Great British Railway Journeys (2010–…): Season 6, Episode 2 - Greenock to Larkhall - full transcript
[OPENING THEME]
For Victorian Britons George Bradshaw
was a household name.
At a time when railways
were new...
Bradshaw's guidebook inspired
them to take to the tracks.
I'm using a Bradshaw's guide...
to understand how trains
transformed Britain.
Its landscape, its industry,
society and leisure time.
As I arias-cross the country
150 years later...
it helps me to discover
the Britain of today.
My journey this week will take me across
Scotland from west to east.
I began at the Firth of Clyde...
and am now heading through
the Scottish lowlands...
towards Glasgow.
Then north to Stirling and Perth.
Close to Where the kings of
Scotland were crowned.
I'll travel on east to Fife...
and the famous university
town of St Andrews.
Finally heading south to Scotland's capital,
Where my journey ends.
This leg begins at Clydeside's
westernmost industrial town.
Crosses by paddle steamer...
to the Victorian holiday
resort of Helensburgh.
From there it's on to the
mighty city of Glasgow...
before heading south to the former
mining town of Blantyre.
And my journey ends in Larkhall,
in South Lanarkshire.
I meet a sea-going beauty.
And she was the last
of the Clyde-built...
excursion paddle steamers
to work on the Clyde.
Discover how a Victorian hero..
Nearly met his end.
[LIONS ROAR]
And rise to a bake-off
challenge.
There's always a point when...
a dough says to you
that it's had enough.
And I believe that was about two
minutes ago. [LAUGHTER]
I'm continuing my journey
across southern Scotland...
which has now brought me to
the area of Glasgow.
A city which had a university
in the 15th century...
was a centre of the
Enlightenment in the 18th..
Laid claim to be the second city of the
British Empire in the 19th..
And then led in design
and fashion.
There's a clue in Bradshaw's to Glasgow's
success in industrialisation.
"At Bowling near Dumbarton is a pillar
to the memory of Henry Bell..."
"who ran the first steamer on the
Clyde, the Comet, in 1812."
Incredibly early for a steam-
powered vehicle.
Before the Napoleonic wars
had run their course.
[TRAIN TANNOY]
"We are now approaching Greenock Central."
"Please mind the gap when
alighting from this train."
The impressive River Clyde is the
heart of Glasgow.
In Victorian times the
deep-water port...
was the centre of its great
shipbuilding industry.
The city made some of the
world's greatest vessels...
and also exported some of the
finest railway rolling stock.
I'm meeting local historian
Stewart Noble...
to find out about the pioneering
steamship "Comet".
Stewart...
for me with my interest in railways,
it's kind of surprising...
that this took to the
Water in 1812!
Long before railway locomotion.
Because roads were in
such bad condition...
and because the river Clyde was only
just navigable and no more...
that Henry Bell, the developer,
the man who had the idea...
he Wanted to bring his
guests in comfort...
and speed from Glasgow to
his hotel in Helensburgh.
Born in 1767, Bell trained
as a stonemason...
before pioneering steam power
in vessels.
How did Henry Bell have the idea of
putting a steam engine into a snip?
Well, he was trained as a millwright.
So he had a good idea of
how machinery Worked.
He'd also seen steam engines
working in industry, and so on.
And so, because transport was so difficult
between Glasgow and Helensburgh...
at that time, he decided to put a
steam engine into a ship.
And he had it built here, in port Glasgow, very
close to Where We're now standing.
Bell commissioned a local ship-builder
to construct a...
twenty-five ton wooden paddle steamer, driven
by a then-mighty three horsepower...
engine, to transport his hotel guests the
twenty miles between Glasgow and Helensburgh.
How successful was it against its, er,
more old-fashioned competition?
It depends how you define "success".
It Wasn't much faster than it
could be coming by coach.
It depended partly whether the tide
and the wind were in favour...
of the Comet or not.
But it was certainly more
comfortable.
Following Comet's maiden voyage in 1812,
Bell inaugurated a regular...
passenger service between Glasgow,
Greenock and Helensburgh.
And in the following years the
Comet spawned a range of...
other steam ships sailing
on the Clyde.
To celebrate the Comet, this
replica was built.
[ARCHIVE NEWS]
"At Lithgow's Yard..."
ports were turned back one hundred
and fifty years to the..."
"day when Comet was launched."
"That was the name given to the first
practical steamship to carry passengers."
I wouldn't Want to wound your
Glasgow pride, but it's...
quite a small ship, isn't it?
Why so?
Well, ships weren't very
big in those days.
Shipyards really were just places Where
people built boats on beaches.
They weren't the big modern items
that we think of nowadays.
While the replica is landlocked, happily there is
a paddle steamer still plying the old route.
The Waverley has been crossing the
Clyde for more than sixty years.
Bradshaw's remarks that...
"Any traveller, for pleasure, who finds
himself Within Glasgow's..."
smokey and dingy precincts in
search of the picturesque..."
the beautiful and romantic,
has only to choose..."
"the first conveyance
Westward."
"Whether it be a Greenock train
or a Clyde steamboat..."
to find What he seeks
and be gratified."
And on a day like today you can
see What the book means.
The industrial worker in the
slums of Glasgow...
could escape to this
magnificent waterscape...
if he or she had the
price of the fare.
[BAGPIPES PLAYING]
But back in 1975...
the Waverley seemed destined
for the ship-breakers.
Until a charity rescued her in a deal that
was sealed for one pound.
What an exciting moment - boarding a
wonderful, beautiful paddle steamer.
[PADDLE STEAMER WHISTLE]
A moment to savour.
Because she's the last sea-going
paddle steamer in the World.
Magnificently restored, with towering
funnels and timber decks.
It's a delight to feel the power of her
steam engines beneath my feet.
For those of us whose image of the Clyde is of
shipbuilding yards, this vision is a great surprise.
As Bradshaw says...
"The scenery is remarkable for
its picturesque beauty."
The hills, the valleys, the mountains
and these Wonderful skies.
Captain, What is the history
of the Waverley?
Waverley was built in Glasgow by the London
and North Eastern Railway Company.
And she was the last of the Clyde-built excursion
paddle steamers to work on the Clyde.
And indeed anywhere in the UK...
and the World.
It's lovely to think that this "old girl"
is still pulling in the passengers.
- Hello ladies, hello.
- Hello!
What's the attraction?
It's a good day out.
Especially with lovely Scottish
weather as well.
What made you come
on it today?
My daughter.
[LAUGHTER]
Did you know the ship?
We know this ship.
My father worked on the
paddle steamers, so...
Bit of a trip down
memory lane, then?
Exactly! Yes.
Helensburgh was founded in the 18th
century by Sir James Colquhoun.
He planned the resort.
And built it and named it
after his wife, Helen.
But I'm bound for Glasgow, so it's back
on the train for a short trip to the city.
"Forty years ago there were scores
of towns Within the kingdom..."
superior to Glasgow in wealth,
extent and population."
"Now, it has a larger population than
Edinburgh, Dublin, Liverpool or Manchester..."
and combines Within itself the advantages
possessed by the last two mentioned."
But Glasgow didn't want to compete only in
terms of industry and size, but also for style.
Glasgow, at the time of my guide book, was the
second city of the British Empire.
It was riding an industrial boom.
And its Wealth and outlook were
evident in its grand architecture.
Many of its most iconic buildings were designed by
the architect and artist, Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
I'm meeting Alison Brown...
an expert in the Glasgow Style.
- Hello, Alison.
- Hello, Michael.
Nice to meet you.
What a fantastic spread!
And What a beautiful tea room!
Tell me about it.
Well, this is the
Willow Tearooms.
It was designed by Charles
Rennie Mackintosh...
for tearoom entrepreneur
Miss Catherine Cranston.
And it opened on the 28th
of October 1903.
Was Charles Rennie Mackintosh
in the habit of designing tearooms?
He was. This was his, um, fourth tearoom
that he designed for Miss Cranston.
What distinguishes this tearoom is that Mackintosh
designed the WHOLE tearoom in one go.
From the external facade to all
the tearoom interiors.
And We're in the Room Deluxe.
And to come up here to have your tea
you paid a penny extra...
because the design was
that extra special.
This innovative setting reflects
Miss Cranston's personality.
At a time when few Women were in
business, she defied convention.
She cannily spotted a
gap in the market...
for respectable places for
people of quality to meet.
She was ahead of her time.
She understood, um, ideas of
marketing and branding...
I think before they became terms that,
you know, that we now know today.
She championed the young artists and designers
that were coming up and emerging.
Initially not just from Glasgow but from
Edinburgh and elsewhere in Scotland.
Glasgow is the one industrial city in
Britain that actually created its...
own distinct version of Art Nouveau.
Slightly geometric, elongated,
sinuous forms.
Basically the "Glasgow Style" refers to the art
that was coming out of the Glasgow School of Art.
And from the pupils and teachers that were working
there from the period of 1890 through to about 1914.
Mackintosh, also a student, developed his
very distinctive trademark style.
The pierced square motif is
instantly recognisable.
This is Mackintosh's most
luxurious tearoom.
I think you can see by the quantity
of mirrored glass...
stained glass and metal work,
and the furniture design.
And the reviews that were in the
local newspapers...
the day after the building opened
commented on...
this being the sort of the high point
of um, his tearoom design.
But fully to appreciate his genius...
I'm told that I must visit the
Glasgow School of Art.
The school is considered his masterwork.
It's an absolutely incredible building.
Purpose-built and still used for its
original function of being an an school.
Mackintosh was twenty-eight years
old and a junior draftsman...
at a Glasgow architecture firm when he
drew up the plans for the building.
The dramatic, Art Nouveau design took about
twelve years to build and opened in 1909.
The use of heavy sandstone walls combined with huge
glass windows was extremely bold for its time.
Even the decorative ironwork had a function -
as a support for the Window-cleaners ladder.
Scotland almost lost its internationally
celebrated treasure.
[NEWS FOOTAGE] "Fire crews from
across the country have spent..."
"the afternoon trying to
douse the flames."
"This is a school famous for
it's architecture..."
'Land the artists it's produced."
"It was full of students when
the blaze broke out."
"All were led to safety."
I'm meeting Douglas Anderson, former pupil, now
architect in charge of the restoration.
So Douglas, given the severity of the fire, I'm
rather amazed to find so much of the building intact.
Yes, we were fortunate that
the Fire Service was able...
to save most of the
building as it is.
Architecturally speaking, What was so
special about this building?
Mackintosh was an innovator.
At his time he dragged architecture in
Glasgow away from the Victorian styles...
and started looking at modern
styles and efforts.
It was... Art Nouveau was coming in -
he embraced Art Nouveau.
He understood What was
happening on the Continent.
And this was fresh, but sometimes
it was difficult...
for Glasgow to understand What
he was trying to achieve.
The building was criticised in
its day, when it opened.
But everybody, as the years Went on,
people embraced it, understood it.
And really looked upon it as an
inspiration for new building.
The key to Mackintosh's approach
was practicality.
Here he created rooms for
artists filled with light.
Mackintosh had a fantastic
eye for detail.
If you can see round about you what is developed
here, in terms of timber engineering...
the detail...
the Art Nouveau details...
the carvings.
This is What really made
him very famous.
He couldn't pass by any details -
the doors, trusses, walls, panelling.
All this was magnificent.
What does the building
mean to Glasgow?
Glasgow's in love with
Mackintosh architecture.
This building is such a special place
for Glaswegians...
to understand, they visit it.
I grew up here, studied here.
It was a very important part of my career
as it was for many artists in Glasgow.
Throughout the whole century that it's been here,
it's such an important building.
The architect introduced innovative and ingenious
practical touches to the Art School's bold design.
[ARCHIVE FOOTAGE]
"Here a frame for the director's studio."
A portcullis to draw and
lower canvases..."
"too big for the
director's stairs."
"Mackintosh leaves nothing,
however small, to chance."
This is the Mackintosh Room.
Which is a main meeting room.
But Mackintosh was a
master of light.
This is What's so appealing
about this space.
Natural light coming through these
east windows.
As well as artificial light he designed
uniquely to illuminate the space.
Thankfully, much of Rennie Mackintosh's
design has survived.
But the upper studios
were destroyed.
And the roof was left in a very
poor condition.
Now, you were a student here...
do you regard it as a great
honour that you are charged with...
the restoration of
Mackintosh's Work?
Absolutely.
I loved my time here.
This is a good Way to end a career - the Way
I started it, in the Mackintosh School.
At the end of another day,
led by Bradshaw's...
I'm staying at Glasgow's Central
Station's own hotel.
I'm up early to leave behind the
city's grandeur and hurly burly.
I am ten seconds from the lobby of my hotel
and I'm in the heart of the concourse...
of Glasgow Central Station.
I believe, one of the finest
in the British Isles.
Built by the Victorians.
Amplified by the Edwardians.
With its very distinctive rounded
shop fronts in dark Wood.
It provides a magnificent
gateway to Glasgow.
Not least for Intercity passengers
arriving from England.
I'm negotiating the station's lower platforms
to head south to Lanarkshire.
In the 19th century, coal and iron
manufacture took off.
And Scotland's boom began.
People flocked to open mines.
And to set up furnaces to
make their fortunes.
I'm headed now for Blantyre.
An 1880s edition of my Bradshaw's reminds me of
the dark side of the Industrial Revolution.
"Two hundred miners were killed here
by an explosion in 1877..."
"on Blantyre's blackest day."
The tragedy happened when a flammable
gas was ignited by a naked flame.
The explosion left ninety-two Widows and two
hundred and fifty fatherless children.
And was Scotland's worst
ever mining accident.
[RAILWAY TANNOY]
"This is Blantyre."
Today, the colliery is long gone.
But along the banks
of the Clyde...
there are still traces of Blantyre's
heyday as a cotton manufacturer.
It feels as though I'm crossing a
bridge to another time.
Conditions in the mills
were terrible.
Today I'm interested in a self-made
Working-class hero...
who clawed his Way out of
them, out of poverty...
and on to help abolish
slavery in Africa.
David Livingstone...
was one of the first medical missionaries
to enter southern and central Africa.
Alison Ritchie is the manager of the
David Livingstone Museum.
This is the Livingstone's' home.
It all seems very picturesque.
What was it actually like
in their day?
Probably not so picturesque.
This room was their
entire house.
There were nine people
that lived in here.
You had absolutely
no privacy!
Everything was done
in this room.
From the cooking, sleeping...
and under the bed is the toilet.
But not nearly enough beds for
so many people.
No, we think his parents slept
on this bed, here.
The five children oh the
higher bed, together.
And the grandparents would have slept
on this Hurley bed, here...
which would come
sliding out.
The families must have been packed like
sardines into these tenement blocks...
because the mill employed
two thousand Workers.
And David Livingstone, himself...
worked as a cotton hand.
He did. He worked as a
piecer in the mills...
from the age of ten.
He would have worked for
fourteen hours a day...
six days a week...
in really horrendous conditions.
Lots of mill children suffered
horrendous injuries, illnesses...
from the strain and danger
of their work.
So how on earth did this child break
out from his background?
Education, really.
He Went to school at eight o'clock
after he finished work.
And would go to school till
ten o'clock at night.
After that he would come back here
and sit out in the hallway...
and read books until midnight,
even one in the morning...
when he'd come back in
and go to bed.
He'd then have to get up at five o'clock the
next morning to do it all over again.
At age nineteen, Livingstone was promoted,
and his increased salary...
enabled him to save to study
medicine at university.
He became a missionary doctor and in 1841 was
posted to the edge of the Kalahari desert.
He made it his mission to fight against
the evils of the slave trade.
This is a letter he wrote
to his son.
It's very religious in tone.
It starts...
"I hope you're a good boy and
remembering your Creator..."
and His son, Jesus, with love,
every day of your life."
So religion is really What
drove Livingstone in Africa.
Yes, although he later expanded this
to both his crusade against...
the slave trade and his ideas of how
Africa could develop economically.
He believed that fair trade, along with the
end of the slave trade could...
bring peace and prosperity
in many regions of Africa.
In 1852 Livingstone began a four-year
expedition to find a
route from the upper Zambezi
to the coast.
He travelled through swamps and
nearly died from disease.
In 1965, naturalist David Attenborough
retraced the great man's footsteps.
"And so he came to this spot."
"And looked right over the
very edge of the falls."
"The first white man ever
to do so."
"Even today this spot is
seldom visited."
"Because in order to get to it you
have to Weave your way..."
"through the rapids just
above the edge of the falls."
"And when you contemplate What
lies immediately ahead..."
"this can be a little alarming."
Until then, Livingstone had used only local
geographical names for his discoveries.
But here, for the first time, he broke with
tradition and called these the Victoria Falls.
And this is how he
found his Way.
This is his sextant.
So he used this to calculate
latitude and longitude.
And he was very, very accurate,
despite having no formal training.
Because of the measurements he
took we can actually trace his...
position every day,
to Within about half a mile.
But, perhaps What sealed Livingstone's
fame in Victorian Britain...
was his escape from the
jaws of a lion.
[LION ROARS]
[GUNSHOT]
When his body was examined
years later...
his identity was verified by
his damaged arm bone.
Livingstone died of malaria
and dysentery in 1873.
His heart was buried in Africa.
But his body was laid to rest
in Westminster Abbey.
David Livingstone was the
perfect Victorian hero.
The Christian self-made man...
opposed to slavery, with modern
ideas on economy.
A brave and ambitious explorer.
Who took the British flag to the
darkest corners of the earth.
He was... a lion amongst men.
My journey continues south. This time for
a short, fifteen-minute hop to Larkhall...
before carrying on
to Strathaven.
Situated on the edge of the
Avon Valley...
Bradshaw's notes its fine reputation
for Weavers and horses.
It's also home to Scotland's
oldest bakery.
And I'm meeting its baker,
Barry Taylor.
Uh, Barry, in the mid-19th century in
the west of Scotland would the...
working man and Woman have
had access to good bread?
I believe so, yes...
on a local basis.
Little bakeries, working
on the corners.
Now, as I came in the door I see that the
business has been here from 1820.
A family business?
It is, yes. I'm the sixth generation
of Taylors to take the helm here.
We've been in the same premises,
albeit it's changed over the years.
Our family were farmers
outside Strathaven...
and one of the family decided
to be a baker.
And good on him!
It's a good decision.
And keeping up with the family,
Barry makes a point of using...
traditional, unrefined grains,
such as spelt.
We're gonna get stuck
into this.
As a Victorian baker Would.
Oh, that's a lovely sticky
mess, isn't it?!
It is.
But hopefully by the end of
all its manipulation...
it should be a lovely,
smooth dough.
At this point, I think you can
perceive how hard...
making bread on a big
scale would be.
I-I am finding it...
pretty hard work, now.
I think we can safely say that you
have produced... a sticky mess!
But one which we can make into
something beautiful, I assure you.
Victorian bakers worked over a
hundred hours a week.
In gruelling temperatures up to
ninety degrees Fahrenheit.
We basically need to
fold and stretch...
but, What you Want to avoid is
tearing the structure of it.
[MICHAEL MAKES A HORRIFIED NOISE]
Yikes!
I'm gonna start...
just really gently.
Fold the dough.
You can repeatedly fold over
a piece of dough.
Gently squeezing it,
but not tearing it.
And you'll end up with something that's
a super smooth-looking dough.
' Hmm!
- Okay!
And there's always a point when a dough
says to you that it's had enough.
I believe that was about
two minutes ago!
[LAUGHTER]
Thankfully, I don't have to
trust my bread...
to a Victorian range with its
fluctuating temperatures.
[TIMER BEEPING IN THE BACKGROUND]
After forty minutes...
the loaves are ready.
And that fantastic aroma helps me
to understand the good odour...
in which each generation of
Taylors was held.
Mmm, I had no idea that
spelt smelt so good!
At the end of the 19th century,
Glasgow produced half...
Britain's tonnage of shipping, and a
quarter of the world's locomotives.
As the second city of
the British Empire...
it became a centre of
culture and design.
With its An School and Charles
Rennie Mackintosh...
pride in the city swelled -
as surely as a spelt loaf!
Next time, I meet the
kings of molten metal.
Oh, my goodness, that is an
extraordinary sight!
Absolutely vast, isn't it!
What a scale this was built on.
Uncover the Victorian love affair
with Scotland.
Everybody came to the
Falls of Clyde...
specifically to see Corra Linn,
the largest waterfall.
And the largest waterfall
in Britain as well.
And visit the home of
a mighty brew.
It's still a family secret.
I had it passed down to me
by my father...
and I've now passed it through
to my daughter.
[END THEME]
For Victorian Britons George Bradshaw
was a household name.
At a time when railways
were new...
Bradshaw's guidebook inspired
them to take to the tracks.
I'm using a Bradshaw's guide...
to understand how trains
transformed Britain.
Its landscape, its industry,
society and leisure time.
As I arias-cross the country
150 years later...
it helps me to discover
the Britain of today.
My journey this week will take me across
Scotland from west to east.
I began at the Firth of Clyde...
and am now heading through
the Scottish lowlands...
towards Glasgow.
Then north to Stirling and Perth.
Close to Where the kings of
Scotland were crowned.
I'll travel on east to Fife...
and the famous university
town of St Andrews.
Finally heading south to Scotland's capital,
Where my journey ends.
This leg begins at Clydeside's
westernmost industrial town.
Crosses by paddle steamer...
to the Victorian holiday
resort of Helensburgh.
From there it's on to the
mighty city of Glasgow...
before heading south to the former
mining town of Blantyre.
And my journey ends in Larkhall,
in South Lanarkshire.
I meet a sea-going beauty.
And she was the last
of the Clyde-built...
excursion paddle steamers
to work on the Clyde.
Discover how a Victorian hero..
Nearly met his end.
[LIONS ROAR]
And rise to a bake-off
challenge.
There's always a point when...
a dough says to you
that it's had enough.
And I believe that was about two
minutes ago. [LAUGHTER]
I'm continuing my journey
across southern Scotland...
which has now brought me to
the area of Glasgow.
A city which had a university
in the 15th century...
was a centre of the
Enlightenment in the 18th..
Laid claim to be the second city of the
British Empire in the 19th..
And then led in design
and fashion.
There's a clue in Bradshaw's to Glasgow's
success in industrialisation.
"At Bowling near Dumbarton is a pillar
to the memory of Henry Bell..."
"who ran the first steamer on the
Clyde, the Comet, in 1812."
Incredibly early for a steam-
powered vehicle.
Before the Napoleonic wars
had run their course.
[TRAIN TANNOY]
"We are now approaching Greenock Central."
"Please mind the gap when
alighting from this train."
The impressive River Clyde is the
heart of Glasgow.
In Victorian times the
deep-water port...
was the centre of its great
shipbuilding industry.
The city made some of the
world's greatest vessels...
and also exported some of the
finest railway rolling stock.
I'm meeting local historian
Stewart Noble...
to find out about the pioneering
steamship "Comet".
Stewart...
for me with my interest in railways,
it's kind of surprising...
that this took to the
Water in 1812!
Long before railway locomotion.
Because roads were in
such bad condition...
and because the river Clyde was only
just navigable and no more...
that Henry Bell, the developer,
the man who had the idea...
he Wanted to bring his
guests in comfort...
and speed from Glasgow to
his hotel in Helensburgh.
Born in 1767, Bell trained
as a stonemason...
before pioneering steam power
in vessels.
How did Henry Bell have the idea of
putting a steam engine into a snip?
Well, he was trained as a millwright.
So he had a good idea of
how machinery Worked.
He'd also seen steam engines
working in industry, and so on.
And so, because transport was so difficult
between Glasgow and Helensburgh...
at that time, he decided to put a
steam engine into a ship.
And he had it built here, in port Glasgow, very
close to Where We're now standing.
Bell commissioned a local ship-builder
to construct a...
twenty-five ton wooden paddle steamer, driven
by a then-mighty three horsepower...
engine, to transport his hotel guests the
twenty miles between Glasgow and Helensburgh.
How successful was it against its, er,
more old-fashioned competition?
It depends how you define "success".
It Wasn't much faster than it
could be coming by coach.
It depended partly whether the tide
and the wind were in favour...
of the Comet or not.
But it was certainly more
comfortable.
Following Comet's maiden voyage in 1812,
Bell inaugurated a regular...
passenger service between Glasgow,
Greenock and Helensburgh.
And in the following years the
Comet spawned a range of...
other steam ships sailing
on the Clyde.
To celebrate the Comet, this
replica was built.
[ARCHIVE NEWS]
"At Lithgow's Yard..."
ports were turned back one hundred
and fifty years to the..."
"day when Comet was launched."
"That was the name given to the first
practical steamship to carry passengers."
I wouldn't Want to wound your
Glasgow pride, but it's...
quite a small ship, isn't it?
Why so?
Well, ships weren't very
big in those days.
Shipyards really were just places Where
people built boats on beaches.
They weren't the big modern items
that we think of nowadays.
While the replica is landlocked, happily there is
a paddle steamer still plying the old route.
The Waverley has been crossing the
Clyde for more than sixty years.
Bradshaw's remarks that...
"Any traveller, for pleasure, who finds
himself Within Glasgow's..."
smokey and dingy precincts in
search of the picturesque..."
the beautiful and romantic,
has only to choose..."
"the first conveyance
Westward."
"Whether it be a Greenock train
or a Clyde steamboat..."
to find What he seeks
and be gratified."
And on a day like today you can
see What the book means.
The industrial worker in the
slums of Glasgow...
could escape to this
magnificent waterscape...
if he or she had the
price of the fare.
[BAGPIPES PLAYING]
But back in 1975...
the Waverley seemed destined
for the ship-breakers.
Until a charity rescued her in a deal that
was sealed for one pound.
What an exciting moment - boarding a
wonderful, beautiful paddle steamer.
[PADDLE STEAMER WHISTLE]
A moment to savour.
Because she's the last sea-going
paddle steamer in the World.
Magnificently restored, with towering
funnels and timber decks.
It's a delight to feel the power of her
steam engines beneath my feet.
For those of us whose image of the Clyde is of
shipbuilding yards, this vision is a great surprise.
As Bradshaw says...
"The scenery is remarkable for
its picturesque beauty."
The hills, the valleys, the mountains
and these Wonderful skies.
Captain, What is the history
of the Waverley?
Waverley was built in Glasgow by the London
and North Eastern Railway Company.
And she was the last of the Clyde-built excursion
paddle steamers to work on the Clyde.
And indeed anywhere in the UK...
and the World.
It's lovely to think that this "old girl"
is still pulling in the passengers.
- Hello ladies, hello.
- Hello!
What's the attraction?
It's a good day out.
Especially with lovely Scottish
weather as well.
What made you come
on it today?
My daughter.
[LAUGHTER]
Did you know the ship?
We know this ship.
My father worked on the
paddle steamers, so...
Bit of a trip down
memory lane, then?
Exactly! Yes.
Helensburgh was founded in the 18th
century by Sir James Colquhoun.
He planned the resort.
And built it and named it
after his wife, Helen.
But I'm bound for Glasgow, so it's back
on the train for a short trip to the city.
"Forty years ago there were scores
of towns Within the kingdom..."
superior to Glasgow in wealth,
extent and population."
"Now, it has a larger population than
Edinburgh, Dublin, Liverpool or Manchester..."
and combines Within itself the advantages
possessed by the last two mentioned."
But Glasgow didn't want to compete only in
terms of industry and size, but also for style.
Glasgow, at the time of my guide book, was the
second city of the British Empire.
It was riding an industrial boom.
And its Wealth and outlook were
evident in its grand architecture.
Many of its most iconic buildings were designed by
the architect and artist, Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
I'm meeting Alison Brown...
an expert in the Glasgow Style.
- Hello, Alison.
- Hello, Michael.
Nice to meet you.
What a fantastic spread!
And What a beautiful tea room!
Tell me about it.
Well, this is the
Willow Tearooms.
It was designed by Charles
Rennie Mackintosh...
for tearoom entrepreneur
Miss Catherine Cranston.
And it opened on the 28th
of October 1903.
Was Charles Rennie Mackintosh
in the habit of designing tearooms?
He was. This was his, um, fourth tearoom
that he designed for Miss Cranston.
What distinguishes this tearoom is that Mackintosh
designed the WHOLE tearoom in one go.
From the external facade to all
the tearoom interiors.
And We're in the Room Deluxe.
And to come up here to have your tea
you paid a penny extra...
because the design was
that extra special.
This innovative setting reflects
Miss Cranston's personality.
At a time when few Women were in
business, she defied convention.
She cannily spotted a
gap in the market...
for respectable places for
people of quality to meet.
She was ahead of her time.
She understood, um, ideas of
marketing and branding...
I think before they became terms that,
you know, that we now know today.
She championed the young artists and designers
that were coming up and emerging.
Initially not just from Glasgow but from
Edinburgh and elsewhere in Scotland.
Glasgow is the one industrial city in
Britain that actually created its...
own distinct version of Art Nouveau.
Slightly geometric, elongated,
sinuous forms.
Basically the "Glasgow Style" refers to the art
that was coming out of the Glasgow School of Art.
And from the pupils and teachers that were working
there from the period of 1890 through to about 1914.
Mackintosh, also a student, developed his
very distinctive trademark style.
The pierced square motif is
instantly recognisable.
This is Mackintosh's most
luxurious tearoom.
I think you can see by the quantity
of mirrored glass...
stained glass and metal work,
and the furniture design.
And the reviews that were in the
local newspapers...
the day after the building opened
commented on...
this being the sort of the high point
of um, his tearoom design.
But fully to appreciate his genius...
I'm told that I must visit the
Glasgow School of Art.
The school is considered his masterwork.
It's an absolutely incredible building.
Purpose-built and still used for its
original function of being an an school.
Mackintosh was twenty-eight years
old and a junior draftsman...
at a Glasgow architecture firm when he
drew up the plans for the building.
The dramatic, Art Nouveau design took about
twelve years to build and opened in 1909.
The use of heavy sandstone walls combined with huge
glass windows was extremely bold for its time.
Even the decorative ironwork had a function -
as a support for the Window-cleaners ladder.
Scotland almost lost its internationally
celebrated treasure.
[NEWS FOOTAGE] "Fire crews from
across the country have spent..."
"the afternoon trying to
douse the flames."
"This is a school famous for
it's architecture..."
'Land the artists it's produced."
"It was full of students when
the blaze broke out."
"All were led to safety."
I'm meeting Douglas Anderson, former pupil, now
architect in charge of the restoration.
So Douglas, given the severity of the fire, I'm
rather amazed to find so much of the building intact.
Yes, we were fortunate that
the Fire Service was able...
to save most of the
building as it is.
Architecturally speaking, What was so
special about this building?
Mackintosh was an innovator.
At his time he dragged architecture in
Glasgow away from the Victorian styles...
and started looking at modern
styles and efforts.
It was... Art Nouveau was coming in -
he embraced Art Nouveau.
He understood What was
happening on the Continent.
And this was fresh, but sometimes
it was difficult...
for Glasgow to understand What
he was trying to achieve.
The building was criticised in
its day, when it opened.
But everybody, as the years Went on,
people embraced it, understood it.
And really looked upon it as an
inspiration for new building.
The key to Mackintosh's approach
was practicality.
Here he created rooms for
artists filled with light.
Mackintosh had a fantastic
eye for detail.
If you can see round about you what is developed
here, in terms of timber engineering...
the detail...
the Art Nouveau details...
the carvings.
This is What really made
him very famous.
He couldn't pass by any details -
the doors, trusses, walls, panelling.
All this was magnificent.
What does the building
mean to Glasgow?
Glasgow's in love with
Mackintosh architecture.
This building is such a special place
for Glaswegians...
to understand, they visit it.
I grew up here, studied here.
It was a very important part of my career
as it was for many artists in Glasgow.
Throughout the whole century that it's been here,
it's such an important building.
The architect introduced innovative and ingenious
practical touches to the Art School's bold design.
[ARCHIVE FOOTAGE]
"Here a frame for the director's studio."
A portcullis to draw and
lower canvases..."
"too big for the
director's stairs."
"Mackintosh leaves nothing,
however small, to chance."
This is the Mackintosh Room.
Which is a main meeting room.
But Mackintosh was a
master of light.
This is What's so appealing
about this space.
Natural light coming through these
east windows.
As well as artificial light he designed
uniquely to illuminate the space.
Thankfully, much of Rennie Mackintosh's
design has survived.
But the upper studios
were destroyed.
And the roof was left in a very
poor condition.
Now, you were a student here...
do you regard it as a great
honour that you are charged with...
the restoration of
Mackintosh's Work?
Absolutely.
I loved my time here.
This is a good Way to end a career - the Way
I started it, in the Mackintosh School.
At the end of another day,
led by Bradshaw's...
I'm staying at Glasgow's Central
Station's own hotel.
I'm up early to leave behind the
city's grandeur and hurly burly.
I am ten seconds from the lobby of my hotel
and I'm in the heart of the concourse...
of Glasgow Central Station.
I believe, one of the finest
in the British Isles.
Built by the Victorians.
Amplified by the Edwardians.
With its very distinctive rounded
shop fronts in dark Wood.
It provides a magnificent
gateway to Glasgow.
Not least for Intercity passengers
arriving from England.
I'm negotiating the station's lower platforms
to head south to Lanarkshire.
In the 19th century, coal and iron
manufacture took off.
And Scotland's boom began.
People flocked to open mines.
And to set up furnaces to
make their fortunes.
I'm headed now for Blantyre.
An 1880s edition of my Bradshaw's reminds me of
the dark side of the Industrial Revolution.
"Two hundred miners were killed here
by an explosion in 1877..."
"on Blantyre's blackest day."
The tragedy happened when a flammable
gas was ignited by a naked flame.
The explosion left ninety-two Widows and two
hundred and fifty fatherless children.
And was Scotland's worst
ever mining accident.
[RAILWAY TANNOY]
"This is Blantyre."
Today, the colliery is long gone.
But along the banks
of the Clyde...
there are still traces of Blantyre's
heyday as a cotton manufacturer.
It feels as though I'm crossing a
bridge to another time.
Conditions in the mills
were terrible.
Today I'm interested in a self-made
Working-class hero...
who clawed his Way out of
them, out of poverty...
and on to help abolish
slavery in Africa.
David Livingstone...
was one of the first medical missionaries
to enter southern and central Africa.
Alison Ritchie is the manager of the
David Livingstone Museum.
This is the Livingstone's' home.
It all seems very picturesque.
What was it actually like
in their day?
Probably not so picturesque.
This room was their
entire house.
There were nine people
that lived in here.
You had absolutely
no privacy!
Everything was done
in this room.
From the cooking, sleeping...
and under the bed is the toilet.
But not nearly enough beds for
so many people.
No, we think his parents slept
on this bed, here.
The five children oh the
higher bed, together.
And the grandparents would have slept
on this Hurley bed, here...
which would come
sliding out.
The families must have been packed like
sardines into these tenement blocks...
because the mill employed
two thousand Workers.
And David Livingstone, himself...
worked as a cotton hand.
He did. He worked as a
piecer in the mills...
from the age of ten.
He would have worked for
fourteen hours a day...
six days a week...
in really horrendous conditions.
Lots of mill children suffered
horrendous injuries, illnesses...
from the strain and danger
of their work.
So how on earth did this child break
out from his background?
Education, really.
He Went to school at eight o'clock
after he finished work.
And would go to school till
ten o'clock at night.
After that he would come back here
and sit out in the hallway...
and read books until midnight,
even one in the morning...
when he'd come back in
and go to bed.
He'd then have to get up at five o'clock the
next morning to do it all over again.
At age nineteen, Livingstone was promoted,
and his increased salary...
enabled him to save to study
medicine at university.
He became a missionary doctor and in 1841 was
posted to the edge of the Kalahari desert.
He made it his mission to fight against
the evils of the slave trade.
This is a letter he wrote
to his son.
It's very religious in tone.
It starts...
"I hope you're a good boy and
remembering your Creator..."
and His son, Jesus, with love,
every day of your life."
So religion is really What
drove Livingstone in Africa.
Yes, although he later expanded this
to both his crusade against...
the slave trade and his ideas of how
Africa could develop economically.
He believed that fair trade, along with the
end of the slave trade could...
bring peace and prosperity
in many regions of Africa.
In 1852 Livingstone began a four-year
expedition to find a
route from the upper Zambezi
to the coast.
He travelled through swamps and
nearly died from disease.
In 1965, naturalist David Attenborough
retraced the great man's footsteps.
"And so he came to this spot."
"And looked right over the
very edge of the falls."
"The first white man ever
to do so."
"Even today this spot is
seldom visited."
"Because in order to get to it you
have to Weave your way..."
"through the rapids just
above the edge of the falls."
"And when you contemplate What
lies immediately ahead..."
"this can be a little alarming."
Until then, Livingstone had used only local
geographical names for his discoveries.
But here, for the first time, he broke with
tradition and called these the Victoria Falls.
And this is how he
found his Way.
This is his sextant.
So he used this to calculate
latitude and longitude.
And he was very, very accurate,
despite having no formal training.
Because of the measurements he
took we can actually trace his...
position every day,
to Within about half a mile.
But, perhaps What sealed Livingstone's
fame in Victorian Britain...
was his escape from the
jaws of a lion.
[LION ROARS]
[GUNSHOT]
When his body was examined
years later...
his identity was verified by
his damaged arm bone.
Livingstone died of malaria
and dysentery in 1873.
His heart was buried in Africa.
But his body was laid to rest
in Westminster Abbey.
David Livingstone was the
perfect Victorian hero.
The Christian self-made man...
opposed to slavery, with modern
ideas on economy.
A brave and ambitious explorer.
Who took the British flag to the
darkest corners of the earth.
He was... a lion amongst men.
My journey continues south. This time for
a short, fifteen-minute hop to Larkhall...
before carrying on
to Strathaven.
Situated on the edge of the
Avon Valley...
Bradshaw's notes its fine reputation
for Weavers and horses.
It's also home to Scotland's
oldest bakery.
And I'm meeting its baker,
Barry Taylor.
Uh, Barry, in the mid-19th century in
the west of Scotland would the...
working man and Woman have
had access to good bread?
I believe so, yes...
on a local basis.
Little bakeries, working
on the corners.
Now, as I came in the door I see that the
business has been here from 1820.
A family business?
It is, yes. I'm the sixth generation
of Taylors to take the helm here.
We've been in the same premises,
albeit it's changed over the years.
Our family were farmers
outside Strathaven...
and one of the family decided
to be a baker.
And good on him!
It's a good decision.
And keeping up with the family,
Barry makes a point of using...
traditional, unrefined grains,
such as spelt.
We're gonna get stuck
into this.
As a Victorian baker Would.
Oh, that's a lovely sticky
mess, isn't it?!
It is.
But hopefully by the end of
all its manipulation...
it should be a lovely,
smooth dough.
At this point, I think you can
perceive how hard...
making bread on a big
scale would be.
I-I am finding it...
pretty hard work, now.
I think we can safely say that you
have produced... a sticky mess!
But one which we can make into
something beautiful, I assure you.
Victorian bakers worked over a
hundred hours a week.
In gruelling temperatures up to
ninety degrees Fahrenheit.
We basically need to
fold and stretch...
but, What you Want to avoid is
tearing the structure of it.
[MICHAEL MAKES A HORRIFIED NOISE]
Yikes!
I'm gonna start...
just really gently.
Fold the dough.
You can repeatedly fold over
a piece of dough.
Gently squeezing it,
but not tearing it.
And you'll end up with something that's
a super smooth-looking dough.
' Hmm!
- Okay!
And there's always a point when a dough
says to you that it's had enough.
I believe that was about
two minutes ago!
[LAUGHTER]
Thankfully, I don't have to
trust my bread...
to a Victorian range with its
fluctuating temperatures.
[TIMER BEEPING IN THE BACKGROUND]
After forty minutes...
the loaves are ready.
And that fantastic aroma helps me
to understand the good odour...
in which each generation of
Taylors was held.
Mmm, I had no idea that
spelt smelt so good!
At the end of the 19th century,
Glasgow produced half...
Britain's tonnage of shipping, and a
quarter of the world's locomotives.
As the second city of
the British Empire...
it became a centre of
culture and design.
With its An School and Charles
Rennie Mackintosh...
pride in the city swelled -
as surely as a spelt loaf!
Next time, I meet the
kings of molten metal.
Oh, my goodness, that is an
extraordinary sight!
Absolutely vast, isn't it!
What a scale this was built on.
Uncover the Victorian love affair
with Scotland.
Everybody came to the
Falls of Clyde...
specifically to see Corra Linn,
the largest waterfall.
And the largest waterfall
in Britain as well.
And visit the home of
a mighty brew.
It's still a family secret.
I had it passed down to me
by my father...
and I've now passed it through
to my daughter.
[END THEME]