Great British Railway Journeys (2010–…): Season 1, Episode 18 - Walsall to Bournville - full transcript
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 four long journeys
along the length and breadth of the country
to see what remains of Bradshaw's Britain.
Using Bradshaw,
my 19th century guide to Britain's railways,
today I'm headed towards Birmingham,
at the heart of England.
Britain's second largest city.
The metropolis whose growth
during the Industrial Revolution
astonished the Victorians.
But the changes in Birmingham since,
have perhaps been more remarkable still.
On today's journey, I'll be heading to the centre
of the leather-making world.
Walsall had a very distinctive stink, did it?
It had a... You can say it had a tinge.
It had its own aroma.
I'll be travelling to Birmingham's Bali Triangle.
Pakistan is like my motherland
and I call England my adoptive mother.
Try and make this quite elegant.
(Laughs)
- Very good, sir, for the first try.
- (Laughs)
And I'll be visiting Bougainvillea,
which some say is the happiest piece in Britain.
Very pleasant. Very nice.
I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
I'm now almost halfway through my journey
from Buxton
along one of the earliest railway mules
in England.
Each day I'm stopping at towns and cities
recommended by Bradshaw's guide...
...until 1 reach the end of the line in London.
Today's route takes me 35 miles
through the West Midlands...
...via Walsall...to Birmingham
and on to Bougainvillea.
In Bradshaw's day, a third of Britain's metalwork
came from around here,
and much of it was carried to London
on the railways.
My first stop is in a town famous for -
as Bradshaw notes -
its buckles, spurs and bits.
Well, here I am in Walsall.
A place I've been to before.
But, according to Bradshaw,
this is a place that makes saddles,
and that takes me into
the world of horses and riding,
which I must say is a foreign country to me.
Despite the growth of the railways,
there was still a huge demand for leather goods
for horses in the 1840s.
Walsall became the place to go
for high-quality saddles, stirrups and bridles.
And it still is today.
I've come to the historic factory
of the saddler to the Queen.
And here I'm due to meet Cliff.
- Good morning.
- Good morning, Michael.
Welcome to the old building
of Jabez Cliff & Company.
Wow!
- It's not exactly in mint condition, is it?
- No, it isn't.
We were here for 130 years.
We moved out two months ago.
- You've got a new place now?
- We have a new place two miles away.
Why did saddlery become the trade for Walsall?
You have the River Tame
for a ready supply of water.
You actually need limestone to cure the hides.
So you had a ready supply of that.
You had... We are on the edge
of the Black Country,
so you had all the bits, stirrups,
and all the other metalwork.
- Because you always had iron ore?
- Yes. 50 everything was there.
At one time,
the town must have been full of tanneries.
Oh, yes. I know to a fact we had five.
And years ago, when a child wasn't eating well,
they used to take the child outside
and the tan pit doors used to be open,
and the child used to get a whiff
of all the tan liquors
and it was the belief
that it actually helped improve...
made the child eat quicker.
So at one time, Walsall had a distinctive stink,
did it?
It had... You can say it had a tinge.
It had its own aroma.
- It's still a saddlery town, isn't it?
- It is.
There's probably about 50 saddlery businesses
left in the town.
Would you like to see the remnants
of our old factory?
I'd love to.
The dreadful smell
was perhaps a small price to pay
for Walsall's reputation
for having the best saddlers.
British leather was in particularly high demand
because it was made with English oak.
This was slower at tanning than other woods
and produced a softer, stronger leather.
This is where the cutting room
and saddle shop used to be.
Wow. So what did this look like in its heyday,
buzzing with activity?
I have an old photograph here,
taken in about 1908.
- Of this room?
- Of this room.
- You can see a man in a bowler hat.
- What were these people actually doing?
They're all preparing saddles.
So this is not a production line?
No. It is piece work.
Quality in those days was unbelievable.
A century ago, how many saddles
might you have been making?
One man might make
two or three saddles a week.
MICHAEL: That seems good.
During the Victorian era, Cliff's saddlery
could produce around 500 saddles a month.
Today, in the company's new factory,
the number's very similar.
Interestingly, the same system is still used.
One person makes each saddle
from start to finish.
But modem technology like the sewing machine
means that they can be made more quickly
by fewer people.
- We're talking about valuable products.
- Yes.
But in those days...
I have some photographs somewhere.
...in an advert, I think a saddle was selling for -
trade price, I might add -
was going for about 42 shillings.
- And today?
- It's a lot more than that.
It was feared that the saddle industry
would be destroyed
as trains replaced horses for transport.
But even in late Victorian times
there were still over three million horses
pulling cabs, working on farms,
and in the cavalry.
It wasn't until after the First World War,
when cars became popular,
that saddlers were forced to diversify.
As trade changed,
we actually started making footballs.
We started making golf bags.
In the First World War, we were actually making
torpedo cases in leather
that they could actually lower the torpedoes
into the submarines.
- For which side?
- For the English side, of course.
For the winning side!
This item here is actually what they used
to knock the seams on, of the footballs.
These are the old footballs with the laces?
- The ones that when they played...
- Weighed an awful lot and if they...
- When it got wet...
- If you headed it, you got a...
- Yes.
- A very nasty injury.
- A very nasty injury.
- And it was all done on there.
- How many generations of your family?
- We are now seven.
I am generation number six,
with a brother and a cousin.
I have two nephews
who are now in the business.
One being the MD.
The transfer of skills through the generations,
and the saddle industry's willingness
to embrace change,
have ensured that it's still successful today.
Just as in Bradshaw's day,
Walsall still has a reputation
for providing quality saddles at luxury prices.
Now, I've got a train to catch
to my second destination.
Time to get on. On to Birmingham.
I'm on the next leg of my journey
to Britain's second city,
just ten miles away.
Birmingham is a city I know well.
I once tried to get into Parliament
for Birmingham Perry Barr,
and was unsuccessful.
Of course, Bradshaw devotes pages
to Britain's second largest city.
In particular, he was excited by New Street,
the vast railway station at the centre of the city.
“These structures are entitled to rank
amongst the most stupendous
architectural works of the age.
Notice the turmoil and bustle created by the
excitement of the arrival and departure of trains,
the trampling of crowds of passengers,
the transfer of luggage, the ringing of bells,
and the noise of 300 porters and workmen.
An extraordinary scene, witnessed daily,
at Birmingham Central Railway Station.“
Just the way it is today.
Sadly, the roof that Bradshaw so admired
was destroyed, along with much of the city,
during the Birmingham Blitz of World War Two.
Today's station, built during the 19603,
is to me a somewhat dark and depressing
construction.
- Do you ever use New Street Station?
- Yes, I do.
- What do you think of it - the look of it?
- It does need improvement.
MICHAEL: Looking at it from here,
it strikes me as one of the ugliest frontages
to a station I can think of anywhere.
Yeah, I do agree with you, but at the same time,
I have seen worse stations.
Where? Let me know.
London. Euston used to be horrible.
I agree with that.
There are plans to redo this.
- Do you know about that?
- That's been going on for about seven years.
- Have you seen an impression of it?
- Yeah.
It looks very nice
but I don't know when they're going to start.
Thankfully, the town planners are replacing
some of the uglier buildings
that were hastily put up after the war.
The infamous Bun Ring Shopping Centre,
also bum in the 19603,
came to be regarded as an eyesore.
It was rebuilt in 2003.
Maybe few people think of Birmingham
as a Victorian city,
but amongst all this redevelopment there are
some hidden gems from Bradshaw's day.
Birmingham in the 19th century was,
for the first time, a great city
and it established great public buildings.
Mainly with the Victorians
you associate very heavy buildings.
Or you think about Victorian Gothic -
buildings like Parliament,
where I spent so much of my life.
But here is, to me, a somewhat unusual building
because it's a nee-classical Victorian building.
The Town Hall of Birmingham.
And this lay derelict inside for many years.
It's recently been restored.
I've addressed public meetings in there
and it's beautiful.
In fact, Birmingham is renovating
much of its Victorian legacy.
As we“ as the Town Hall and the Council House
in Victoria Square,
there are almost 2,000 listed buildings
in the city.
One senses that Birmingham, in many places,
is trying to get rid of that hideous redevelopment
of the 19603,
of which the railway station
was a conspicuous part.
Bradshaw's guides contain city maps and...
...they're now extremely interesting.
For instance, the one of Birmingham.
Right now, I'm over...in Broad Street.
Now, interestingly, that's pretty much
at the edge of the city as Bradshaw knew it.
Here, very clearly, is New Street.
Even when Bradshaw thought it was a huge,
imposing city,
it was actually just a tiny fraction
of what we know as Birmingham today.
Birmingham is Britain's second largest city,
with a population of over a million.
And the people of Birmingham
have changed in a way
that Bradshaw could never have imagined.
Today, Birmingham is fast becoming
Britain's first majority non-white city.
The largest ethnic group here are Pakistanis,
who've made their homes
around Ladypool Road.
After the Second World War,
Birmingham began recruiting people
from the former colonies to work in factories,
when labour was in short supply.
Large-scale immigration, like that from Pakistan,
provided the workforce
for Britain's growing industries.
Kamran Ishtiaq's family
moved here in the 19503.
Why did your grandfather leave Pakistan?
Fora better future for us.
If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be giving this
interview to you in such a successful business.
Do you know why he chose Birmingham?
Birmingham was a city
that attracted a lot of Asians,
but there was not much for Asian community,
regarding food.
Ladypool Road was one of the prime locations
for Asian people.
So it's like a landmark
to the Pakistani community in Birmingham.
- Do you ever go to Pakistan?
- Frequently.
Would you rather live in Pakistan
than Birmingham?
Er...that's a difficult choice.
Pakistan is like my motherland
and I call England my adoptive mother.
So you can't make a choice between
your mother and your adoptive mother.
- Very nice to talk to you.
- Thanks.
As the Pakistani community grew,
restaurants and takeaways sprang up
to serve Asian food to Asian families.
They quickly became popular
with the English, too.
All along Ladypool Road, there are delicious
smells tempting you into all the restaurants.
I've stumbled across what looks like
a party for another new restaurant.
- How are you? All right?
- Nice to see you. Hello.
- How are you?
- Nice to see you. Hi.
- Here we are!
- My goodness. Very smart, indeed.
We are just opening today.
First day's opening.
- What? Opening today?
- Yeah.
- Really?
- Yes.
- Hello. How are you?
- How are you?
Congratulations on your opening.
Thank you.
Sweet and salty.
- And yogurt.
- The choice is yours.
Anything. You can't refuse.
I hope you like the Birmingham.
You will remember the Birmingham now.
I will. I shall remember Birmingham.
Mmm.
The area's nicknamed the Bani Triangle
because the bani curry was invented here.
And now there are more than
50 baiti restaurants sewing the local speciality.
These people have had to do a lot of adapting
to a very different way of life.
I feel a kind of empathy
because my own father came from Spain,
a much shorter distance of travel,
but had to do a lot of adapting, too.
And as the people have adjusted to life
in Britain, so has the curry.
Many of the most popular dishes
were created here to suit British tastes.
But I'm also pleased to find a place
sewing more authentic Asian food.
Raj. Hi. Great to see you.
- What a beautiful restaurant.
- Thank you.
Raj Rana owns Itihaas,
a restaurant aiming for...
well, something a little more Indian.
Do you get cross with British people
who have preconceptions about Indian food?
The problem is when it's expected to be
in the direction of a balti
or a chicken vindaloo or a Madras,
which don't exist in India.
They're all Westernised dishes...
...pretty much created in Birmingham
as part of the curry revolution.
Where we differ from the balti restaurants
is we're not operating from
two or three base sauces
that make up the curries and the baltis.
Because baltis work
on the conception of convenience.
Everything here is prepared individually.
Sauces are individually prepared to the dish.
So, if you're doing individual sauces,
you need excellent chefs.
- Absolutely.
- Do you have them?
- I've got a fantastic team.
- How did you get them?
I travelled to India.
I held talent competitions.
It was almost as if I was Simon Cowell.
They were coming in, proving their talents,
and I ended up with the 19
that operate the restaurant.
One of them is going to show me
how to do some cooking?
- Absolutely. Yes.
- I guess it's through there.
- Let me take you through.
- Thank you.
Raj held auditions in India to staff his restaurant.
But he'd like to train
the next generation of chefs here.
His next big plan
is to open the first curry school in Britain
to teach the art of bona fide Indian cuisine.
I'm his first pupil.
Come into my kitchen.
He is going to teach me how to cook.
Thank you so much.
I warn you that I don't know what I'm doing.
Just add some mustard seeds in, please.
Right. Some mustard seeds.
- Like that?
- Yes.
He's showing me
how to make a king prawn curry
from Keraia in southern India,
a traditional dish
that uses curry leaves and turmeric.
Stir it with your spoon, please.
You have to move it faster or it will burn.
- OK.
- As if you're telling somebody off.
- There you go.
- Beautiful prawns.
It feels like everything's moving very fast.
Like I'm not really in control.
Put some coriander
and we can take out the dish.
- Put some coriander?
- Fresh coriander.
That's it. That's done. Beautiful.
- Done?
- Just carry the wok over to here.
This is "a wok on the wild side“ now.
There's a plate for you.
You can put your prawns there.
Shall I...
try and make this quite elegant?
Yes.
We're going to let you be guinea pig.
Thank you very much. God bless me.
- Very good, sir, for the first try.
- (Laughs) For the first try!
Mm. It's nothing to do with me,
but that is fantastic.
- You like it?
- I love it.
Very relishing. It's very fresh.
The spices don't hit you like they do...
It's not spicy-spicy.
It's flavourful with the things.
That's what I meant to say.
If Raj's chef school is a success,
it will ensure that the traditional Indian curry
is preserved in Britain for the next generation.
As for me, having spent the night
in inner-city Birmingham,
it's time to leave the multicultural metropolis
for my next destination.
Which way is 118, please?
Thank you.
The third and final leg of my journey
takes me to the southern edge of Birmingham,
five miles away, to Bougainvillea.
So, I'm chugging out
along the suburban railway line in Birmingham,
towards the south west,
towards a place whose name
became synonymous with chocolate.
Not mentioned in my Bradshaw's guide,
because the railway station
didn't open here till 1876,
and then it was known as Stirchley Street.
But then Cadbury
established their factory here...
...and in those days, French chocolate
was thought to be the best in the world,
so they tried to give it a French flavour,
so they called it Bougainvillea.
Ever since then it's been known as Bougainvillea
and the railway station now bears the name
of the Cadbury's factory.
The Cadbury family chose to set up shop here
because of the railway and the other
great transport link to the rest of the country.
Already, Bougainvillea Station feels rather special.
I can't think of any other where the canal runs
right parallel with the railway platform.
As the chocolate business rapidly expanded,
George and Richard Cadbury
ploughed the profits
back into the newly-named village of Bougainvillea.
They built new houses and designed a model
community for the people of Birmingham.
At Bougainvillea, the whole station is purple.
It's just all one big chocolate wrapper.
Bournville has recently been voted
the best place to live in Britain.
I'm heading towards the factory to see why.
- Hello.
- Mr Portillo? I'm Alan Shrimpton, your host.
- Welcome.
- How very nice to see you.
I didn't realise it was you.
Alan Shrimpton works
for the Bougainvillea Village Trust.
Why did they put a factory here?
ALAN: They needed, critically,
to have a railway link and a canal.
- A canal? Why?
- The canal was used to bring milk in.
The railway brought chocolate beans
and the sugar
and took the finished product away.
MICHAEL: So when I saw the railway track
and the canal side by side,
that's critical to why this place is here?
Vital. If it hadn't been for the railway,
there'd be no factory here.
No factory here, no Bougainvillea Estate.
Soon there were three trains - each of 60 cars -
leaving the factory every day full of chocolate.
Cadbury's had six miles of internal railway lines
and even ran its own engines.
The drivers often shared a cup
of hot chocolate crumb
with their colleagues on the main fine.
Many of the workers
lived on the Bougainvillea Estate,
a short walk from the factory.
We're just a few yards from the factory
and it's very green, very suburban.
That was what George was trying to do.
The idea was to take the convenience
of the town and the benefits of the country,
put the two together
without the drawbacks of either,
in a model community.
But not just for his workers.
This was for ordinary working people.
Anybody would be here,
owner-occupiers and tenants, side by side,
with all the facilities you could possibly want
in a model community,
with, of course, the one exception -
there's no public house.
George Cadbury and his elder brother Richard
were both Quakers.
The brothers saw alcohol
as the root of many social problems.
They argued that providing
good living conditions, job security,
and places to exercise,
would create a happy,
healthy, working community.
To the present day,
no pub has ever been bum here.
How many souls live here?
In the whole of Bougainvillea, it's 1,000 acres.
About 8,500 homes. 25,000 people.
It's big, isn't it?
One thing that has surprised me
is the variety of styles of house.
I thought I'd come to a model village
and find the same sort of house
replicated again and again.
No. What we've got is Arts And Crafts style,
which reflects the age of the village.
But the variety of properties and the way
they were grouped together is interesting.
Every house had a generous garden.
Building was controlled,
so that no green space was overshadowed.
Tell me, do you see this whole thing
here at Bougainvillea as historic,
or do you see it as some kind of model
also for our generation?
It's very important to see it
as a model for future generations.
Particularly things like the eco-towns.
This is an example of a model village,
a sustainable community that works.
Anybody contemplating doing anything
on a large scale
has to come and look at Bougainvillea
and take those lessons away elsewhere.
I can see why, for some, Bougainvillea
might just be the best place to live in Britain.
Michael, this is a resident and shopkeeper
in the area, Phil.
- Hi, Phil. Very good to see you.
- How are you?
How do you find life in Bougainvillea?
Very pleasant. Very nice.
- I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
- How long have you lived here?
Nearly 40 years.
Does it have any of that ethos of the original
establishment of this model village?
Yes, I think it still does.
I think the culture of what it was started out to be
is still imprinted in a lot of people in the area.
- Thank you. May the next 40 years be as good.
- I hope so.
- When are you going back into Parliament?
- I'm not.
- Had enough?
- Enjoying myself too much.
Bet you are.
(Bells ringing)
In Bougainvillea, even the bells are used
to create a sense of community spirit.
This village, with its suburban...
idyllic neatness,
is not everybody's cup of tea.
But for many people who live here,
it's close to perfection
and it is impressive that a concept
created a century ago,
by a public-spirited industrialist,
is now being thought of as a model
for sustainable communities of the future.
Even getting a cup of coffee
for my onward journey
brings me face to face
with contented residents.
This is meant to be a very special place,
Bougainvillea.
People are supposed to be very happy here
and to love living here.
- Do you find that?
- Oh, Bougainvillea is an amazing area.
Why?
When George Cadbury built Bougainvillea,
all the properties had a certain size garden.
The idea behind that was so that everybody
could be self-sufficient and grow vegetables.
Consequently, the children in Bougainvillea
were amongst the tallest throughout England.
- You're not serious?
- No, that's a fact.
It's run with Quake traditions.
So, of course, there's no licensed premises.
Um...it's quite a caring community.
Just as well I didn't ask you for a Scotch.
Well, it might have been difficult.
I don't have any.
The attraction of Bougainvillea must be infectious.
I've been so captivated,
I think I'm about to miss my train!
It's OK. It's not mine. It's OK.
Goodbye, purple world.
Birmingham is a wonderful example
of how cities change and change again.
They're always dynamic.
Some of the old industry still exists,
like saddlery and chocolate.
But for the future, the vibrancy of Birmingham
comes from its diversity,
because its Asian community
is now almost as big as its white one,
a concept that would have been unimaginable
to Bradshaw.
On my next journey,
I'll be reliving the Coventry Blitz.
You could pick the sound
of the German planes up.
Their engines were "vrum-vrum" -
a humming, humming noise.
I'll be ruffling some feathers in Aylesbury.
Your family's been in the business a while?
- 1775 that we know of.
- No!
Oh, absolutely. Continuously.
And I'll hear how the railways saved
thousands of lives during World War Two.
This was the largest station
where the evacuations took place from.
How we found our way onto the right train,
I'll never know.
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 four long journeys
along the length and breadth of the country
to see what remains of Bradshaw's Britain.
Using Bradshaw,
my 19th century guide to Britain's railways,
today I'm headed towards Birmingham,
at the heart of England.
Britain's second largest city.
The metropolis whose growth
during the Industrial Revolution
astonished the Victorians.
But the changes in Birmingham since,
have perhaps been more remarkable still.
On today's journey, I'll be heading to the centre
of the leather-making world.
Walsall had a very distinctive stink, did it?
It had a... You can say it had a tinge.
It had its own aroma.
I'll be travelling to Birmingham's Bali Triangle.
Pakistan is like my motherland
and I call England my adoptive mother.
Try and make this quite elegant.
(Laughs)
- Very good, sir, for the first try.
- (Laughs)
And I'll be visiting Bougainvillea,
which some say is the happiest piece in Britain.
Very pleasant. Very nice.
I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
I'm now almost halfway through my journey
from Buxton
along one of the earliest railway mules
in England.
Each day I'm stopping at towns and cities
recommended by Bradshaw's guide...
...until 1 reach the end of the line in London.
Today's route takes me 35 miles
through the West Midlands...
...via Walsall...to Birmingham
and on to Bougainvillea.
In Bradshaw's day, a third of Britain's metalwork
came from around here,
and much of it was carried to London
on the railways.
My first stop is in a town famous for -
as Bradshaw notes -
its buckles, spurs and bits.
Well, here I am in Walsall.
A place I've been to before.
But, according to Bradshaw,
this is a place that makes saddles,
and that takes me into
the world of horses and riding,
which I must say is a foreign country to me.
Despite the growth of the railways,
there was still a huge demand for leather goods
for horses in the 1840s.
Walsall became the place to go
for high-quality saddles, stirrups and bridles.
And it still is today.
I've come to the historic factory
of the saddler to the Queen.
And here I'm due to meet Cliff.
- Good morning.
- Good morning, Michael.
Welcome to the old building
of Jabez Cliff & Company.
Wow!
- It's not exactly in mint condition, is it?
- No, it isn't.
We were here for 130 years.
We moved out two months ago.
- You've got a new place now?
- We have a new place two miles away.
Why did saddlery become the trade for Walsall?
You have the River Tame
for a ready supply of water.
You actually need limestone to cure the hides.
So you had a ready supply of that.
You had... We are on the edge
of the Black Country,
so you had all the bits, stirrups,
and all the other metalwork.
- Because you always had iron ore?
- Yes. 50 everything was there.
At one time,
the town must have been full of tanneries.
Oh, yes. I know to a fact we had five.
And years ago, when a child wasn't eating well,
they used to take the child outside
and the tan pit doors used to be open,
and the child used to get a whiff
of all the tan liquors
and it was the belief
that it actually helped improve...
made the child eat quicker.
So at one time, Walsall had a distinctive stink,
did it?
It had... You can say it had a tinge.
It had its own aroma.
- It's still a saddlery town, isn't it?
- It is.
There's probably about 50 saddlery businesses
left in the town.
Would you like to see the remnants
of our old factory?
I'd love to.
The dreadful smell
was perhaps a small price to pay
for Walsall's reputation
for having the best saddlers.
British leather was in particularly high demand
because it was made with English oak.
This was slower at tanning than other woods
and produced a softer, stronger leather.
This is where the cutting room
and saddle shop used to be.
Wow. So what did this look like in its heyday,
buzzing with activity?
I have an old photograph here,
taken in about 1908.
- Of this room?
- Of this room.
- You can see a man in a bowler hat.
- What were these people actually doing?
They're all preparing saddles.
So this is not a production line?
No. It is piece work.
Quality in those days was unbelievable.
A century ago, how many saddles
might you have been making?
One man might make
two or three saddles a week.
MICHAEL: That seems good.
During the Victorian era, Cliff's saddlery
could produce around 500 saddles a month.
Today, in the company's new factory,
the number's very similar.
Interestingly, the same system is still used.
One person makes each saddle
from start to finish.
But modem technology like the sewing machine
means that they can be made more quickly
by fewer people.
- We're talking about valuable products.
- Yes.
But in those days...
I have some photographs somewhere.
...in an advert, I think a saddle was selling for -
trade price, I might add -
was going for about 42 shillings.
- And today?
- It's a lot more than that.
It was feared that the saddle industry
would be destroyed
as trains replaced horses for transport.
But even in late Victorian times
there were still over three million horses
pulling cabs, working on farms,
and in the cavalry.
It wasn't until after the First World War,
when cars became popular,
that saddlers were forced to diversify.
As trade changed,
we actually started making footballs.
We started making golf bags.
In the First World War, we were actually making
torpedo cases in leather
that they could actually lower the torpedoes
into the submarines.
- For which side?
- For the English side, of course.
For the winning side!
This item here is actually what they used
to knock the seams on, of the footballs.
These are the old footballs with the laces?
- The ones that when they played...
- Weighed an awful lot and if they...
- When it got wet...
- If you headed it, you got a...
- Yes.
- A very nasty injury.
- A very nasty injury.
- And it was all done on there.
- How many generations of your family?
- We are now seven.
I am generation number six,
with a brother and a cousin.
I have two nephews
who are now in the business.
One being the MD.
The transfer of skills through the generations,
and the saddle industry's willingness
to embrace change,
have ensured that it's still successful today.
Just as in Bradshaw's day,
Walsall still has a reputation
for providing quality saddles at luxury prices.
Now, I've got a train to catch
to my second destination.
Time to get on. On to Birmingham.
I'm on the next leg of my journey
to Britain's second city,
just ten miles away.
Birmingham is a city I know well.
I once tried to get into Parliament
for Birmingham Perry Barr,
and was unsuccessful.
Of course, Bradshaw devotes pages
to Britain's second largest city.
In particular, he was excited by New Street,
the vast railway station at the centre of the city.
“These structures are entitled to rank
amongst the most stupendous
architectural works of the age.
Notice the turmoil and bustle created by the
excitement of the arrival and departure of trains,
the trampling of crowds of passengers,
the transfer of luggage, the ringing of bells,
and the noise of 300 porters and workmen.
An extraordinary scene, witnessed daily,
at Birmingham Central Railway Station.“
Just the way it is today.
Sadly, the roof that Bradshaw so admired
was destroyed, along with much of the city,
during the Birmingham Blitz of World War Two.
Today's station, built during the 19603,
is to me a somewhat dark and depressing
construction.
- Do you ever use New Street Station?
- Yes, I do.
- What do you think of it - the look of it?
- It does need improvement.
MICHAEL: Looking at it from here,
it strikes me as one of the ugliest frontages
to a station I can think of anywhere.
Yeah, I do agree with you, but at the same time,
I have seen worse stations.
Where? Let me know.
London. Euston used to be horrible.
I agree with that.
There are plans to redo this.
- Do you know about that?
- That's been going on for about seven years.
- Have you seen an impression of it?
- Yeah.
It looks very nice
but I don't know when they're going to start.
Thankfully, the town planners are replacing
some of the uglier buildings
that were hastily put up after the war.
The infamous Bun Ring Shopping Centre,
also bum in the 19603,
came to be regarded as an eyesore.
It was rebuilt in 2003.
Maybe few people think of Birmingham
as a Victorian city,
but amongst all this redevelopment there are
some hidden gems from Bradshaw's day.
Birmingham in the 19th century was,
for the first time, a great city
and it established great public buildings.
Mainly with the Victorians
you associate very heavy buildings.
Or you think about Victorian Gothic -
buildings like Parliament,
where I spent so much of my life.
But here is, to me, a somewhat unusual building
because it's a nee-classical Victorian building.
The Town Hall of Birmingham.
And this lay derelict inside for many years.
It's recently been restored.
I've addressed public meetings in there
and it's beautiful.
In fact, Birmingham is renovating
much of its Victorian legacy.
As we“ as the Town Hall and the Council House
in Victoria Square,
there are almost 2,000 listed buildings
in the city.
One senses that Birmingham, in many places,
is trying to get rid of that hideous redevelopment
of the 19603,
of which the railway station
was a conspicuous part.
Bradshaw's guides contain city maps and...
...they're now extremely interesting.
For instance, the one of Birmingham.
Right now, I'm over...in Broad Street.
Now, interestingly, that's pretty much
at the edge of the city as Bradshaw knew it.
Here, very clearly, is New Street.
Even when Bradshaw thought it was a huge,
imposing city,
it was actually just a tiny fraction
of what we know as Birmingham today.
Birmingham is Britain's second largest city,
with a population of over a million.
And the people of Birmingham
have changed in a way
that Bradshaw could never have imagined.
Today, Birmingham is fast becoming
Britain's first majority non-white city.
The largest ethnic group here are Pakistanis,
who've made their homes
around Ladypool Road.
After the Second World War,
Birmingham began recruiting people
from the former colonies to work in factories,
when labour was in short supply.
Large-scale immigration, like that from Pakistan,
provided the workforce
for Britain's growing industries.
Kamran Ishtiaq's family
moved here in the 19503.
Why did your grandfather leave Pakistan?
Fora better future for us.
If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be giving this
interview to you in such a successful business.
Do you know why he chose Birmingham?
Birmingham was a city
that attracted a lot of Asians,
but there was not much for Asian community,
regarding food.
Ladypool Road was one of the prime locations
for Asian people.
So it's like a landmark
to the Pakistani community in Birmingham.
- Do you ever go to Pakistan?
- Frequently.
Would you rather live in Pakistan
than Birmingham?
Er...that's a difficult choice.
Pakistan is like my motherland
and I call England my adoptive mother.
So you can't make a choice between
your mother and your adoptive mother.
- Very nice to talk to you.
- Thanks.
As the Pakistani community grew,
restaurants and takeaways sprang up
to serve Asian food to Asian families.
They quickly became popular
with the English, too.
All along Ladypool Road, there are delicious
smells tempting you into all the restaurants.
I've stumbled across what looks like
a party for another new restaurant.
- How are you? All right?
- Nice to see you. Hello.
- How are you?
- Nice to see you. Hi.
- Here we are!
- My goodness. Very smart, indeed.
We are just opening today.
First day's opening.
- What? Opening today?
- Yeah.
- Really?
- Yes.
- Hello. How are you?
- How are you?
Congratulations on your opening.
Thank you.
Sweet and salty.
- And yogurt.
- The choice is yours.
Anything. You can't refuse.
I hope you like the Birmingham.
You will remember the Birmingham now.
I will. I shall remember Birmingham.
Mmm.
The area's nicknamed the Bani Triangle
because the bani curry was invented here.
And now there are more than
50 baiti restaurants sewing the local speciality.
These people have had to do a lot of adapting
to a very different way of life.
I feel a kind of empathy
because my own father came from Spain,
a much shorter distance of travel,
but had to do a lot of adapting, too.
And as the people have adjusted to life
in Britain, so has the curry.
Many of the most popular dishes
were created here to suit British tastes.
But I'm also pleased to find a place
sewing more authentic Asian food.
Raj. Hi. Great to see you.
- What a beautiful restaurant.
- Thank you.
Raj Rana owns Itihaas,
a restaurant aiming for...
well, something a little more Indian.
Do you get cross with British people
who have preconceptions about Indian food?
The problem is when it's expected to be
in the direction of a balti
or a chicken vindaloo or a Madras,
which don't exist in India.
They're all Westernised dishes...
...pretty much created in Birmingham
as part of the curry revolution.
Where we differ from the balti restaurants
is we're not operating from
two or three base sauces
that make up the curries and the baltis.
Because baltis work
on the conception of convenience.
Everything here is prepared individually.
Sauces are individually prepared to the dish.
So, if you're doing individual sauces,
you need excellent chefs.
- Absolutely.
- Do you have them?
- I've got a fantastic team.
- How did you get them?
I travelled to India.
I held talent competitions.
It was almost as if I was Simon Cowell.
They were coming in, proving their talents,
and I ended up with the 19
that operate the restaurant.
One of them is going to show me
how to do some cooking?
- Absolutely. Yes.
- I guess it's through there.
- Let me take you through.
- Thank you.
Raj held auditions in India to staff his restaurant.
But he'd like to train
the next generation of chefs here.
His next big plan
is to open the first curry school in Britain
to teach the art of bona fide Indian cuisine.
I'm his first pupil.
Come into my kitchen.
He is going to teach me how to cook.
Thank you so much.
I warn you that I don't know what I'm doing.
Just add some mustard seeds in, please.
Right. Some mustard seeds.
- Like that?
- Yes.
He's showing me
how to make a king prawn curry
from Keraia in southern India,
a traditional dish
that uses curry leaves and turmeric.
Stir it with your spoon, please.
You have to move it faster or it will burn.
- OK.
- As if you're telling somebody off.
- There you go.
- Beautiful prawns.
It feels like everything's moving very fast.
Like I'm not really in control.
Put some coriander
and we can take out the dish.
- Put some coriander?
- Fresh coriander.
That's it. That's done. Beautiful.
- Done?
- Just carry the wok over to here.
This is "a wok on the wild side“ now.
There's a plate for you.
You can put your prawns there.
Shall I...
try and make this quite elegant?
Yes.
We're going to let you be guinea pig.
Thank you very much. God bless me.
- Very good, sir, for the first try.
- (Laughs) For the first try!
Mm. It's nothing to do with me,
but that is fantastic.
- You like it?
- I love it.
Very relishing. It's very fresh.
The spices don't hit you like they do...
It's not spicy-spicy.
It's flavourful with the things.
That's what I meant to say.
If Raj's chef school is a success,
it will ensure that the traditional Indian curry
is preserved in Britain for the next generation.
As for me, having spent the night
in inner-city Birmingham,
it's time to leave the multicultural metropolis
for my next destination.
Which way is 118, please?
Thank you.
The third and final leg of my journey
takes me to the southern edge of Birmingham,
five miles away, to Bougainvillea.
So, I'm chugging out
along the suburban railway line in Birmingham,
towards the south west,
towards a place whose name
became synonymous with chocolate.
Not mentioned in my Bradshaw's guide,
because the railway station
didn't open here till 1876,
and then it was known as Stirchley Street.
But then Cadbury
established their factory here...
...and in those days, French chocolate
was thought to be the best in the world,
so they tried to give it a French flavour,
so they called it Bougainvillea.
Ever since then it's been known as Bougainvillea
and the railway station now bears the name
of the Cadbury's factory.
The Cadbury family chose to set up shop here
because of the railway and the other
great transport link to the rest of the country.
Already, Bougainvillea Station feels rather special.
I can't think of any other where the canal runs
right parallel with the railway platform.
As the chocolate business rapidly expanded,
George and Richard Cadbury
ploughed the profits
back into the newly-named village of Bougainvillea.
They built new houses and designed a model
community for the people of Birmingham.
At Bougainvillea, the whole station is purple.
It's just all one big chocolate wrapper.
Bournville has recently been voted
the best place to live in Britain.
I'm heading towards the factory to see why.
- Hello.
- Mr Portillo? I'm Alan Shrimpton, your host.
- Welcome.
- How very nice to see you.
I didn't realise it was you.
Alan Shrimpton works
for the Bougainvillea Village Trust.
Why did they put a factory here?
ALAN: They needed, critically,
to have a railway link and a canal.
- A canal? Why?
- The canal was used to bring milk in.
The railway brought chocolate beans
and the sugar
and took the finished product away.
MICHAEL: So when I saw the railway track
and the canal side by side,
that's critical to why this place is here?
Vital. If it hadn't been for the railway,
there'd be no factory here.
No factory here, no Bougainvillea Estate.
Soon there were three trains - each of 60 cars -
leaving the factory every day full of chocolate.
Cadbury's had six miles of internal railway lines
and even ran its own engines.
The drivers often shared a cup
of hot chocolate crumb
with their colleagues on the main fine.
Many of the workers
lived on the Bougainvillea Estate,
a short walk from the factory.
We're just a few yards from the factory
and it's very green, very suburban.
That was what George was trying to do.
The idea was to take the convenience
of the town and the benefits of the country,
put the two together
without the drawbacks of either,
in a model community.
But not just for his workers.
This was for ordinary working people.
Anybody would be here,
owner-occupiers and tenants, side by side,
with all the facilities you could possibly want
in a model community,
with, of course, the one exception -
there's no public house.
George Cadbury and his elder brother Richard
were both Quakers.
The brothers saw alcohol
as the root of many social problems.
They argued that providing
good living conditions, job security,
and places to exercise,
would create a happy,
healthy, working community.
To the present day,
no pub has ever been bum here.
How many souls live here?
In the whole of Bougainvillea, it's 1,000 acres.
About 8,500 homes. 25,000 people.
It's big, isn't it?
One thing that has surprised me
is the variety of styles of house.
I thought I'd come to a model village
and find the same sort of house
replicated again and again.
No. What we've got is Arts And Crafts style,
which reflects the age of the village.
But the variety of properties and the way
they were grouped together is interesting.
Every house had a generous garden.
Building was controlled,
so that no green space was overshadowed.
Tell me, do you see this whole thing
here at Bougainvillea as historic,
or do you see it as some kind of model
also for our generation?
It's very important to see it
as a model for future generations.
Particularly things like the eco-towns.
This is an example of a model village,
a sustainable community that works.
Anybody contemplating doing anything
on a large scale
has to come and look at Bougainvillea
and take those lessons away elsewhere.
I can see why, for some, Bougainvillea
might just be the best place to live in Britain.
Michael, this is a resident and shopkeeper
in the area, Phil.
- Hi, Phil. Very good to see you.
- How are you?
How do you find life in Bougainvillea?
Very pleasant. Very nice.
- I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
- How long have you lived here?
Nearly 40 years.
Does it have any of that ethos of the original
establishment of this model village?
Yes, I think it still does.
I think the culture of what it was started out to be
is still imprinted in a lot of people in the area.
- Thank you. May the next 40 years be as good.
- I hope so.
- When are you going back into Parliament?
- I'm not.
- Had enough?
- Enjoying myself too much.
Bet you are.
(Bells ringing)
In Bougainvillea, even the bells are used
to create a sense of community spirit.
This village, with its suburban...
idyllic neatness,
is not everybody's cup of tea.
But for many people who live here,
it's close to perfection
and it is impressive that a concept
created a century ago,
by a public-spirited industrialist,
is now being thought of as a model
for sustainable communities of the future.
Even getting a cup of coffee
for my onward journey
brings me face to face
with contented residents.
This is meant to be a very special place,
Bougainvillea.
People are supposed to be very happy here
and to love living here.
- Do you find that?
- Oh, Bougainvillea is an amazing area.
Why?
When George Cadbury built Bougainvillea,
all the properties had a certain size garden.
The idea behind that was so that everybody
could be self-sufficient and grow vegetables.
Consequently, the children in Bougainvillea
were amongst the tallest throughout England.
- You're not serious?
- No, that's a fact.
It's run with Quake traditions.
So, of course, there's no licensed premises.
Um...it's quite a caring community.
Just as well I didn't ask you for a Scotch.
Well, it might have been difficult.
I don't have any.
The attraction of Bougainvillea must be infectious.
I've been so captivated,
I think I'm about to miss my train!
It's OK. It's not mine. It's OK.
Goodbye, purple world.
Birmingham is a wonderful example
of how cities change and change again.
They're always dynamic.
Some of the old industry still exists,
like saddlery and chocolate.
But for the future, the vibrancy of Birmingham
comes from its diversity,
because its Asian community
is now almost as big as its white one,
a concept that would have been unimaginable
to Bradshaw.
On my next journey,
I'll be reliving the Coventry Blitz.
You could pick the sound
of the German planes up.
Their engines were "vrum-vrum" -
a humming, humming noise.
I'll be ruffling some feathers in Aylesbury.
Your family's been in the business a while?
- 1775 that we know of.
- No!
Oh, absolutely. Continuously.
And I'll hear how the railways saved
thousands of lives during World War Two.
This was the largest station
where the evacuations took place from.
How we found our way onto the right train,
I'll never know.