfield munition workers were admired
for being amongst the most skilled in the world.
And Ray was one of them.
I first crossed this bridge in September 1952
when I started my apprenticeship.
It was a wonderful apprenticeship.
It wasn't just about teaching you engineering, it taught you about life.
In many ways, it paralleled a modern university education.
If you had done an apprenticeship at Enfield Lock,
it was recognised worldwide.
It was said it was a ticket to a job anywhere in the world.
Much though I've enjoyed returning to familiar Enfield,
it's time to continue on the next leg of my journey.
It will take me 58 miles along the tracks.
After two changes of train, I'm now heading across
the open plains of Cambridgeshire towards Newmarket.
Bradshaw's says, "Long celebrated in the annals of horsemanship
for its extensive heath,
in the immediate vicinity of which
has been formed one of the finest racecourses in the kingdom."
And even someone as ignorant as I am of thoroughbreds
knows that that remains true even today.
Newmarket was the first course to organise official horse races.
Since the railways arrived in 1848, trainloads of optimistic punters
had threaded their way to the town for a flutter.
Tickets please.
- Hello. - Hi.
Are you are often on the train on race days?
I am, yes.
Last year I remember a lot of race days. It gets very busy.
I bet it does.
Are they celebrating already when they get on?
E*r, yes! Yes. The majority of the time, yes. But they're normally pretty good.
- I'm off to see the gee-gees myself. - Just at Newmarket?
- At Newmarket. - Well, good luck.
- Thank you very much indeed. - Thank you.
In Victorian times, race special trains from around the country
brought racegoers to Newmarket.
The meets are as popular as ever, but nowadays, fewer people come by rail.
- Bye-bye. - Thanks a lot.
Well, I was expecting something rather grand at Newmarket
because I know the station plays an important part in the town's history,
but it's such... it's just a little halt.
When the first trains arrived in Newmarket, it was a town for the gentry,
and the races were the preserve of the rich.
My guide says, "Most of the houses are modern and well built
and have been erected as residences for the nobility
and private gentleman who attend the races. "
Newmarket's pre-eminent position in racing
originated with a group of London gentleman
whose passion for horses led them to form the Jockey Club.
Historian Sandra Easom
will tell me more.
- Sandra. - Hello, Michael.
- Hello. Good to see you. - Nice to meet you.
Now, I understand that you can't really comprehend Newmarket
unless you know about the Jockey Club.
What's the Jockey Club?
Racing started with royalty here.
Then in 1752, a group of young bucks from London
who were interested in the racing on the heath,
they thought it would provide good sport.
So the Jockey Club moved up from London to have its headquarters here
and they've been here ever since.
The Jockey Club appreciated the commercial and sporting potential
of racing at Newmarket and devised the first official rules.
Soon these were adopted by courses across the country.
But when the railways reached Newmarket,
bringing a new type of racegoer,
the elitist Jockey Club was less than thrilled.
They were very much against the idea
of the lower orders coming here for racing.
They saw it as a gentleman's sport and a gentleman's preserve.
They didn't want the hoi polloi coming along to spoil their day's racing.
Basically, they made sure that racing was held at times
that weren't convenient for the masses.
They made sure railway journeys were quite expensive.
Most of the trains that came here came at times
that were convenient to them rather than to the working man.
Eventually, the Jockey Club realised it was missing out on a money-spinner
and so ceased its obstructionism and began to work with the railways.
The Jockey Club actually thought they might give this a go.
They negotiated for cheap day excursions from Liverpool Street in London
at the princely sum of six shillings and sixpence,
which was still quite pricey for your average working man.
The trade opened up and it proved very popular indeed.
Newmarket became so popular that extra stations had to be built.
Evidently, we're meeting at a former railway station.
Yes, indeed.
I was rather disappointed to come into a tiny little station.
I know, it's very disappointing these days.
It's just a little halt. Just a remnant of its former glory.
It was built in 1902 and it was one of three stations,
which shows you how important the railway was to Newmarket.
In great contrast to today, Newmarket used to be a railway hub.
Indeed.
Very popular for excursions from all over the country,
not just the South and London, which was the main place they came from,
but from the North.
All the horses came into the old station, the 1848 station.
The railways revolutionised racing.
For the first time,
horses caught the train to race meetings instead of walking,
and so arrived in better condition to compete.
On a good day, 75 special railway horseboxes
and 6,000 people passed through Newmarket's stations
en route to the course.
The railway had a tremendous effect on Newmarket's prosperity
because the population actually doubled
in the 40 years from the time the railways started.
The number of trainers, who were the primary employers, doubled.
And the town prospered.
It's a sign of a very smart town
to have one station for people from the North, one for people from the South
- and one for the horses. - Absolutely.
It was the ultimate technology in Victorian times.
It was a new technology and every town worth its salt wanted a railway.
- Or several. - Oh, yes.
First thing in the morning, I will be up to see the horses train.
So I plan to stay in Newmarket and go to bed early.
Thinking about where to stay the night,
my Bradshaw's Guide mentions two hotels, and this is one of them.
This has been one of the most popular stopovers in Newmarket
since the races began.
- Hello, Michael Portillo checking in. - Checking in.
- If I could ask for a signature there. - Thank you.
I love your courtyard. It has a very historic feeling to it.
Yes, originally the hotel was a coaching inn,
so lots of horse and carriages used to come through.
It was built in the 17th century.
I thought it had the feel of horses about it.
- That's fantastic. Thank you very much. - I've got a very early morning.
I'm going to hit the hay.
- Have a good night, sir. - Thank you. Bye-bye.
The next morning I'm out long before breakfast
to witness a centuries-old routine.
The horses begin their day by stretching their legs on the Newmarket gallops.
It's a beautiful morning just before seven o'clock.
This is the Newmarket Heath, these are the famous gallops.
I'm meeting one of Newmarket's most experienced trainers,
Sir Mark Prescott. He's been responsible for over 1500 winners
and is out on the heath every day.
- Mr Portillo, how are you? - Very nice to see you.
This heath we're standing on,
how long has it seen this sort of activity?
The grass you're standing on here was sown in 1660
and it's not been ploughed, fertilised, watered since,
so it's exactly the same grass that they were on then.
What makes Newmarket famous isn't really the racecourse.
There are 57 other towns with a racecourse.
But the heath here, the training facilities,
that's what brought, in the end now, 2,500 horses, 82 trainers
and during the covering season when the stallions and mares are being bred,
there are 10,000 horses in a ten-square-mile area.
The well-drained chalky terrain makes the heath ideal for training horses.
Mark works with around 50 animals at a time.
It can take anything from six months to two years
to prepare a young horse to race.
What about your relationship with the horses?
Well, that's the most important really.
I suppose the trainer equates really to the headmaster.
The horses equate to the children, the owners are the parents
and the racecourse is the exam.
My job is to get as many of the pupils through their exams
at the best level that I can.
Heath House, where Mark keeps his horses,
has stood here for hundreds of years.
But he draws my attention to a relatively recent Victorian relic.
What do you think that is?
- I think it's a bit of old horse. - It's a bit of a very famous old horse
called St Simon.
He is, according to a millennium poll, the greatest racehorse in history.
He was owned by the Duke of Portland
and he sired a classic winner every crop he had.
He stood at 500 guineas.
500 guineas in those days; half a million in our money.
The next most expensive horse in the world covered at 75 guineas.
He earned £296,000 at stud, 296 million in our terms.
- Are we meant to kneel down before him? - We should.
In Bradshaw's time, there was less technology involved in training horses.
Now a top stable must invest in five-star luxury.
A beautiful blue pool for your horses.
By lunchtime, it looks like the River Thames.
They're going to swim, not just walk?
- Swimming depth. - It's ten foot six deep.
The idea is to cool them off, stretch them again
and so rather like you, if you went and sat down in the office sweating,
you'd stiffen up, whereas if you've had a swim and put your dressing gown on,
you stay a lot looser.
They look absolutely magnificent
as they emerge with the water streaming of them refreshed.
And hopefully contented
and hopefully feeling like eating a major breakfast.
Funny you should mention that. I do too.
I have it all planned. Not far from Heath House,
I shall sample the town's other speciality.
If there is one thing that Newmarket's famous for
apart from racehorses, it is Newmarket sausages.
And indeed, the sausages still form part of the prize
that's given to the winner of the annual horse race in town,
the so called Town Plate, which was initiated by Charles II.
So here goes. My first tasting of a Newmarket sausage.
Wonderful.
Full of beans... and sausage,
it's time to leave Newmarket for the final leg of my journey.
In railway terms at least, Newmarket's glory days are gone
and it's now just a single track
which will enable me to shuttle towards the city where I was at university.
Towards Cambridge.
It's 15 miles away
and it's a city that in my "Bradshaw's" scores a superlative commendation.
"The University of Cambridge is second to no other in Europe. "
The last stop on my journey today leads me down memory lane.
Arriving in Cambridge is always like a bit of a homecoming for me,
having spent three years here.
Not just any three years; those formative three years,
the first three years of being an independent adult.
In Bradshaw's day, and in mine,
students were known to get up to all sorts of mischief.
One legend claims that the station was built out of town
to make it harder for the all-male students
to get to the races or to the racy ladies in London.
True or not, there's one thing that Cambridge gents have come to rely on
for wooing the women.
- Hello. - Hi, there.
- What are you selling? - It's called punting,
a sightseeing tour on the river just like gondola riding in Venice.
Basically there is a chauffeur going to punt the boats with a pole.
There's a slight difference, between punting and gondolas.
A gondola is with an oar and punting is with a pole.
- No, a gondola is with a pole as well. - No.
Gondola riding is with a pole as well in Venice.
It's with a pole.
OK, I won't argue with you. Are you from Venice?
- No. Are you? - No. Good point.
Well, even your average Venetian might associate punting with Cambridge.
But he might be surprised to learn of a more global sport
that has its roots here.
- Hello, John. - Hello, Michael.
- Nice to see you. - Good to see you.
I've come to meet Dr John Little,
president of Cambridge University Football Club.
- This is Parker's Piece. - Parker's Piece.
I believe it's very important in the history of football.
It's extremely important.
What in fact this was was the site where the undergraduates
would congregate to play their many varied forms of football
that existed at the time.
Some could handle the ball, some couldn't.
Some could go offside, some couldn't.
When they came to Cambridge, they all continued to play their own rules.
This was obviously rather difficult and when they set up on Parker's Piece,
each school would pin its own rules
into one of the trees that surrounded the pitch
and if you were a passing undergraduate and wished to join in,
you knew which rules you had to play to.
These common rules were so widely taken up by other teams
that from 1863 onwards,
the Football Association adapted them for the national game.
Twinned with the arrival of the trains, football was entering a new era.
Finally teams could travel, play a game and get home
and indeed, Oxford and Cambridge themselves
could finally play varsity matches, travel on the day
and then get back to the respective universities,
probably with some supporters.
In the wider game of football, football really started to blossom
as clubs could be formed, competitions could be organised
and teams could travel some distance.
Just as the trains transformed horse racing in Newmarket,
so they also revolutionised the beautiful game.
Leagues grew because teams were able to get fixtures anywhere in the country.
So, would it be fair to say that football was born on Parker's Piece?
I think it would.
Those young men playing to different rules
and being exasperated at not being able to play together,
it made them write this new set of rules, they were adopted
and so one could say it was the birthplace
of the modern game of football.
Cambridge's connection with football is largely unknown
but its university is world renowned.
My "Bradshaw's" devotes pages to extolling its virtues.
But this time, I don't need the guide to find my way around.
This is the college where I was an undergraduate, Peterhouse.
It's mentioned in Bradshaw's, of course.
He says, "It's the oldest college of all, founded in 1257."
Actually, I think it was founded in 1284.
Now, I must confess that when I was here,
there was quite a lot of student misbehaviour.
For example, if a guy was out for the evening maybe with a girlfriend,
maybe he was hoping to bring her back,
while he was out, we would go into his room
and take away all of his furniture,
and with some style, we would lay it out on the old court lawn.
The carpet and the bed and the bedside lamps and everything.
Then the man would come back and find his bedroom in the middle here.
Now, if he was really stylish,
he would simply clamber into bed then go to sleep for the night
and be found there next morning.
While I'm here, I must revisit an old haunt.
Now this is a moment of nostalgia
because I'm going back to one of the rooms I had here as an undergraduate
and I haven't set foot in here for 35 years.
Mind your head.
Well, yeah, lots of memories.
They've changed the furniture completely but the room, of course, feels the same.
I think I may have had this table.
That's where my all-important cocktail bar was.
I probably had a desk as well, but I don't remember.
My roommate had that bedroom and this one was mine.
With a rather spooky view over the graveyard.
Indeed, we used to think this room was probably haunted.
And famously, there is almost no high ground
between Cambridge and the Ural mountains.
And in winter, the cold in this bedroom was intense.
In Bradshaw's day, students out in public would have worn cap and gown.
And women weren't admitted to the university.
There were women's colleges when I was here
but none that was mixed,
and not until 2009 did Cambridge employ the first female head porter
at Selwyn College.
Helen.
Mistress of all you survey. You are the head porter.
Yes, I am.
Part of what you do is discipline, isn't it?
Definitely. Security, discipline.
I'm the bad person of the college really.
I'm probably the most hated person in the college.
I don't believe that because I think it's a complex relationship
because you are the authority figure. On the other hand,
you're very friendly with the undergraduates.
It's a very fine line, yes. Firm but fair, that's our mantra.
Friendly, firm and fair.
- How many porters are there? - Including me, there are ten.
Including two night porters.
Yes, so they're on the gatehouse at night,
letting in the latecomers?
Most students nowadays have keys.
They let themselves in, we allow them that privilege.
But to anybody locked out or like me, forget my keys, we allow them in.
Over the generations, Bradshaw's, mine and today's I feel sure,
students have always challenged authority.
Are the ladies as badly behaved as the men?
No, of course not.
I'd never admit to it if they were.
Following "Bradshaw's" to locations that I already knew
has proved very illuminating.
We take the familiar for granted.
My ancient guidebook opens my eyes
to how exceptional those familiar haunts really are.
The places I've visited on this leg of my journey
have all been shaped by a single activity
which was established long before Bradshaw's.
Rifles in Enfield and horse racing in Newmarket
and the University here in Cambridge.
And these institutions shaped not only the towns
but everyone who passes through them.
Although I only spent three years in Cambridge,
I'm very aware that I carry a little bit of the city with me wherever I go.
On my next journey, I'll be in for a rare rail treat.
This bit of card means between Downham Market and King's Lynn,
I get to ride in the cab with the driver.
I'll be hearing how Victorian technology
is still responsible for the safety of two counties...
The structure we've got here
can hold back up to five metres' worth of tidal water.
If you imagine that heading towards Ely and Cambridge,
it would cause catastrophic events.
...and uncovering an ambitious Victorian plan to reclaim the Norfolk Wash.
The Wash had the largest amount of land claimed from it.
Now it's a three-mile boat ride up the River Great Ouse
before you actually get to the Wash.