Great British Railway Journeys (2010–…): Season 6, Episode 3 - Motherwell to Linlithgow - 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 it to understand how trains
transformed Britain.
Its landscape, its industries, society
and leisure time.
As I arias-cross the country
150 years later...
it helps me to discover the
Britain of today.
Steered by my Bradshaw's guide...
I'm continuing my journey across
southern Scotland.
With the coming of the
Industrial Revolution...
the famed natural beauty of the river
Clyde had to accommodate...
shipbuilding yards that would supply
vessels to the World.
Down came the trees, and up Went
the dockyard cranes...
and factory chimney stacks.
My route this week has carried me across
Scotland - from west to east.
It began at the Firth of Clyde and headed through
the Scottish lowlands to Glasgow.
I'll turn north to Stirling and Perth -
skirting the Highlands.
I'll then move east to Fife - and the famous
University town of St Andrews.
From Where I'll travel to Scotland's capital,
Where my journey ends.
On today's leg, I begin in Motherwell -
in the heart of the Scottish lowlands...
before heading south to the edge
of the Clyde coalfields.
Then ifs back to one of Scotland's
most populated areas.
And my journey ends at Linlithgow.
Birthplace of Mary, Queen of Scots.
I meet the kings of molten metal.
Oh, my goodness, that is an
extraordinary sight!
Absolutely vast, isn't it?
What a scale this is built on.
Rediscover the Victorian love affair
with Scotland.
Everybody came to the Falls of Clyde,
specifically to see Cora Linn...
the largest waterfall - 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.
George Bradshaw believed that tourists
should see factories.
"The Dundyvan ironworks are
well worth visiting."
I'm going to get off at Motherwell,
to understand how the...
vast demands of the shipbuilding industry
were met during the 19th century.
Motherwell, at the beginning of
the Industrial Revolution...
was a small farming community
of about 700 people.
The town's fortunes were transformed
by the arrival of the railway.
And by 1901, its population had
swelled to 30,000.
Central to the town's industrial boom
was David Colville's...
iron and steel works,
founded in 1871.
I'm meeting Colin Timmins, manager
at Tata Steel, heir to that legacy.
I really don't need to ask you whether railways
play a part in your business - they clearly do.
What do you use them for?
The railway's mainly used for the raw materials
coming in from Scunthorpe of steel.
We bring 1200 tons in
at one time.
When was this set up -
this plant here?
1871, the plant was built.
We're basically an integrated steelworks
and basically we've supplied steel...
to a lot of the famous railway bridges.
If you look at the Tay Bridge disaster
we had in the last century.
This plant provided modern, good-quality steel
for the rebuilding of that bridge.
And if you look at, also, the Forth Rail Bridge -
we provided the iron for this bridge also.
Which is quite unbelievable - the
structure still stands today.
And to me it's one of the
Wonders of the World.
The Forth Rail Bridge required
a staggering 58,000 tons of steel...
The structure demonstrated the advantage
of malleable steel over brittle cast iron.
And so really unbelievable quantities of steel
have come out of these works.
There's more than a million tons Went
into the North Sea alone.
And when you start to look at
shipping, bridge-building...
trains themselves, so you've no idea the
quantities that were produced in the Motherwell area.
You know, over 130, 140 years of history.
Quite unbelievable.
The company's first steel plant was the
Dalzell Steel and Iron Works.
With twenty puddling furnaces
employing 200 men.
Under the energetic direction of Mr Colville
it soon gained a reputation for quality...
and Motherwell its nickname
of "Steelopolis".
Today the Dalzell Plate Mill is one of only
two remaining in Motherwell.
What we have here is sixteen small furnaces
and one very, very large furnace.
Absolutely vast, isn't it?
What a scale this was built on!
The factory's rolling mill turns out up to
10,000 tons of plate steel in a week.
Its customers come from construction,
shipbuilding and offshore engineering.
What am I going to see here, Colin?
What you're going to see, Michael, you're going
to see a slab which has been unloaded, treated...
It's then going to come out of our soaking pits
and it could be anything from three tons and five.
We've got the capability to roll
slabs up to thirty tons.
As you can see now, the operator is
taking the lid off the furnace.
And the crane is going to go in
and lift the slab.
The temperature inside the furnace
is almost a thousand Celsius.
Well, as you can see, Michael, you can
see the slab on the crane just now.
Roughly the slab weighs twelve
to thirteen tons.
So those immense pinchers have
gone in there.
It's a set of pinchers, we call them "tongs"...
which will lift the slab very carefully
out of the furnace.
Oh, my goodness, that is an
extraordinary sight!
What the crane will do - it will
take the slab down.
Down onto the rolling table.
It's quite an alarming feeling to have a piece of
molten steel rushing towards you like that!
Yeah, absolutely - it's very, very warm.
Feel the heat of that.
Fantastic, yeah.
The slab is entering the
de-scaling process.
This is Where any impurities in the metal
are removed before the steel is rolled.
As you can see, the surface of
the slab now is clean.
Yeah.
So you minimise any risk of rolling
in some dirt in the mill.
It's a great feat of German engineering...
Which was put in in the seventies
but modernised many times.
And as you can see it'll go through here, and we'll
do a number of passes through the mill itself.
And that will go from slab
form to plate form.
And those plates could be how thick?
The plates can be anything from 12mm
thick up to about 200mm.
And, so, you're putting it in again and again -
and flattening it out bit by bit.
Down to the right thickness.
Yes.
We'll put it through the mill maybe
fifteen, sixteen, seventeen times...
to get to the gauge we
require, and the Width.
I can understand why educated tourists
in the 19th century...
would gasp in awe visiting
a plant like this.
I feel the continuity of history in a facility that
manufactured steel for the Titanic and the Lusitania.
And still supplies steel plate for
British warships today.
I never saw anything on such a scale!
The crashes and bangs!
The heat! The steam!
The whole thing is deeply impressive.
As I make tracks south, I'm reminded that Scotland
has long been a land of contrasts.
Of heavy industry and picturesque countryside.
And it was this magnificence
of nature in the raw...
that literally made Victorian ladies swoon.
My next stop will be Lanark.
Bradshaw's tells me that "travellers
can visit the Falls of Clyde"...
"and the romantic scenery in
the neighbourhood."
"Independent of the magnificent Waterfalls"...
"the beauty of the country and the picturesque
views are a source of great attraction".
As even in rural Lanarkshire, cotton
mills began to spring up...
on the river banks, aesthetes yearned
for pre-industrial simplicity.
During the 18th century...
the Grand European Tour was a normal part
of the education of young aristocrats.
But when the Continent was put beyond
bounds during the Napoleonic Wars...
Scotland became the fashionable
destination.
The route between Edinburgh and Lanark became
popular with landscape lovers.
I'm meeting local guide
Alison Galbraith.
Alison, Bradshaw's is ecstatic.
Corra Linn fall - 84 feet.
"Considered by some to be the
finest of the falls."
"To describe the beauties of the scene
is an almost impossible task"...
"requiring the glowing language of a
poet to do justice to them."
And I think, actually, more than one
poet came here in 1802.
Yes - Wordsworth and Coleridge -
and Wordsworth's sister Dorothy as well, yes.
They were doing their "Petite Tour".
They had come from the Lake District and they were
making their way around the beauty spots.
Everybody came to the Falls of Clyde.
Specifically to see Corra Linn -
the largest waterfall in Britain.
Would this have been quite an arduous
journey in those days?
I can't imagine it would have been
easy - because this was
just before the trains that Dorothy and
William and Coleridge came.
So they were definitely with a
horse and trap.
Dorothy doesn't complain that
its arduous, but...
they certainly got out and walked alongside
their horse quite a lot.
Their trip in 1802 took six Weeks
and covered 663 miles
It was a kind of literary pilgrimage
for Romantics.
I mean, you're in lovely 19th
century costume here...
and I imagine that actually, you know,
your long skirt dragging in the mud...
this would all have been quite
inconvenient, I think?
Definitely.
I think the Victorian ladies must have had some
mettle and spirit to do What they did.
Just having to hitch your skirts up
to Walk up the inclines...
is exciting enough as it is, but a lot of the
paths had thirty to forty steps...
chiselled down the gorge to the falls, so
they must have been very game.
Dorothy made notes of some on the journeys
more challenging aspects.
Describing the road quality as "most excellent",
or "roughish" - or "wretchedly bad”.
But such hardship didn't discourage
this romantic trio.
Wordsworth wrote: “Lord of the Vale!
Astounding Flood'.
"The dullest leaf in this thick wood
Quakes... conscious of thy power;"
"The caves reply with hollow moan'
Clearly very impressed by the
majesty of the place.
Yes, certainly when Dorothy and
William were here...
the full force of the Water would've come
over, and it really is quite a sight to see.
But the falls were tamed in 1926 by Britain's
first hydro-electric power station.
Situated between Corra Linn
and Dundaff Linn...
this plant can generate up to eleven
megawatts of power.
January and November - the force of the water - it
would resemble What the Wordsworths and...
Coleridge were seeing back then.
JMW Turner painted a classical scene of
naked bathing beauties here in 1802.
Just over 50 years later, it was the Caledonian
Railway that provoked controversy.
There's an interesting piece in one
of the papers of the day...
that describes how the gentleman on the other
side of the falls, Lord Cranston...
complains about the cheap train
tickets attracting day visitors...
who are no longer Welcome
on his estate.
But Lady Mary Ross was from Bonnington
House on this side of the river...
now the wildlife reserve.
She was instrumental in maintaining paths and she
actively encouraged the tourists to come.
They were also treated in the pavillion,
to have cups of tea.
And as they Went in there the mirrors
on the ceiling reflected the Falls.
So, apparently, ladies would
swoon and faint.
With... the awesome view...
the majestic, sublime view of water cascading
down upon their heads.
In this television age, you don't
see tourists swooning.
But they still travel to marvel at the Falls.
Dorothy Wordsworth's “Recollections of a
Tour Made in Scotland”...
remains a classic of Picturesque
travel Writing.
The next stop on my journey is
just downstream.
Bradshaw's tells me that ho stranger ought to omit
visiting "the far-famed village of New Lanark".
It was established in 1784 by
Robert Owen's father-in-law.
Robert Owen then acquired the village.
He was a philanthropist on his Way
to becoming a Socialist.
For example, he would buy goods in bulk...
which could be sold in the village shops to the
workers at little more than cost price.
And that idea was the origin of the
Co-operative movement.
Within this beautifully restored
18th-century cotton mill...
which is part of the New Lanark
World Heritage Site...
I'll find my bed for the night.
Excited by the prospect
of a new day...
I've headed back to Lanark Station to
take the train via Motherwell.
At my next destination the railway
station opened in 1848...
and closed the following year because
the village was too small.
You wouldn't say that any more
about Cumbernauld.
Since I visited the steelworks at Motherwell
I've been Wondering...
what the workers drank to keep
up their energy levels.
What brew was appropriate for
those men of iron?
These days Cumbernauld station serves one of
the most populated areas of Scotland.
Since 2007, ifs been the home to one of
Scotland's best-selling soft drinks...
born at the peak of the country's
industrial boom.
I'm hitching a lift to Cumberhauld's Irn-Bru
factory with delivery driver John Spence.
Working my passage.
- Hello, John!
- How're you doing?
Good to see you.
You've been doing this a While,
haven't you?
Yeah - I've been doing it
for fifty years.
Fifty years!
So What do you need if you're
going to last in the job?
A sense of fun. Over and above that
you need a good hand.
People that help you out-
like your van mate.
I've been very lucky.
I've had some quite good van
mates over the years.
Do you think I'll be up to the job?
Oh, yeah, I'm positive you'll
be up to the job.
You'll maybe even last fifty years -
the same as What I've done!
I've always thought that whisky was
Scotland's national drink...
but this concoction also lays
claim to carry the Saltire.
- Here we go, Michael.
- Oooh, look at all that!
In 1767, Englishman Joseph Priestley
suspended a bowl of distilled water...
above a beer vat and discovered how
to make carbonated water.
The Water had a pleasant taste and spawned
an industry in fizzy drinks.
Aye - you're doing great.
So would you like to take some
stuff into the shop for us?
Oh, yes please!
Right.
Down.
Bring it in. Hold it.
- And then tilt it back.
- Whoa!
This beverage owes its origins
to the Barr family...
who opened their first soft-drink
factory in Falkirk in 1875.
And if you'd like to put them
up on the shelves.
Ah, you're doing a grand job, Michael.
Ah, thank you, John!
Don't smash any of them!
[LAUGHING]
You need real bottle
to do this job!
And just as in Bradshaw's day...
the bottles are recycled.
Well, here we go, Michael - we've got
the empties on the lorry.
Oops!
- Health and Safety!
- One down!
I've got nothing to do
with this delivery.
The destination for our empty bottles is the
state-of-the-art factory at Cumbernauld.
Which, since it opened, has produced
almost 200 million litres of soft drinks.
Despite its scale, this is
still a family firm.
And Robin Barr is showing me
Where my empties will go.
Well, this is the returnable
bottle line here, Which...
is, I think, the only returnable
bottle line left in the UK.
The customer gets money back if
he brings the bottle back?
Yes, they do.
This was the only pack in 1875...
and it was the only pack that soft drinks
were sold in right up to the 1960s.
When the Barr family opened
its first soft-drink factory...
it was one of hundreds of Scottish manufacturers
selling to men and Women doing tough physical work
in the crowded industrial towns.
What was the appeal of the
product in those days?
It had a lot of appeals - it was
obviously a nice refreshment...
as it is today; partly it gave a lot of energy
because of the sugar content.
And the quantity of energy
was quite important.
But also there was a slight safety factor that
most soft-drinks manufacturers...
were based on a site where
there was a well.
And the quality of the water was therefore
guaranteed to be pure.
To make the most of this
natural ingredient...
the manufacturers took full advantage of
everything that 19th-century technology had to offer.
Do you make use of the railways?
Well, We did in 1875.
Most, if not all, of our main supplies came
from the south of England, from London.
There was a firm, Riley, who
made machinery.
There was a firm, Stevenson and Hull,
who made essences.
From Whom we still buy essences today.
And all these supplies in 1875 would have
come up on the railway line to Falkirk.
In the early years the Barr family produced all
sorts of drinks - from lemonade to ginger beer.
But one particular brand
sealed their fortune.
Your most famous product, when
was that developed?
That was in Victorian times...
and was introduced to a recipe that
my great-grandfather and my...
great uncle put together
themselves.
Do you know that recipe?
Yes, I do - ifs still a family secret.
I had it passed down to me
by my father...
and I've now passed it through
to my daughter.
So there will be a continuation
even when I'm gone.
The magic formula soon became a hit.
Thanks in part to innovative marketing -
featuring the nation's most famous athletes.
The name, is it connected with
the steel industry?
I suppose it is in the sense
that, clearly, people...
made an association with the heavy industries
in Scotland at that time
The iron and steel - and the
shipbuilding industries.
Umm, does it have any iron in it?
Oh, yes, it does. Ammonium ferric citrate is
one of the ingredients.
And What does that do for you?
I don't know!
If I say it puts hairs on your chest I won't
sell much Irn Bru to the ladies!
[LAUGHING]
Back on board, I'm eastward-bound
for West Lothian's county town.
I'm on my way to Linlithgow.
Bradshaw's says: "This county does not
possess that romantic scenery"...
"for which the Scottish mountains
are celebrated."
"But the estates are laid out in
the very best of taste."
"In every quarter the Forth River assumes
a singular variety of aspects."
"Hills, promontories, winding bays, lofty shores."
"The Scottish rivers are highly attractive
but hot very suitable for shipping."
That was a problem -
until the canals came along.
Linlithgow is the birthplace of
Mary, Queen of Scots.
And its palace was home
to the Stuart Kings.
I'm interested in its more recent past...
and I'm meeting Mike Smith, who is chairman
of the Linlithgow Union Canal Society.
- Permission to board?
- Please do.
The Union Canal was built to provide
a direct inland connection...
between Glasgow and Edinburgh -
as well as between the coasts.
It was constructed in 1818, at a cost of
almost half a million pounds.
Mike, What was the impact of
the canals on Scotland?
In the local areas Where they
were, quite astonishing.
I mean, this was the sudden access
of a motorway between...
the major cities of Scotland,
this canal.
And, of course, the Forth and Clyde canal
between the two great estuaries...
made a tremendous difference -
particularly to the fishing fleets.
They could follow the fish on either
side of the country by...
going through the Forth and Clyde
as a ship canal.
What were the cargos?
Mostly coal.
Ironstone, and What they called "freestone", which
is a stone that's easily made into buildings.
Huge appetite for that in Edinburgh.
And the Slamannan railway, which terminated
at a basin on this canal...
which was a joint venture, I may say, between
the canal company and the railway company, used to
bring these materials up from the
North Lanarkshire coalfields...
and put them on the boats and take
them into Edinburgh, lock-free.
It was well worth investing in that
railway because it halved...
the journey distance and knocked
75% off the time involved.
The resourcefulness and imagination of the men who
designed the canals never fails to amaze me.
The engineers Hugh Baird and his
mentor, Thomas Telford...
came up with impressive
navigation solutions.
Sixty-four stone bridges and
three major aqueducts...
enable a continuous ribbon of Water
to run through the land.
This canal was lock-free all the
way to the end at Falkirk.
And there was a single flight of eleven locks
down to join the Forth and Clyde.
The whole idea of gathering them there was that
the rest of the canal should be rapid transport.
With a thirty-five meter difference in height,
it required 3,500 tons of water...
per run and took most of a day
to pass through the flight.
I supposed the looks were the thing
that slowed clown the freight'?
Absolutely, and this is why it was
built as a contour canal.
What was the locomotion?
On the canal? This canal?
Horses.
Exclusively horses. Didn't survive commercially
long enough to get mechanised.
With growing competition from the railways, the
canal declined - and was eventually closed.
But thanks to the Millennium Link
Project, in 2001
the canal was triumphantly re-opened.
And Mike wants me to see a marvel -
of the 21st century.
Well, here we are at the top
of the Falkirk wheel.
I've never seen a structure like that - I mean,
it looks as though we're going to go off the end.
It does, doesn't it?
I hope we're not.
So in one go we're going to do
the equivalent of eleven locks.
Effectively, yes.
We are an amazing height!
Any idea how far we go down?
It's just short of 100 feet.
Each caisson - the big tub that we're
sitting in - each is identical in size...
and when they're full of water
they're identical in Weight.
So the thing is perfectly balanced.
So, in principle, you could just give it a little
shove and it would slowly rotate, under momentum.
It works according to the Archimedes
principle of displacement.
The boat will displace its own
weight of Water in the tub...
so that the weight of boat plus
Water in the rising tub...
is balanced by the one
descending.
Now that's What I call clever.
And ifs also, to my mind,
extremely beautiful.
Well, Mike - I think that is
the weirdest feeling!
We have very gradually sunk down.
But, actually, watching the other caisson rise,
that's going past us quite fast, isn't it'?
It's odd how points of view differ.
Massive piece of machinery.
Huge, isn't it?
William Wordsworth might lament the
Railway Age, which brought...
hordes of tourists to beauty spots
like the Falls of Clyde.
But, in truth, there'd been a transport
revolution before the Victorians.
When a brilliant generation of
engineers built the canals.
A young cartographer, who was in
awe of their achievements...
began his career by mapping them.
His name was George Bradshaw.
Next time, I visit the scene
of a bloody battle.
And eventually the English are forced back to a
position Where they are in complete chaos.
Enjoy a lesson in the skills
of an ancient craft.
Doesn't sound like it sounded with you!
You need more porridge!
More porridge!
And soothe my traveller's taste buds.
Mmm! I'm slipping into ecstasy!
Very, very fruity.
Lovely!
[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 it to understand how trains
transformed Britain.
Its landscape, its industries, society
and leisure time.
As I arias-cross the country
150 years later...
it helps me to discover the
Britain of today.
Steered by my Bradshaw's guide...
I'm continuing my journey across
southern Scotland.
With the coming of the
Industrial Revolution...
the famed natural beauty of the river
Clyde had to accommodate...
shipbuilding yards that would supply
vessels to the World.
Down came the trees, and up Went
the dockyard cranes...
and factory chimney stacks.
My route this week has carried me across
Scotland - from west to east.
It began at the Firth of Clyde and headed through
the Scottish lowlands to Glasgow.
I'll turn north to Stirling and Perth -
skirting the Highlands.
I'll then move east to Fife - and the famous
University town of St Andrews.
From Where I'll travel to Scotland's capital,
Where my journey ends.
On today's leg, I begin in Motherwell -
in the heart of the Scottish lowlands...
before heading south to the edge
of the Clyde coalfields.
Then ifs back to one of Scotland's
most populated areas.
And my journey ends at Linlithgow.
Birthplace of Mary, Queen of Scots.
I meet the kings of molten metal.
Oh, my goodness, that is an
extraordinary sight!
Absolutely vast, isn't it?
What a scale this is built on.
Rediscover the Victorian love affair
with Scotland.
Everybody came to the Falls of Clyde,
specifically to see Cora Linn...
the largest waterfall - 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.
George Bradshaw believed that tourists
should see factories.
"The Dundyvan ironworks are
well worth visiting."
I'm going to get off at Motherwell,
to understand how the...
vast demands of the shipbuilding industry
were met during the 19th century.
Motherwell, at the beginning of
the Industrial Revolution...
was a small farming community
of about 700 people.
The town's fortunes were transformed
by the arrival of the railway.
And by 1901, its population had
swelled to 30,000.
Central to the town's industrial boom
was David Colville's...
iron and steel works,
founded in 1871.
I'm meeting Colin Timmins, manager
at Tata Steel, heir to that legacy.
I really don't need to ask you whether railways
play a part in your business - they clearly do.
What do you use them for?
The railway's mainly used for the raw materials
coming in from Scunthorpe of steel.
We bring 1200 tons in
at one time.
When was this set up -
this plant here?
1871, the plant was built.
We're basically an integrated steelworks
and basically we've supplied steel...
to a lot of the famous railway bridges.
If you look at the Tay Bridge disaster
we had in the last century.
This plant provided modern, good-quality steel
for the rebuilding of that bridge.
And if you look at, also, the Forth Rail Bridge -
we provided the iron for this bridge also.
Which is quite unbelievable - the
structure still stands today.
And to me it's one of the
Wonders of the World.
The Forth Rail Bridge required
a staggering 58,000 tons of steel...
The structure demonstrated the advantage
of malleable steel over brittle cast iron.
And so really unbelievable quantities of steel
have come out of these works.
There's more than a million tons Went
into the North Sea alone.
And when you start to look at
shipping, bridge-building...
trains themselves, so you've no idea the
quantities that were produced in the Motherwell area.
You know, over 130, 140 years of history.
Quite unbelievable.
The company's first steel plant was the
Dalzell Steel and Iron Works.
With twenty puddling furnaces
employing 200 men.
Under the energetic direction of Mr Colville
it soon gained a reputation for quality...
and Motherwell its nickname
of "Steelopolis".
Today the Dalzell Plate Mill is one of only
two remaining in Motherwell.
What we have here is sixteen small furnaces
and one very, very large furnace.
Absolutely vast, isn't it?
What a scale this was built on!
The factory's rolling mill turns out up to
10,000 tons of plate steel in a week.
Its customers come from construction,
shipbuilding and offshore engineering.
What am I going to see here, Colin?
What you're going to see, Michael, you're going
to see a slab which has been unloaded, treated...
It's then going to come out of our soaking pits
and it could be anything from three tons and five.
We've got the capability to roll
slabs up to thirty tons.
As you can see now, the operator is
taking the lid off the furnace.
And the crane is going to go in
and lift the slab.
The temperature inside the furnace
is almost a thousand Celsius.
Well, as you can see, Michael, you can
see the slab on the crane just now.
Roughly the slab weighs twelve
to thirteen tons.
So those immense pinchers have
gone in there.
It's a set of pinchers, we call them "tongs"...
which will lift the slab very carefully
out of the furnace.
Oh, my goodness, that is an
extraordinary sight!
What the crane will do - it will
take the slab down.
Down onto the rolling table.
It's quite an alarming feeling to have a piece of
molten steel rushing towards you like that!
Yeah, absolutely - it's very, very warm.
Feel the heat of that.
Fantastic, yeah.
The slab is entering the
de-scaling process.
This is Where any impurities in the metal
are removed before the steel is rolled.
As you can see, the surface of
the slab now is clean.
Yeah.
So you minimise any risk of rolling
in some dirt in the mill.
It's a great feat of German engineering...
Which was put in in the seventies
but modernised many times.
And as you can see it'll go through here, and we'll
do a number of passes through the mill itself.
And that will go from slab
form to plate form.
And those plates could be how thick?
The plates can be anything from 12mm
thick up to about 200mm.
And, so, you're putting it in again and again -
and flattening it out bit by bit.
Down to the right thickness.
Yes.
We'll put it through the mill maybe
fifteen, sixteen, seventeen times...
to get to the gauge we
require, and the Width.
I can understand why educated tourists
in the 19th century...
would gasp in awe visiting
a plant like this.
I feel the continuity of history in a facility that
manufactured steel for the Titanic and the Lusitania.
And still supplies steel plate for
British warships today.
I never saw anything on such a scale!
The crashes and bangs!
The heat! The steam!
The whole thing is deeply impressive.
As I make tracks south, I'm reminded that Scotland
has long been a land of contrasts.
Of heavy industry and picturesque countryside.
And it was this magnificence
of nature in the raw...
that literally made Victorian ladies swoon.
My next stop will be Lanark.
Bradshaw's tells me that "travellers
can visit the Falls of Clyde"...
"and the romantic scenery in
the neighbourhood."
"Independent of the magnificent Waterfalls"...
"the beauty of the country and the picturesque
views are a source of great attraction".
As even in rural Lanarkshire, cotton
mills began to spring up...
on the river banks, aesthetes yearned
for pre-industrial simplicity.
During the 18th century...
the Grand European Tour was a normal part
of the education of young aristocrats.
But when the Continent was put beyond
bounds during the Napoleonic Wars...
Scotland became the fashionable
destination.
The route between Edinburgh and Lanark became
popular with landscape lovers.
I'm meeting local guide
Alison Galbraith.
Alison, Bradshaw's is ecstatic.
Corra Linn fall - 84 feet.
"Considered by some to be the
finest of the falls."
"To describe the beauties of the scene
is an almost impossible task"...
"requiring the glowing language of a
poet to do justice to them."
And I think, actually, more than one
poet came here in 1802.
Yes - Wordsworth and Coleridge -
and Wordsworth's sister Dorothy as well, yes.
They were doing their "Petite Tour".
They had come from the Lake District and they were
making their way around the beauty spots.
Everybody came to the Falls of Clyde.
Specifically to see Corra Linn -
the largest waterfall in Britain.
Would this have been quite an arduous
journey in those days?
I can't imagine it would have been
easy - because this was
just before the trains that Dorothy and
William and Coleridge came.
So they were definitely with a
horse and trap.
Dorothy doesn't complain that
its arduous, but...
they certainly got out and walked alongside
their horse quite a lot.
Their trip in 1802 took six Weeks
and covered 663 miles
It was a kind of literary pilgrimage
for Romantics.
I mean, you're in lovely 19th
century costume here...
and I imagine that actually, you know,
your long skirt dragging in the mud...
this would all have been quite
inconvenient, I think?
Definitely.
I think the Victorian ladies must have had some
mettle and spirit to do What they did.
Just having to hitch your skirts up
to Walk up the inclines...
is exciting enough as it is, but a lot of the
paths had thirty to forty steps...
chiselled down the gorge to the falls, so
they must have been very game.
Dorothy made notes of some on the journeys
more challenging aspects.
Describing the road quality as "most excellent",
or "roughish" - or "wretchedly bad”.
But such hardship didn't discourage
this romantic trio.
Wordsworth wrote: “Lord of the Vale!
Astounding Flood'.
"The dullest leaf in this thick wood
Quakes... conscious of thy power;"
"The caves reply with hollow moan'
Clearly very impressed by the
majesty of the place.
Yes, certainly when Dorothy and
William were here...
the full force of the Water would've come
over, and it really is quite a sight to see.
But the falls were tamed in 1926 by Britain's
first hydro-electric power station.
Situated between Corra Linn
and Dundaff Linn...
this plant can generate up to eleven
megawatts of power.
January and November - the force of the water - it
would resemble What the Wordsworths and...
Coleridge were seeing back then.
JMW Turner painted a classical scene of
naked bathing beauties here in 1802.
Just over 50 years later, it was the Caledonian
Railway that provoked controversy.
There's an interesting piece in one
of the papers of the day...
that describes how the gentleman on the other
side of the falls, Lord Cranston...
complains about the cheap train
tickets attracting day visitors...
who are no longer Welcome
on his estate.
But Lady Mary Ross was from Bonnington
House on this side of the river...
now the wildlife reserve.
She was instrumental in maintaining paths and she
actively encouraged the tourists to come.
They were also treated in the pavillion,
to have cups of tea.
And as they Went in there the mirrors
on the ceiling reflected the Falls.
So, apparently, ladies would
swoon and faint.
With... the awesome view...
the majestic, sublime view of water cascading
down upon their heads.
In this television age, you don't
see tourists swooning.
But they still travel to marvel at the Falls.
Dorothy Wordsworth's “Recollections of a
Tour Made in Scotland”...
remains a classic of Picturesque
travel Writing.
The next stop on my journey is
just downstream.
Bradshaw's tells me that ho stranger ought to omit
visiting "the far-famed village of New Lanark".
It was established in 1784 by
Robert Owen's father-in-law.
Robert Owen then acquired the village.
He was a philanthropist on his Way
to becoming a Socialist.
For example, he would buy goods in bulk...
which could be sold in the village shops to the
workers at little more than cost price.
And that idea was the origin of the
Co-operative movement.
Within this beautifully restored
18th-century cotton mill...
which is part of the New Lanark
World Heritage Site...
I'll find my bed for the night.
Excited by the prospect
of a new day...
I've headed back to Lanark Station to
take the train via Motherwell.
At my next destination the railway
station opened in 1848...
and closed the following year because
the village was too small.
You wouldn't say that any more
about Cumbernauld.
Since I visited the steelworks at Motherwell
I've been Wondering...
what the workers drank to keep
up their energy levels.
What brew was appropriate for
those men of iron?
These days Cumbernauld station serves one of
the most populated areas of Scotland.
Since 2007, ifs been the home to one of
Scotland's best-selling soft drinks...
born at the peak of the country's
industrial boom.
I'm hitching a lift to Cumberhauld's Irn-Bru
factory with delivery driver John Spence.
Working my passage.
- Hello, John!
- How're you doing?
Good to see you.
You've been doing this a While,
haven't you?
Yeah - I've been doing it
for fifty years.
Fifty years!
So What do you need if you're
going to last in the job?
A sense of fun. Over and above that
you need a good hand.
People that help you out-
like your van mate.
I've been very lucky.
I've had some quite good van
mates over the years.
Do you think I'll be up to the job?
Oh, yeah, I'm positive you'll
be up to the job.
You'll maybe even last fifty years -
the same as What I've done!
I've always thought that whisky was
Scotland's national drink...
but this concoction also lays
claim to carry the Saltire.
- Here we go, Michael.
- Oooh, look at all that!
In 1767, Englishman Joseph Priestley
suspended a bowl of distilled water...
above a beer vat and discovered how
to make carbonated water.
The Water had a pleasant taste and spawned
an industry in fizzy drinks.
Aye - you're doing great.
So would you like to take some
stuff into the shop for us?
Oh, yes please!
Right.
Down.
Bring it in. Hold it.
- And then tilt it back.
- Whoa!
This beverage owes its origins
to the Barr family...
who opened their first soft-drink
factory in Falkirk in 1875.
And if you'd like to put them
up on the shelves.
Ah, you're doing a grand job, Michael.
Ah, thank you, John!
Don't smash any of them!
[LAUGHING]
You need real bottle
to do this job!
And just as in Bradshaw's day...
the bottles are recycled.
Well, here we go, Michael - we've got
the empties on the lorry.
Oops!
- Health and Safety!
- One down!
I've got nothing to do
with this delivery.
The destination for our empty bottles is the
state-of-the-art factory at Cumbernauld.
Which, since it opened, has produced
almost 200 million litres of soft drinks.
Despite its scale, this is
still a family firm.
And Robin Barr is showing me
Where my empties will go.
Well, this is the returnable
bottle line here, Which...
is, I think, the only returnable
bottle line left in the UK.
The customer gets money back if
he brings the bottle back?
Yes, they do.
This was the only pack in 1875...
and it was the only pack that soft drinks
were sold in right up to the 1960s.
When the Barr family opened
its first soft-drink factory...
it was one of hundreds of Scottish manufacturers
selling to men and Women doing tough physical work
in the crowded industrial towns.
What was the appeal of the
product in those days?
It had a lot of appeals - it was
obviously a nice refreshment...
as it is today; partly it gave a lot of energy
because of the sugar content.
And the quantity of energy
was quite important.
But also there was a slight safety factor that
most soft-drinks manufacturers...
were based on a site where
there was a well.
And the quality of the water was therefore
guaranteed to be pure.
To make the most of this
natural ingredient...
the manufacturers took full advantage of
everything that 19th-century technology had to offer.
Do you make use of the railways?
Well, We did in 1875.
Most, if not all, of our main supplies came
from the south of England, from London.
There was a firm, Riley, who
made machinery.
There was a firm, Stevenson and Hull,
who made essences.
From Whom we still buy essences today.
And all these supplies in 1875 would have
come up on the railway line to Falkirk.
In the early years the Barr family produced all
sorts of drinks - from lemonade to ginger beer.
But one particular brand
sealed their fortune.
Your most famous product, when
was that developed?
That was in Victorian times...
and was introduced to a recipe that
my great-grandfather and my...
great uncle put together
themselves.
Do you know that recipe?
Yes, I do - ifs still a family secret.
I had it passed down to me
by my father...
and I've now passed it through
to my daughter.
So there will be a continuation
even when I'm gone.
The magic formula soon became a hit.
Thanks in part to innovative marketing -
featuring the nation's most famous athletes.
The name, is it connected with
the steel industry?
I suppose it is in the sense
that, clearly, people...
made an association with the heavy industries
in Scotland at that time
The iron and steel - and the
shipbuilding industries.
Umm, does it have any iron in it?
Oh, yes, it does. Ammonium ferric citrate is
one of the ingredients.
And What does that do for you?
I don't know!
If I say it puts hairs on your chest I won't
sell much Irn Bru to the ladies!
[LAUGHING]
Back on board, I'm eastward-bound
for West Lothian's county town.
I'm on my way to Linlithgow.
Bradshaw's says: "This county does not
possess that romantic scenery"...
"for which the Scottish mountains
are celebrated."
"But the estates are laid out in
the very best of taste."
"In every quarter the Forth River assumes
a singular variety of aspects."
"Hills, promontories, winding bays, lofty shores."
"The Scottish rivers are highly attractive
but hot very suitable for shipping."
That was a problem -
until the canals came along.
Linlithgow is the birthplace of
Mary, Queen of Scots.
And its palace was home
to the Stuart Kings.
I'm interested in its more recent past...
and I'm meeting Mike Smith, who is chairman
of the Linlithgow Union Canal Society.
- Permission to board?
- Please do.
The Union Canal was built to provide
a direct inland connection...
between Glasgow and Edinburgh -
as well as between the coasts.
It was constructed in 1818, at a cost of
almost half a million pounds.
Mike, What was the impact of
the canals on Scotland?
In the local areas Where they
were, quite astonishing.
I mean, this was the sudden access
of a motorway between...
the major cities of Scotland,
this canal.
And, of course, the Forth and Clyde canal
between the two great estuaries...
made a tremendous difference -
particularly to the fishing fleets.
They could follow the fish on either
side of the country by...
going through the Forth and Clyde
as a ship canal.
What were the cargos?
Mostly coal.
Ironstone, and What they called "freestone", which
is a stone that's easily made into buildings.
Huge appetite for that in Edinburgh.
And the Slamannan railway, which terminated
at a basin on this canal...
which was a joint venture, I may say, between
the canal company and the railway company, used to
bring these materials up from the
North Lanarkshire coalfields...
and put them on the boats and take
them into Edinburgh, lock-free.
It was well worth investing in that
railway because it halved...
the journey distance and knocked
75% off the time involved.
The resourcefulness and imagination of the men who
designed the canals never fails to amaze me.
The engineers Hugh Baird and his
mentor, Thomas Telford...
came up with impressive
navigation solutions.
Sixty-four stone bridges and
three major aqueducts...
enable a continuous ribbon of Water
to run through the land.
This canal was lock-free all the
way to the end at Falkirk.
And there was a single flight of eleven locks
down to join the Forth and Clyde.
The whole idea of gathering them there was that
the rest of the canal should be rapid transport.
With a thirty-five meter difference in height,
it required 3,500 tons of water...
per run and took most of a day
to pass through the flight.
I supposed the looks were the thing
that slowed clown the freight'?
Absolutely, and this is why it was
built as a contour canal.
What was the locomotion?
On the canal? This canal?
Horses.
Exclusively horses. Didn't survive commercially
long enough to get mechanised.
With growing competition from the railways, the
canal declined - and was eventually closed.
But thanks to the Millennium Link
Project, in 2001
the canal was triumphantly re-opened.
And Mike wants me to see a marvel -
of the 21st century.
Well, here we are at the top
of the Falkirk wheel.
I've never seen a structure like that - I mean,
it looks as though we're going to go off the end.
It does, doesn't it?
I hope we're not.
So in one go we're going to do
the equivalent of eleven locks.
Effectively, yes.
We are an amazing height!
Any idea how far we go down?
It's just short of 100 feet.
Each caisson - the big tub that we're
sitting in - each is identical in size...
and when they're full of water
they're identical in Weight.
So the thing is perfectly balanced.
So, in principle, you could just give it a little
shove and it would slowly rotate, under momentum.
It works according to the Archimedes
principle of displacement.
The boat will displace its own
weight of Water in the tub...
so that the weight of boat plus
Water in the rising tub...
is balanced by the one
descending.
Now that's What I call clever.
And ifs also, to my mind,
extremely beautiful.
Well, Mike - I think that is
the weirdest feeling!
We have very gradually sunk down.
But, actually, watching the other caisson rise,
that's going past us quite fast, isn't it'?
It's odd how points of view differ.
Massive piece of machinery.
Huge, isn't it?
William Wordsworth might lament the
Railway Age, which brought...
hordes of tourists to beauty spots
like the Falls of Clyde.
But, in truth, there'd been a transport
revolution before the Victorians.
When a brilliant generation of
engineers built the canals.
A young cartographer, who was in
awe of their achievements...
began his career by mapping them.
His name was George Bradshaw.
Next time, I visit the scene
of a bloody battle.
And eventually the English are forced back to a
position Where they are in complete chaos.
Enjoy a lesson in the skills
of an ancient craft.
Doesn't sound like it sounded with you!
You need more porridge!
More porridge!
And soothe my traveller's taste buds.
Mmm! I'm slipping into ecstasy!
Very, very fruity.
Lovely!
[END THEME]