Great British Railway Journeys (2010–…): Season 4, Episode 10 - Spalding to Grimsby - full transcript
In 1840, one man transformed travel
in the British Isles.
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 these isles
to see what of Bradshaws Britain
remains.
I'm now on the last leg of my journey
from the Solent to the Humber.
Before the mid 19th century,
the quickest way to do that journey
would have been by boat
around the coast,
but in Bradshaws day the railways
provided a rapid overland connection.
Today I see how
Lincolnshire farmers utilised rails
to improve their harvests, ..
That was fun!
I visit one of Britain's most ancient
and impressive cathedrals. ..
The tower is like fingers of
honey-coloured stone
against the blue sky.
Absolutely breathtaking.
And I look to the future of
rail freight.
It gives me the most enormous pleasure
to be able to name this locomotive
Immingham 100.
(applause)
Using my “Bradshaws Guide”,
I began my journey in Portsmouth,
travelled though Hampshire,
on to Surrey, then London,
Bedfordshire and Peterborough,
finishing, today, on the Humber Estuary.
The last leg of my journey
starts in Spalding,
heads north to Lincoln,
on to Market Rasen
and finally the ports of
Grimsby and Immingham.
I'm now in the county of Lincolnshire,
which my Bradshaw's found,
to put it mildly, underwhelming.
It admits that the numerous churches in
the county are objects of admiration,
but says, "The most splendid
were erected chiefly in its lowest
and most Fennish situations, and we
are at a loss to assign a reason."
"The beauties of nature are
scattered with a very sparing hand
over Lincolnshire."
Oh, dear.
On my railway journeys,
I sometimes have the privilege
of travelling up front
in the driver's cab.
But I'm hoping, this morning,
that my conductor might
allow me a new perspective.
- Morning.
- How are you?
Not too bad. Yourself?
- Good view out the back.
- Yes. This is my little office,
and this is the best office view ever
in the world.
- May I share it with you?
- You may, yes.
Thank you very much.
I've never done that. I've often been in
the cab, I've never been at the back.
That's a really nice view.
It's strange to see where you've been,
rather than where you're going to.
It may be boggy and fiat,
but judging from the vast acreage of
rapeseed yellow,
agriculture seems to have
tamed this land.
My first stop on this leg of
my journey is Spalding.
- Bye-bye. Thank you.
- Bye. Thank you.
Bradshaws goes on,
"The fruitfulness and richness
of Lincolnshire's soil
makes ample recompense for
the deficiency of beauty."
"Its trade consists almost entirely
in produce for manufactured grocery
and other consumable commodities."
And included in those
is the humble spud.
Set around the picturesque
River Welland,
I'm in the bustling Georgian market town
of Spa/ding to visit Nicholas Watts,
a farmer whose family has been
growing potatoes in this boggy soil
since the 19th century,
and whose predecessors and neighbours
used farm railways
to improve the efficiency
of their harvests.
- Nicholas, how good to see you.
- Good morning.
Nice to see you, too. Are you going
to come down the farm with me?
- Yes, please.
- OK, jump in then.
Nicholas, I understand
you're a railway enthusiast.
Yes, I am. In actual fact,
we used to have a railway down the farm.
There were nine railways in the village,
and this is the only bit of
any of those nine that's left.
(Carmichael) What a lovely sight.
(Nicholas)
The railways in this village were used
to bring potatoes down the farm
up to near the main road.
And then they were put onto
horse and cart to go to the station,
where they were loaded onto the
London and North Eastern Railway.
My Bradshaw's Guide
talks about the low and fenny ground.
What made the Lincolnshire farmers think
of putting railways across their land?
In a wet winter,
it would take three horses
to pull a ton of potatoes
in a can up the mud track.
But when they got the railway,
one horse could pull three tons.
Out of the nine railways
in the village,
there was one that had a locomotive.
That was quite a big railway system,
though.
- So, shall we give it a push?
- Yes. Yes. Yes, OK, yes.
That was fun!
Farmers weren't alone in
employing light rail technology.
The military did, too.
During the First World War,
tracks were used to move heavy goods
across the often hideously muddy ground
of the from line.
And after the Armistice,
much of the surplus of rail,
sleepers and carts found its way to
the potato fields of Lincolnshire.
It's quite a thought, then, that some
of these tracks had first done service
on the Western Front.
That is true, yes. And, of course,
I looked at that when I went to see
the war graves
in northern France recently.
Back to Spalding Station
for the short trip to Lincoln.
Spalding tickets?
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
I'm looking forward to
the view of Lincoln Cathedral.
Oh, I expect you'll
enjoy it when you see it.
It looms over the city.
Which side will I see it
out of the train?
You'll see it on the right-hand side
as we're coming into Lincoln itself.
You can't miss it.
No matter which direction
you're coming from, actually,
it's just a beautiful view of it.
Originally an important Roman town
replete with public baths,
in 1072, the town acquired a cathedral,
thanks to William the Conqueror,
who relocated the bishopric
of one of the largest dioceses
in medieval England to the city.
Lincoln Cathedral always astonishes me.
I never get used to it.
It absolutely dominates the city.
And with those slender towers and
tall roof, it's so wonderfully elegant.
Completed in 1092, the cathedral
was built of Lincolnshire limestone.
Over the centuries,
earthquake, fire, high winds and war
have wrought havoc on the building.
And its regular repair
explains the building's mix
of Norman and Gothic influences.
It was once deemed
the tallest structure in the world,
thanks to its 14th-century spire.
And although there are
no spires today,
the building itself
is visible 50 miles away.
This cathedral is
absolutely spellbinding.
At the lower level,
we have these rounded arches,
which are Romanesque and then,
just above, the pointed arches,
which are Gothic.
And then the tower is like fingers
of honey-coloured stone
against the blue sky.
Absolutely breathtaking.
I'm meeting cathedral librarian
Dr Nicholas Bennett
to find out how the Victorians
regarded the jewel of east England.
Thanks for seeing me today.
May we go inside?
(Nicholas) Indeed, yes.
Bradshaw's is very keen on
Lincoln Cathedral.
- Was that a common Victorian view'?
- It was.
Gothic architecture, to the Victorians,
was the perfect form of
ecclesiastical architecture.
The great Victorian critic John Ruskin
said of Lincoln Cathedral
that it was the best, in fact
it was worth any two of the others.
He put it so high on its pedestal.
And that really sums up what the
Victorians thought of Lincoln Cathedral.
These windows date from the mid 1850s.
They were put in this transept
as pan of a memorial
to the Bishop of Lincoln John Kaye.
So the Victorians dared to alter
the cathedral, to tamper with it?
Oh, absolutely. They had supreme
confidence in what they were doing
and they didn't hesitate to put in new
windows where they felt they belonged.
(Carmichael) Should we regard this
as an artistic success?
Some liked it,
others were quite savage about it.
And there is a late Victorian
guide to the cathedral,
just slightly after Bradshaws,
Murray's Handbook of
the County of Lincolnshire,
which is very critical about
the glass in the cathedral.
And it says the glass in the nave
is badly designed, badly executed.
It describes these windows as an
unhappy memorial to Bishop Kaye.
So they didn't mince their words.
I enjoyed my rail journey here today
enormously.
I imagine the Victorians
used the railway
to indulge their passion
for things Gothic.
Exactly. The railways brought
crowds of people to the cathedral.
It enabled the cathedral to make use of
these vast spaces in the nave
and the chapter house in a way they
hadn't been used since the middle ages.
For example, the 1889 music festival,
where they performed
Mendelssohn's Elijah,
they put on special trains
from all over Lincolnshire
to bring those massed choirs
into the cathedral.
Down the centuries,
many have undertaken repairs
and reconstruction work
in the cathedral.
In 1676, Sir Christopher Wren
designed the Baroque style library.
The building has 700 historic windows,
which heed a lot of careful restoration,
currently being provided by
glazier Dan Beale.
(Carmichael) So, what period
was this clear glass used?
(Dan) Well, the original glass that was
in here is quite recent from the 1920s.
Major restoration works went on
within the cathedral around then.
And then these panels, how are you
going to put those in position?
Well, I'll show you now actually.
The bottom one will drop in quite neatly
and then, this is the nature of
this slab joint method,
the top ones also have to go in first
and the middle panel will just kind of
slot in and the leads will lap over.
- In theory.
- I believe you. (laughs)
Shall we have...
see whether it works?
(Dan) And it simply sits in a groove.
So that one was pretty easy.
Yeah, the bottom ones
are the best ones.
This middle one's got to be slot in,
in between the other two panels,
which is... That's the trickier bit.
But it's OK.
It should go in straight away.
(Dan) And this is where it
gets kind of tight.
- We on there?
- Yeah.
And that's what I mean
about being tricky.
There's no space for fingers involved.
This top panel's been
jacked up a little bit.
That's where all this lead's
folded down...
to give us the space
to push this panel in.
And then you sort of take the little
packers out, and that then drops down.
And, hopefully, stays there.
The last panel to go in is always
the trickiest panel to go in
cos you've only got a set size
for it to slot in to.
But hopefully, fingers crossed,
this one will be OK.
- That windows a bit of a pain.
- Excuse the pun. (laughs)
in Victorian Britain,
led by philosophers and social critics
keen on medieval craftsmanship,
artistry and spiritual beauty,
stained glass in the Gothic style
was in vogue.
So much so that it
decorated fashionable homes
and graced the largest
ecclesiastical buildings.
At Darts restoration studio,
I'm hoping to find out
whether the Victorian artists
who painted glass for Lincoln Cathedral
are easy to identify.
One of the problems we have
with 19th-century glass
is a lot aren't signed.
They were churned out just ten a penny
and a lot of the windows aren't signed
and it's quite difficult to decipher
who made the window.
Because we struggle
with that at the moment,
for posterity for future generations,
we sign and date the windows.
This glass has already been
worked on and restored, has it?
(Dan) Yeah, this is... The panels were
donated to the cathedral in the '70s.
(Carmichael) What would it
have looked like?
Originally,
they're in this kind of state,
which is a lot of broken leads
and broken pieces of glass
and cracks in various areas.
It seems to have folded at some point.
- (Carmichael) And filthy.
- (Dan) And very, very dirty, yes.
One of the problems that crops up
is just cleaning stained glass.
Many people will really quite destroy
some of the paintwork
by over cleaning them.
- Do you use these brushes?
- Well, it's a very gentle approach.
I mean, initially,
it's just a soft bristle brush.
And you just kind of go around
and pull a bit of the din away.
Do you ever feel unfulfilled that
you're restoring somebody else's work?
No, you get to work on
different artists' work
and everyone you work on, you learn
from it because it's a different style,
different painting techniques.
So it's all a process of learning,
continually learning, really. it's...
As I say, I thoroughly enjoy it.
It's great.
Having seen Lincoln Cathedral,
I feel positively Victorian
in my enthusiasm for it
and could happily linger ail day,
but my next destination awaits.
My next stop is Market Rasen,
and I'm drawn there by
this entry in my Bradshaw's.
It says that there's a
"curious, embattled towered church,
whose vicar takes tithe of ale."
Now, I understand why churches
took tithes for their upkeep,
but a tithe of ale
suggests a pretty tipsy vicar.
Charles Dickens described Market Rasen
as the sleepiest town in England,
but when its station opened in 1848,
enabling trains to link
the Humberto the Midlands,
its place in railway history
was cemented.
Documents suggest that
just 100 years earlier,
the vicar of Rasen was taxing his
parishioners through a tithe of ale.
I wonder whether the present incumbent
Reverend Michael Cartwright's
tankard still overflows.
Hello, Michael.
How lovely to be in your church.
- It's really nice to meet you. Welcome.
- Thank you so much.
What were tithes?
Well, tithes go back to
the 8th century, really.
It was a way of giving the parson
a living.
And so, he was given some land,
he was given either a cow or a bull
and he had the right to claim
one-tenth from his flock
to support him in his life.
That was voluntary.
And then in the 10th century,
the church got wise to it
and made it compulsory.
- One-tenth of a person's income?
- Yes, yes.
It's a biblical precept,
it goes back to biblical times.
Now, my Bradshaw's refers to the vicar
of this church taking a tithe of ale.
- Yes.
- Explain, please.
Well, the history of it is that,
before the Reformation,
there was a priory at a small village
up the road called Six Hills.
It was said, actually, that "ye prior
of Six Hills laid a tithe of ale
on the parishes round about
for the grandium of his table".
In other words, he wanted
some booze on his table, really.
Apparently, it did die out long after
the prior was dead... and gone.
So, by the time of my Bradshaw's Guide,
actually, the custom had ailed.
(laughs) I think, in effect,
the custom had died out, yes.
Michael, do you receive
a tithe of ale today?
Good heavens, no. Not at all.
I'm still waiting for it.
When I first came to Lincolnshire,
somebody said,
"It's a country area, you'll get
a sack of potatoes every week."
I've never had a sack of potatoes
in my life.
I hope you're not too proud,
though, to take a half pint with me.
Not at all.
That would be absolutely brilliant.
Good evening. Two halves of ale, please.
Ifs been a fascinating but taxing day,
and with an early start tomorrow,
it's just a night cap for me.
- Cheers, Michael.
- Cheers, and thank you.
Well, I'm so sorry about
the loss of your tithes.
(Rev Michael laughs)
Well, this compensates.
First time in 25 years.
(Carmichael P laughs)
- Morning.
- Morning. You alright?
After a good night's sleep, I'm ready
for some bracing sea air this morning.
During the course of my journeys,
I've become used to the idea
that many towns and cities
were transformed
by the coming of the railways.
But speaking of my next destination,
my Bradshaw's says,
"They commenced planting,
in defiance of all natural obstacles,
a new commercial city to become
the great entrepôt of the trade
between western, northern
and eastern Europe."
In the case of Grimsby, the port
wasn't transformed by the railways,
it was created by them.
I'm on my way to Grimsby Town Station
to change onto the Northern Railway
for the docks.
Founded in the 9th century,
Grimsby was a small port
with a natural harbour whose
development was blighted by siltation.
Huge improvements to the problem
were made around 1800,
with the building of a dock,
but the biggest change was in the 1840s,
when the Manchester, Sheffield and
Lincolnshire Railway arrived in Grimsby.
The company's visionary
general manager, Edward Watkin,
transformed the existing facilities
and financed the building of a new dock
and oversaw the construction
of what may be
the most incongruous 300ft
quayside structure of Bradshaw's day,
which I'm hoping local historian
Gary Cross/and can explain.
Gary, why do Grimsby docks have what
appears to be an Italian bell tower?
It was built specifically to house
the hydraulic mechanism
for the operation of the quayside
cranes, the lock gates and the sluices.
It was designed by James Wilde
in this renaissance style.
He wanted a high tower
with a constant supply of water
that can be contained within a tank,
and that will get him
his hydraulic pressure.
And so, that water pressing down, what,
then lifts the gate and lowers the gate?
Well, it opens the gate,
because they're pivoted
and they act like doors,
so they open and close for the lock.
- (Carmichael) Was it successful?
- Very successful.
I find it very endearing, don't you,
that Victorians, who had these
wonderful engineering solutions,
felt they wanted to disguise them
in buildings from
a different century completely.
Well, that's right,
but it's a marvellous building.
It means a lot to Grimsby.
The original hydraulic tower was based
on Siena's Palazzo Pubblico bell tower.
But it wasn't Edward Watkin's
only legacy here.
His fish dock became active in 1857,
and when fishermen from
as far away as London and Devon
heard about the new
rail distribution system,
they landed their catch here,
turning Grimsby into one of the
busiest fishing ports on the planet.
Reductions in fish stocks and in
what fishermen are allowed to catch
have caused the industry to decline.
But John Vincent, a trawler guide
at the Fishing Heritage Centre,
sustains our understanding of
the town's fishing history.
My first ever trip on a trawler was when
I was nine years old with my father.
My father was a trawler skipper,
and it was a tradition
for the eldest son of
a fishing family in Grimsby
to go with Dad
during the summer holidays.
And I was the eldest of five lads,
and he took us all to sea
between the ages of eight and nine.
And we all ended up going to sea,
fishermen.
- All at sea?
- All went to sea.
(Carmichael) How old were you
when you started on trawlers?
(John)
Just before my 15th birthday, 1960.
When I started, we used to have
700 trawlers out of Grimsby.
- Seven-hundred?
- Yeah.
(John) You could walk from one side
of the docks to the other
without getting your feet wet,
on trawlers.
Today, you'd be lucky
to find four ships.
Now, famously, the trawlers operated
in pretty savage conditions.
- Was it very tough?
- It could be.
(Carmichael) What was the toughest,
or most dangerous moment that you faced?
(John) The most dangerous moment
I ever faced
was when we got hit by two big seas.
All you could see was two big waves
coming aboard the trawler.
And one of the lads who was stood
near the winch barrel, Tommy Fisher,
the sea hit him and it
dropped him into the washer.
And you couldn't see anything
on the front end of the ship.
She shuddered,
up she come and picked us up.
The skipper hung his head
out the window, counted us
and asked were we alright.
"Yeah? Carry on fishing."
So, you were out there
bobbing in the sea,
and then the trawler came up
underneath you and swept you up?
That's right. Picked us up again.
- Amazing.
- It was great.
(laughs)
Pan of fishing. It's the life.
Now you're in the wheel house.
This is the nerve centre of the trawler.
- And you spent many a long hour here?
- Yeah.
(Carmichael) When it's running a rough sea,
you have to really hold on?
Fishermen used to think that
if they held on and leaned back
when a sea's coming, it would help lift
the bow of the trawler over the top.
The bows come up natural.
Fishermen used to get hold of these
and lean back and say, "Come up."
And up she'd come over the top.
These are the best white knuckle rides
you could be on. They beat Alton Towers.
- (laughs)
- To go over the top of a big sea.
The fishing industry
may have declined,
but its demise is by no means
the end of Humber's maritime story.
Just along the estuary, the port of
Immingham, which opened in 1912,
has equally strong links to rail
and handles a massive
50 million tons of cargo each year.
John Fitzgerald is port director.
They tell me that Immingham's
quite a busy port,
that you do quite a volume of cargo.
We have a lot of bulk products,
petroleum products with two refineries,
a lot of coal, a lot of iron ore.
But we're also exporting grain
from the Lincolnshire bread basket,
we're importing fertiliser,
we're handling new cars, paper,
a whole range of cargoes.
We handle business from elsewhere,
right the way around the world.
Indonesia, South Africa, Russia...
So it's very much a global gateway.
It's a combination of location
and the facilities.
We have natural deep water
and we're in the centre of the country.
It's also the largest rail freight hub
in the country,
with 25% of all rail freight
being based on the port of Immingham.
(Carmichael) Twenty-five per cent?
Either comes in or goes out
of the port of Immingham.
Twenty-five per cent in one port?
- Absolutely.
- That is impressive.
Do you see railways as an
important part of Immingham's future?
It was a rail company
that built this port,
we're heavily involved in rail freight
and all our new developments
are focused on rail.
We're building new terminals
here at Humber international Terminal
to handle the cargo of the future
by rail.
I can't tell you how happy that
would make George Bradshaw.
In May 1970,
the first vessel loaded coal
in Immingham's new
deep water coal jetty.
It was for export
by the National Coal Board,
but as British coal mining waned,
Immingham's main business
has become the import of coal
on an industrial scale
to supply power stations.
- Hello. I'm Michael.
- Hello. I'm Paul.
So, what's going on here?
Today we're loading a train
for GB rail freight
- going to Eggborough.
- The power station?
To the power station, yes.
We do roughly one train an hour,
about 12 trains in a 12-hour shift.
How many wagons in each train?
There's 24 on this one,
but they have different variations
of number for different power stations.
And so, each train can carry away
what kind of weight of coal?
(Paul) Just about 1700 tons.
You're sitting here
looking at a computer screen,
so it is actually computerised,
this process, is it?
(Paul) It's an automated system
and it just takes over
once you've set it up, basically.
(Carmichael) I can't see
anything for me to do.
There are no levers to push or anything?
No. If you'd like to come and sit down,
you're welcome.
(both laugh)
So this is just showing me,
on the computer,
each wagon moving through?
Yes, we've got these
different numbered lasers on the side,
and that basically picks up
the beginning of the wagon
and the end of the wagon.
It tells the system
when to open the chute and close it.
Completely beautifully automated,
isn't it?
(Paul) YEP-
It's Immingham's centenary year.
It seems entirely apt to name
a new locomotive to commemorate it,
and I am honoured to be asked
to perform a small ceremony
to launch it on its way.
Well, thank you.
It gives me the most enormous pleasure
to be able to name this locomotive.
And, again, I congratulate you all
on choosing to name this locomotive
Immingham 100.
(applause)
(applause)
This journey has taken me from
the great naval dockyard of Portsmouth
to this bustling industrial port
at Immingham.
Along the way, my Bradshaw's Guide
has steered me along the route
of Victorian history.
But now, with the commissioning of
HMS Dragon on the Solent,
and the naming of this locomotive
on the Humber,
I turn my eyes down the tracks
towards the future.
My next journey snakes along
Scotland's east coast,
then passes through
dramatic highland landscapes
en route to Britain's
most far north coastline.
Along the way,
I'll see how 19th-century railway
builders conquered the wilderness,...
Really is a spectacular piece of
architecture and engineering.
Learn how industrialisation
gave the world a taste of Scotland...
Stop the conveyor belt!
I want to get off!
And visit where Victorian prospectors
hit on hidden riches.
Gold! we've found gold!
in the British Isles.
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 these isles
to see what of Bradshaws Britain
remains.
I'm now on the last leg of my journey
from the Solent to the Humber.
Before the mid 19th century,
the quickest way to do that journey
would have been by boat
around the coast,
but in Bradshaws day the railways
provided a rapid overland connection.
Today I see how
Lincolnshire farmers utilised rails
to improve their harvests, ..
That was fun!
I visit one of Britain's most ancient
and impressive cathedrals. ..
The tower is like fingers of
honey-coloured stone
against the blue sky.
Absolutely breathtaking.
And I look to the future of
rail freight.
It gives me the most enormous pleasure
to be able to name this locomotive
Immingham 100.
(applause)
Using my “Bradshaws Guide”,
I began my journey in Portsmouth,
travelled though Hampshire,
on to Surrey, then London,
Bedfordshire and Peterborough,
finishing, today, on the Humber Estuary.
The last leg of my journey
starts in Spalding,
heads north to Lincoln,
on to Market Rasen
and finally the ports of
Grimsby and Immingham.
I'm now in the county of Lincolnshire,
which my Bradshaw's found,
to put it mildly, underwhelming.
It admits that the numerous churches in
the county are objects of admiration,
but says, "The most splendid
were erected chiefly in its lowest
and most Fennish situations, and we
are at a loss to assign a reason."
"The beauties of nature are
scattered with a very sparing hand
over Lincolnshire."
Oh, dear.
On my railway journeys,
I sometimes have the privilege
of travelling up front
in the driver's cab.
But I'm hoping, this morning,
that my conductor might
allow me a new perspective.
- Morning.
- How are you?
Not too bad. Yourself?
- Good view out the back.
- Yes. This is my little office,
and this is the best office view ever
in the world.
- May I share it with you?
- You may, yes.
Thank you very much.
I've never done that. I've often been in
the cab, I've never been at the back.
That's a really nice view.
It's strange to see where you've been,
rather than where you're going to.
It may be boggy and fiat,
but judging from the vast acreage of
rapeseed yellow,
agriculture seems to have
tamed this land.
My first stop on this leg of
my journey is Spalding.
- Bye-bye. Thank you.
- Bye. Thank you.
Bradshaws goes on,
"The fruitfulness and richness
of Lincolnshire's soil
makes ample recompense for
the deficiency of beauty."
"Its trade consists almost entirely
in produce for manufactured grocery
and other consumable commodities."
And included in those
is the humble spud.
Set around the picturesque
River Welland,
I'm in the bustling Georgian market town
of Spa/ding to visit Nicholas Watts,
a farmer whose family has been
growing potatoes in this boggy soil
since the 19th century,
and whose predecessors and neighbours
used farm railways
to improve the efficiency
of their harvests.
- Nicholas, how good to see you.
- Good morning.
Nice to see you, too. Are you going
to come down the farm with me?
- Yes, please.
- OK, jump in then.
Nicholas, I understand
you're a railway enthusiast.
Yes, I am. In actual fact,
we used to have a railway down the farm.
There were nine railways in the village,
and this is the only bit of
any of those nine that's left.
(Carmichael) What a lovely sight.
(Nicholas)
The railways in this village were used
to bring potatoes down the farm
up to near the main road.
And then they were put onto
horse and cart to go to the station,
where they were loaded onto the
London and North Eastern Railway.
My Bradshaw's Guide
talks about the low and fenny ground.
What made the Lincolnshire farmers think
of putting railways across their land?
In a wet winter,
it would take three horses
to pull a ton of potatoes
in a can up the mud track.
But when they got the railway,
one horse could pull three tons.
Out of the nine railways
in the village,
there was one that had a locomotive.
That was quite a big railway system,
though.
- So, shall we give it a push?
- Yes. Yes. Yes, OK, yes.
That was fun!
Farmers weren't alone in
employing light rail technology.
The military did, too.
During the First World War,
tracks were used to move heavy goods
across the often hideously muddy ground
of the from line.
And after the Armistice,
much of the surplus of rail,
sleepers and carts found its way to
the potato fields of Lincolnshire.
It's quite a thought, then, that some
of these tracks had first done service
on the Western Front.
That is true, yes. And, of course,
I looked at that when I went to see
the war graves
in northern France recently.
Back to Spalding Station
for the short trip to Lincoln.
Spalding tickets?
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
I'm looking forward to
the view of Lincoln Cathedral.
Oh, I expect you'll
enjoy it when you see it.
It looms over the city.
Which side will I see it
out of the train?
You'll see it on the right-hand side
as we're coming into Lincoln itself.
You can't miss it.
No matter which direction
you're coming from, actually,
it's just a beautiful view of it.
Originally an important Roman town
replete with public baths,
in 1072, the town acquired a cathedral,
thanks to William the Conqueror,
who relocated the bishopric
of one of the largest dioceses
in medieval England to the city.
Lincoln Cathedral always astonishes me.
I never get used to it.
It absolutely dominates the city.
And with those slender towers and
tall roof, it's so wonderfully elegant.
Completed in 1092, the cathedral
was built of Lincolnshire limestone.
Over the centuries,
earthquake, fire, high winds and war
have wrought havoc on the building.
And its regular repair
explains the building's mix
of Norman and Gothic influences.
It was once deemed
the tallest structure in the world,
thanks to its 14th-century spire.
And although there are
no spires today,
the building itself
is visible 50 miles away.
This cathedral is
absolutely spellbinding.
At the lower level,
we have these rounded arches,
which are Romanesque and then,
just above, the pointed arches,
which are Gothic.
And then the tower is like fingers
of honey-coloured stone
against the blue sky.
Absolutely breathtaking.
I'm meeting cathedral librarian
Dr Nicholas Bennett
to find out how the Victorians
regarded the jewel of east England.
Thanks for seeing me today.
May we go inside?
(Nicholas) Indeed, yes.
Bradshaw's is very keen on
Lincoln Cathedral.
- Was that a common Victorian view'?
- It was.
Gothic architecture, to the Victorians,
was the perfect form of
ecclesiastical architecture.
The great Victorian critic John Ruskin
said of Lincoln Cathedral
that it was the best, in fact
it was worth any two of the others.
He put it so high on its pedestal.
And that really sums up what the
Victorians thought of Lincoln Cathedral.
These windows date from the mid 1850s.
They were put in this transept
as pan of a memorial
to the Bishop of Lincoln John Kaye.
So the Victorians dared to alter
the cathedral, to tamper with it?
Oh, absolutely. They had supreme
confidence in what they were doing
and they didn't hesitate to put in new
windows where they felt they belonged.
(Carmichael) Should we regard this
as an artistic success?
Some liked it,
others were quite savage about it.
And there is a late Victorian
guide to the cathedral,
just slightly after Bradshaws,
Murray's Handbook of
the County of Lincolnshire,
which is very critical about
the glass in the cathedral.
And it says the glass in the nave
is badly designed, badly executed.
It describes these windows as an
unhappy memorial to Bishop Kaye.
So they didn't mince their words.
I enjoyed my rail journey here today
enormously.
I imagine the Victorians
used the railway
to indulge their passion
for things Gothic.
Exactly. The railways brought
crowds of people to the cathedral.
It enabled the cathedral to make use of
these vast spaces in the nave
and the chapter house in a way they
hadn't been used since the middle ages.
For example, the 1889 music festival,
where they performed
Mendelssohn's Elijah,
they put on special trains
from all over Lincolnshire
to bring those massed choirs
into the cathedral.
Down the centuries,
many have undertaken repairs
and reconstruction work
in the cathedral.
In 1676, Sir Christopher Wren
designed the Baroque style library.
The building has 700 historic windows,
which heed a lot of careful restoration,
currently being provided by
glazier Dan Beale.
(Carmichael) So, what period
was this clear glass used?
(Dan) Well, the original glass that was
in here is quite recent from the 1920s.
Major restoration works went on
within the cathedral around then.
And then these panels, how are you
going to put those in position?
Well, I'll show you now actually.
The bottom one will drop in quite neatly
and then, this is the nature of
this slab joint method,
the top ones also have to go in first
and the middle panel will just kind of
slot in and the leads will lap over.
- In theory.
- I believe you. (laughs)
Shall we have...
see whether it works?
(Dan) And it simply sits in a groove.
So that one was pretty easy.
Yeah, the bottom ones
are the best ones.
This middle one's got to be slot in,
in between the other two panels,
which is... That's the trickier bit.
But it's OK.
It should go in straight away.
(Dan) And this is where it
gets kind of tight.
- We on there?
- Yeah.
And that's what I mean
about being tricky.
There's no space for fingers involved.
This top panel's been
jacked up a little bit.
That's where all this lead's
folded down...
to give us the space
to push this panel in.
And then you sort of take the little
packers out, and that then drops down.
And, hopefully, stays there.
The last panel to go in is always
the trickiest panel to go in
cos you've only got a set size
for it to slot in to.
But hopefully, fingers crossed,
this one will be OK.
- That windows a bit of a pain.
- Excuse the pun. (laughs)
in Victorian Britain,
led by philosophers and social critics
keen on medieval craftsmanship,
artistry and spiritual beauty,
stained glass in the Gothic style
was in vogue.
So much so that it
decorated fashionable homes
and graced the largest
ecclesiastical buildings.
At Darts restoration studio,
I'm hoping to find out
whether the Victorian artists
who painted glass for Lincoln Cathedral
are easy to identify.
One of the problems we have
with 19th-century glass
is a lot aren't signed.
They were churned out just ten a penny
and a lot of the windows aren't signed
and it's quite difficult to decipher
who made the window.
Because we struggle
with that at the moment,
for posterity for future generations,
we sign and date the windows.
This glass has already been
worked on and restored, has it?
(Dan) Yeah, this is... The panels were
donated to the cathedral in the '70s.
(Carmichael) What would it
have looked like?
Originally,
they're in this kind of state,
which is a lot of broken leads
and broken pieces of glass
and cracks in various areas.
It seems to have folded at some point.
- (Carmichael) And filthy.
- (Dan) And very, very dirty, yes.
One of the problems that crops up
is just cleaning stained glass.
Many people will really quite destroy
some of the paintwork
by over cleaning them.
- Do you use these brushes?
- Well, it's a very gentle approach.
I mean, initially,
it's just a soft bristle brush.
And you just kind of go around
and pull a bit of the din away.
Do you ever feel unfulfilled that
you're restoring somebody else's work?
No, you get to work on
different artists' work
and everyone you work on, you learn
from it because it's a different style,
different painting techniques.
So it's all a process of learning,
continually learning, really. it's...
As I say, I thoroughly enjoy it.
It's great.
Having seen Lincoln Cathedral,
I feel positively Victorian
in my enthusiasm for it
and could happily linger ail day,
but my next destination awaits.
My next stop is Market Rasen,
and I'm drawn there by
this entry in my Bradshaw's.
It says that there's a
"curious, embattled towered church,
whose vicar takes tithe of ale."
Now, I understand why churches
took tithes for their upkeep,
but a tithe of ale
suggests a pretty tipsy vicar.
Charles Dickens described Market Rasen
as the sleepiest town in England,
but when its station opened in 1848,
enabling trains to link
the Humberto the Midlands,
its place in railway history
was cemented.
Documents suggest that
just 100 years earlier,
the vicar of Rasen was taxing his
parishioners through a tithe of ale.
I wonder whether the present incumbent
Reverend Michael Cartwright's
tankard still overflows.
Hello, Michael.
How lovely to be in your church.
- It's really nice to meet you. Welcome.
- Thank you so much.
What were tithes?
Well, tithes go back to
the 8th century, really.
It was a way of giving the parson
a living.
And so, he was given some land,
he was given either a cow or a bull
and he had the right to claim
one-tenth from his flock
to support him in his life.
That was voluntary.
And then in the 10th century,
the church got wise to it
and made it compulsory.
- One-tenth of a person's income?
- Yes, yes.
It's a biblical precept,
it goes back to biblical times.
Now, my Bradshaw's refers to the vicar
of this church taking a tithe of ale.
- Yes.
- Explain, please.
Well, the history of it is that,
before the Reformation,
there was a priory at a small village
up the road called Six Hills.
It was said, actually, that "ye prior
of Six Hills laid a tithe of ale
on the parishes round about
for the grandium of his table".
In other words, he wanted
some booze on his table, really.
Apparently, it did die out long after
the prior was dead... and gone.
So, by the time of my Bradshaw's Guide,
actually, the custom had ailed.
(laughs) I think, in effect,
the custom had died out, yes.
Michael, do you receive
a tithe of ale today?
Good heavens, no. Not at all.
I'm still waiting for it.
When I first came to Lincolnshire,
somebody said,
"It's a country area, you'll get
a sack of potatoes every week."
I've never had a sack of potatoes
in my life.
I hope you're not too proud,
though, to take a half pint with me.
Not at all.
That would be absolutely brilliant.
Good evening. Two halves of ale, please.
Ifs been a fascinating but taxing day,
and with an early start tomorrow,
it's just a night cap for me.
- Cheers, Michael.
- Cheers, and thank you.
Well, I'm so sorry about
the loss of your tithes.
(Rev Michael laughs)
Well, this compensates.
First time in 25 years.
(Carmichael P laughs)
- Morning.
- Morning. You alright?
After a good night's sleep, I'm ready
for some bracing sea air this morning.
During the course of my journeys,
I've become used to the idea
that many towns and cities
were transformed
by the coming of the railways.
But speaking of my next destination,
my Bradshaw's says,
"They commenced planting,
in defiance of all natural obstacles,
a new commercial city to become
the great entrepôt of the trade
between western, northern
and eastern Europe."
In the case of Grimsby, the port
wasn't transformed by the railways,
it was created by them.
I'm on my way to Grimsby Town Station
to change onto the Northern Railway
for the docks.
Founded in the 9th century,
Grimsby was a small port
with a natural harbour whose
development was blighted by siltation.
Huge improvements to the problem
were made around 1800,
with the building of a dock,
but the biggest change was in the 1840s,
when the Manchester, Sheffield and
Lincolnshire Railway arrived in Grimsby.
The company's visionary
general manager, Edward Watkin,
transformed the existing facilities
and financed the building of a new dock
and oversaw the construction
of what may be
the most incongruous 300ft
quayside structure of Bradshaw's day,
which I'm hoping local historian
Gary Cross/and can explain.
Gary, why do Grimsby docks have what
appears to be an Italian bell tower?
It was built specifically to house
the hydraulic mechanism
for the operation of the quayside
cranes, the lock gates and the sluices.
It was designed by James Wilde
in this renaissance style.
He wanted a high tower
with a constant supply of water
that can be contained within a tank,
and that will get him
his hydraulic pressure.
And so, that water pressing down, what,
then lifts the gate and lowers the gate?
Well, it opens the gate,
because they're pivoted
and they act like doors,
so they open and close for the lock.
- (Carmichael) Was it successful?
- Very successful.
I find it very endearing, don't you,
that Victorians, who had these
wonderful engineering solutions,
felt they wanted to disguise them
in buildings from
a different century completely.
Well, that's right,
but it's a marvellous building.
It means a lot to Grimsby.
The original hydraulic tower was based
on Siena's Palazzo Pubblico bell tower.
But it wasn't Edward Watkin's
only legacy here.
His fish dock became active in 1857,
and when fishermen from
as far away as London and Devon
heard about the new
rail distribution system,
they landed their catch here,
turning Grimsby into one of the
busiest fishing ports on the planet.
Reductions in fish stocks and in
what fishermen are allowed to catch
have caused the industry to decline.
But John Vincent, a trawler guide
at the Fishing Heritage Centre,
sustains our understanding of
the town's fishing history.
My first ever trip on a trawler was when
I was nine years old with my father.
My father was a trawler skipper,
and it was a tradition
for the eldest son of
a fishing family in Grimsby
to go with Dad
during the summer holidays.
And I was the eldest of five lads,
and he took us all to sea
between the ages of eight and nine.
And we all ended up going to sea,
fishermen.
- All at sea?
- All went to sea.
(Carmichael) How old were you
when you started on trawlers?
(John)
Just before my 15th birthday, 1960.
When I started, we used to have
700 trawlers out of Grimsby.
- Seven-hundred?
- Yeah.
(John) You could walk from one side
of the docks to the other
without getting your feet wet,
on trawlers.
Today, you'd be lucky
to find four ships.
Now, famously, the trawlers operated
in pretty savage conditions.
- Was it very tough?
- It could be.
(Carmichael) What was the toughest,
or most dangerous moment that you faced?
(John) The most dangerous moment
I ever faced
was when we got hit by two big seas.
All you could see was two big waves
coming aboard the trawler.
And one of the lads who was stood
near the winch barrel, Tommy Fisher,
the sea hit him and it
dropped him into the washer.
And you couldn't see anything
on the front end of the ship.
She shuddered,
up she come and picked us up.
The skipper hung his head
out the window, counted us
and asked were we alright.
"Yeah? Carry on fishing."
So, you were out there
bobbing in the sea,
and then the trawler came up
underneath you and swept you up?
That's right. Picked us up again.
- Amazing.
- It was great.
(laughs)
Pan of fishing. It's the life.
Now you're in the wheel house.
This is the nerve centre of the trawler.
- And you spent many a long hour here?
- Yeah.
(Carmichael) When it's running a rough sea,
you have to really hold on?
Fishermen used to think that
if they held on and leaned back
when a sea's coming, it would help lift
the bow of the trawler over the top.
The bows come up natural.
Fishermen used to get hold of these
and lean back and say, "Come up."
And up she'd come over the top.
These are the best white knuckle rides
you could be on. They beat Alton Towers.
- (laughs)
- To go over the top of a big sea.
The fishing industry
may have declined,
but its demise is by no means
the end of Humber's maritime story.
Just along the estuary, the port of
Immingham, which opened in 1912,
has equally strong links to rail
and handles a massive
50 million tons of cargo each year.
John Fitzgerald is port director.
They tell me that Immingham's
quite a busy port,
that you do quite a volume of cargo.
We have a lot of bulk products,
petroleum products with two refineries,
a lot of coal, a lot of iron ore.
But we're also exporting grain
from the Lincolnshire bread basket,
we're importing fertiliser,
we're handling new cars, paper,
a whole range of cargoes.
We handle business from elsewhere,
right the way around the world.
Indonesia, South Africa, Russia...
So it's very much a global gateway.
It's a combination of location
and the facilities.
We have natural deep water
and we're in the centre of the country.
It's also the largest rail freight hub
in the country,
with 25% of all rail freight
being based on the port of Immingham.
(Carmichael) Twenty-five per cent?
Either comes in or goes out
of the port of Immingham.
Twenty-five per cent in one port?
- Absolutely.
- That is impressive.
Do you see railways as an
important part of Immingham's future?
It was a rail company
that built this port,
we're heavily involved in rail freight
and all our new developments
are focused on rail.
We're building new terminals
here at Humber international Terminal
to handle the cargo of the future
by rail.
I can't tell you how happy that
would make George Bradshaw.
In May 1970,
the first vessel loaded coal
in Immingham's new
deep water coal jetty.
It was for export
by the National Coal Board,
but as British coal mining waned,
Immingham's main business
has become the import of coal
on an industrial scale
to supply power stations.
- Hello. I'm Michael.
- Hello. I'm Paul.
So, what's going on here?
Today we're loading a train
for GB rail freight
- going to Eggborough.
- The power station?
To the power station, yes.
We do roughly one train an hour,
about 12 trains in a 12-hour shift.
How many wagons in each train?
There's 24 on this one,
but they have different variations
of number for different power stations.
And so, each train can carry away
what kind of weight of coal?
(Paul) Just about 1700 tons.
You're sitting here
looking at a computer screen,
so it is actually computerised,
this process, is it?
(Paul) It's an automated system
and it just takes over
once you've set it up, basically.
(Carmichael) I can't see
anything for me to do.
There are no levers to push or anything?
No. If you'd like to come and sit down,
you're welcome.
(both laugh)
So this is just showing me,
on the computer,
each wagon moving through?
Yes, we've got these
different numbered lasers on the side,
and that basically picks up
the beginning of the wagon
and the end of the wagon.
It tells the system
when to open the chute and close it.
Completely beautifully automated,
isn't it?
(Paul) YEP-
It's Immingham's centenary year.
It seems entirely apt to name
a new locomotive to commemorate it,
and I am honoured to be asked
to perform a small ceremony
to launch it on its way.
Well, thank you.
It gives me the most enormous pleasure
to be able to name this locomotive.
And, again, I congratulate you all
on choosing to name this locomotive
Immingham 100.
(applause)
(applause)
This journey has taken me from
the great naval dockyard of Portsmouth
to this bustling industrial port
at Immingham.
Along the way, my Bradshaw's Guide
has steered me along the route
of Victorian history.
But now, with the commissioning of
HMS Dragon on the Solent,
and the naming of this locomotive
on the Humber,
I turn my eyes down the tracks
towards the future.
My next journey snakes along
Scotland's east coast,
then passes through
dramatic highland landscapes
en route to Britain's
most far north coastline.
Along the way,
I'll see how 19th-century railway
builders conquered the wilderness,...
Really is a spectacular piece of
architecture and engineering.
Learn how industrialisation
gave the world a taste of Scotland...
Stop the conveyor belt!
I want to get off!
And visit where Victorian prospectors
hit on hidden riches.
Gold! we've found gold!