Great British Railway Journeys (2010–…): Season 7, Episode 13 - Stroud to Bath - full transcript
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 crisscross
the country 150 years later,
it helps me to discover
the Britain of today.
I'm continuing my journey
from the Midlands towards Dartmoor,
now passing through Gloucestershire.
In this most rural of counties,
I'll discover now Victorian
innovations revolutionised
the practices of agriculture,
creating new industries and
paving the Way for social change.
My route, which began in Birmingham,
now winds south
through the Cotswolds,
before striking out for the coast
and the ancient spas and port cities
of the South West,
ending up in one of Britain's
most glorious national parks.
This third leg begins in Stroud
in Gloucestershire,
then on to the market town
of Cirencester before arriving
the next day in time for tea
in elegant Georgian Bath.
On this journey, I take pot luck
with an early snooker cue...
Oh! A bit askew.
Hitch a ride with
a farmer of the future...
Just being out in the field getting
wet and muddy is absolutely wrong.
It's highly technical these days.
And hone my conversational skills
at a Victorian tea party...
The cucumber this season
is extremely crisp.
My first stop will be Stroud,
which, I'm informed, is situated
"hear the confluence of the
River Frome and the Slade-water.
"Woollen cloth forms
the staple manufacture."
So today, I will put the history of
that important textile on the table.
Bound for Stroud. Lovely.
- Thank you.
Stroud's peaceful appearance today
gives little hint of its history as
an industrial town making textiles.
The town was well supplied
with wool and Water
and became a refuge in the
17th century for immigrant Huguenots
and in the 19th century for Jews,
both communities renowned for
their skills as cloth manufacturers.
Morning.
In its heyday
during the Victorian era,
there were over 100 mills here
producing the woollen broadcloth
for military uniforms.
WSP Textiles,
named after its founding owners,
Messrs Winterbotham,
Strachan and Payne,
is one of the few survivors.
And I'm going to meet European
Sales Manager Stuart Gardiner
to hear how the business has
changed since Bradshaw's day.
Stuart, why is woollen cloth
made in this area?
Geographically,
it's positioned on the five valleys.
So you've got the Water
coming down off the hills
and good quality Water
in the rivers.
And that water is used, what,
both for treating the cloth
and then, I suppose, later, actually
for powering the mill.
Exactly. Powering the mill via the
waterwheel, which was located here.
What products do you make today?
Predominantly, snooker and pool
cloth and tennis-ball fabric.
The tennis balls
are used at Wimbledon
and the snooker cloth is used at the
World Championships in Sheffield.
Any connection between
the modern products
and What you were making
traditionally?
Yes. The modern snooker cloth
has a nap on it.
That evolved from
the old coaching cloths,
Where the coachmen used to Wear
these broadcloths with a napped pile,
so that the water
wouldn't stick on it
and it would just run off
their cloaks.
Um... would that do
for a snooker table?
Maybe some of the
cheaper ones, yeah.
[MICHAEL LAUGHS]
Let's have a look at your process.
There have been many changes.
The factory is run on electricity
rather than water power
and the wool that will eventually be
transformed into snooker cloth
comes from New Zealand,
rather than the Cotswolds.
But the production process
remains much the same.
What is happening here, then?
- OK...
This is the first process
that happens at Lodgemore,
and it's a mending process,
or burling.
So What they're looking to do is
remove any defects from the fabric,
take any knots out.
If there's any yarns or threads
that are missing or broken,
they get repaired here.
Having passed muster, the cloth is
then passed through a chemical bath
before being dyed, washed and dried.
So that is the most extraordinary
transformation.
What process has that gone through?
It's been shrunk, or fulled.
You shrink about a third of the
overall dimensions off the cloth
to give you a given thickness.
Much like shrinking your
fine woollen jumper in a hot wash.
And What's critical
about the thickness?
The thickness dictates the speed of the
ball when you're playing snooker.
These days, workers are protected
from the chemicals
used in fulling,
but at the time of my guidebook,
everything was done by hand
on an open factory floor.
Well, this is a very attractive,
I imagine Victorian, factory building
but conditions weren't necessarily
as attractive, were they?
No, absolutely. The conditions in here
would have been fairly horrendous.
There would have been huge
amounts of steam in here -
specifically in the Winter,
it would have been really bad.
There would be a lot of
acid processes,
so the condensation would drip, with
acid in it, onto your head.
It was horrible.
How long have you been
with the company?
I've been with the company for 30 years.
I remember steam Waist-high,
so you'd have to be sort of looking
under the steam, you know.
It was fairly grim.
The company's snooker cloth now
sells all over the world,
thanks to the advent of
colour television,
that took the game from bar-room sport
to mass entertainment.
But the mill's records date from
when it was the
gentleman's game of billiards
that was all the rage.
So, Michael, I thought you'd
be interested in seeing this.
This is a ledger dated 1897,
Where we sold cloth with a table
to the Queen for her full-size
number five mahogany table.
Now, she was quite short,
Queen Victoria; I imagine her having to
sit up on the table
to take those awkward shots.
What do you think?
- I'm sure she would've stood on a box.
I'm keen to find out more
about the game of snooker
and how it developed from billiards.
So leaving the factory behind,
I'm off to meet snooker
expert Peter Clare.
Hello, Peter.
- Very nice to meet you.
What was the origin of
the game of snooker?
The origins date it back to 1882.
It was said that
Col Neville Chamberlain, who
I believe is the uncle of the
"peace-in-our-time" Mr Chamberlain,
he wrote down the rules in the
Ooty Club up in the Highlands in
India for his other fellow officers
to play the game of snooker.
And why do they call it snooker?
We believe it was because young
recruits were called snookers
and because the game was new
and everybody was new to the game,
the game was called snooker.
Peter's brought along a set of ivory
balls that date from the end of the
19th century, as well as a curious
implement known as a mace, the
antecedent to the modern snooker cue,
which takes a bit of getting used to.
One hand on the cushion.
- How strange.
And you've got a
sighting line to use.
Oh, I see. Yes. Oh, sorry.
- And just push.
Oh! Now, a bit askew.
- Yeah!
Eventually, someone had the bright
idea of turning the mace
around to use the other end - and so
the modern snooker cue was born.
How did the game make the leap
from the gentry to the ordinary man?
Prior to World War ll,
we would have one set of snooker
balls in the billiard hall.
After the war, as the troops came
back, it was a popular game to play.
And nobody's found anything
better than the baize.
Yes, I think you'll get into trouble
calling it baize. It's pure wool.
Baize is a mixture of
wool and cotton
and probably sells for about
12 pounds a running meter.
This snooker cloth will sell for
about 50 pounds a running meter.
Mm. Well, Peter.
I have a While before my next train.
Shall we continue the frame?
Why not?
I think it's my shot now.
Ooh, my God.
Not bad!
I'm returning to Stroud station.
But sadly, there's little time to
admire the flowers before I pick up
the first Great Western service to
continue my journey south-east
through the Cotswolds.
I shall be leaving this train
at Kemble in order to reach
Cirencester, which is
described as one of the greatest
marts in England for wool.
I'm told that the Gloucestershire
downs which formerly lay open,
producing little else
other than furs,
are now converted into
arable enclosed fields.
In the Victorian period, agriculture
was becoming more productive
and more scientific, and farming was a
suitable subject for academic study -
not just something to be
picked up on the hoof.
There used to be
a station at Cirencester
designed by the great
Isambard Kingdom Brunei himself.
But it was closed in 1964,
a victim of the Beeching cuts.
Kemble station benefits from this
lovely garden, which was built by
and is maintained by students from
the Royal Agricultural University.
And with its beds of lavender and of
rosemary, it's full of summer scents.
The Royal Agricultural College
at Cirencester opened in 1845
and received its Royal Charter
from Queen Victoria.
Her husband, Prince Albert,
was one of the early shareholders.
Built in the Victorian Gothic style,
it resembles an Oxford college
and the first intake comprised
25 sons of local landowners.
The college became a university in 2013
and now 1,200 students study here.
The motto of the college is
Arvorum Cultus Pecorumque -
a quote from Virgil's Georgics,
which means "caring for the fields
and the beasts".
A noble aim indeed.
Prof Chris Gaskell is the principal.
Chris, how very good to see you.
- Hello. Welcome to the RAU.
Thank you very much indeed.
Before there was ah agricultural college
here, What was there oh this spot?
It was a farm.
Here's the farmhouse, the old
farmhouse oh which they built
the iconic college, and behind it is
the tithe barn, the original tithe barn
of the farm, Where they
stored grain and kept animals.
Dating back to What time?
- Oh, 16th century.
You became relatively
recently a university.
Is that an important thing?
- I think it is very important.
I think it's important
for agriculture to have a
university with "agriculture" in
its name. I think it's
very important because agriculture
as a career Went through
something of a doldrum in the late
1990s, when excess production meant
that society didn't value its food
and its farmers as much as it could.
But I also think it brings
agriculture into a more
technological age and people's
concept of agriculture as just
being out in a field getting wet
and muddy is absolutely wrong.
It's highly technical these days.
The mid-19th century was a pivotal
time for the teaching
and understanding of agriculture.
Early students learning about new
fertilisers would also study
the science behind traditional
methods of crop rotation
and soil management,
and how they might increase yield.
To find out more, I'm heading out to
the fields to meet Tom Overbury...
Good to see you.
Organic expert and director
of farming at the university.
How much difference is there
between agricultural methods
when the Royal Agricultural College
was founded in 1845 and today?
Some of them will be fairly similar.
The basic principles in terms
of crop production, in terms of
preserving forage for the Winter,
they would be much the same,
but obviously, the methods that we are
using are probably fairly different.
In this case, We're making
silage as opposed to hay.
Sometimes in some of the cropping,
We're growing oilseed rape,
which they would never have
heard of then.
Well, there have been huge
technological changes -
tractors instead of horse, but
chemicals, for example - big changes.
Our chemicals have allowed us,
and pesticides have allowed us to
do quite a lot of monoculture
and pushing things
forward from that point of view,
but we're almost getting to the
stage now Where We're needing to go
back and think, well, actually,
some of the things, those old
rotations and things like that, we
must make sure that we don't forget
those basic lessons that we learnt.
Well, I think I might talk to one
of your students about these issues
if I can flag her down.
These are challenging times
for farmers and I Want to find out
What the next generation thinks
about a return to Victorian values.
Hello, Megan.
- Hi, Michael.
Megan Berryman comes from
a Cornish farming family
and this is her final
year at the university.
Now, I'm an old townie,
so tell me What it is
you're actually doing here.
We're baling up some silage here.
- And silage is What?
Wettish grass, is it?
- Yes, it is.
It's, um, grass
which has been preserved.
Important to you to get a proper
university education in agriculture?
Um, I think so.
I'm female, so it allows me a
better chance in trying to find
a job somewhere out there.
Do they actually teach any
history of farming?
Yes, they do.
They cover quite a lot of history
at the um, at the Ag University.
We should really
look into the history
and remember the Way in which
farmers used to do it.
It was good to them, like by keeping
some of their techniques and their
skills going, um, could help the
agricultural industry go further.
I wish you all the very best. I hope you
have a Wonderful career in farming.
Bye-bye, Megan. Good luck to you.
- Nice to meet you.
After all that fresh country air,
I need a place to rest my head.
So I'm going into Cirencester town
to find a bed for the night.
I've been attracted to
this 14th century coaching inn
by a mention in my Bradshaw's Guide.
During the English Civil War,
Lord Chandos came here,
recruiting on behalf
of King Charles I.
But this was parliamentary territory
and a mob murdered his supporters,
burnt his coach, and he
had to take refuge here
in the King's Head.
The irony of the name of this
hotel must have struck him,
when shortly after,
his beloved monarch lost his.
The next day,
I'm up early to continue my journey
from Chippenham, Where I join up with
the main line service going west.
I've rejoined the railway
at Chippenham in order to get
to Bath, titillated by this
reference in Bradshaw's.
"A striking campanile tower
built by William Beckford
"who died here in 1844,
and is buried in the cemetery.
"He wrote Caliph Vathek,
a most original story,
"which created quite a furore
in those days."
It all sounds novel.
Do you know Bath?
- I know Bath.
And What do you think of Bath?
- I love Bath.
I'm going to see something today that
I've never seen before. A campanile.
Built by a kind of eccentric
British novelist and millionaire.
Well, that's What Britain is
all about, isn't it?
Look at the Way you dress!
Couldn't be more eccentric!
Moi?
- Yeah!
Bath, with its peerless neoclassical
architecture, is most often
associated with the Georgian period,
when eccentricity
and bawdy behaviour were tolerated or
even actively encouraged.
But I Want to get a flavour
of What the city was like
at the time of my guidebook,
when Victorian values
and a strict moral code dictated
behaviour - in public, at least.
So before I head off in search
of Beckford's Tower,
I'm going to learn about the social
graces of the Victorian upper class.
Few things are more closely
associated with the British
than the custom of taking
afternoon tea.
But when did the tradition begin?
And What are the rules of etiquette?
I've come to meet Grant Harold,
former royal butler
and etiquette expert.
Grant, good afternoon.
- Michael, good afternoon. Welcome.
When was afternoon tea invented?
Afternoon tea was invented around
about 1840 by the Duchess of Bedford.
She felt that there was a long gap
between lunch and dinner.
So she felt that something
had to kind of fill this gap, and
she came up with this idea of asking
for some tea and some sandwiches.
Afternoon tea developed
as a private social event
for ladies in the higher
echelons of society.
But when Queen Victoria adopted it,
the ritual became a formal
occasion on a larger scale,
known as a tea reception.
I Wanted to see you alone
because I've got a tea booked with
some ladies and I'm a little bit
Worried about etiquette.
I'm a grammar school boy myself and
I don't want to get anything wrong.
Could you give me some
pointers, please?
Yes, of course.
Milk in first or second?
- It depends which class you're from.
The lower classes would put
the milk in first,
because they had clay cups,
which sometimes couldn't resist the
heat of the tea, so they would crack
but the upstairs, they had fine bone
china, which could resist the heat,
so they could put the milk in after.
Now, What about topics
of conversation?
With topics of conversation, there
was four subjects which
I could say were taboo. That was
sex, religion, money and politics.
So you'd keep clear of those.
- Those are my four special subjects!
But the problem is, a lot of people
do discuss these, but What
I would say, is in somebody's home,
don't you bring them up.
Go with your host.
Let them take the lead.
Whatever the discussion is,
then you engage in,
but if they don't discuss it, then
you haven't brought it up, either.
Fortified by Grant's advice,
We're off to join a group of ladies
from the Bath Preservation Trust.
Good afternoon, ladies.
- ALL: Good afternoon.
Thank you.
- Won't you joins us?
Thank you so much.
I really don't recall a time
when it was so unseasonably hot.
Have you observed the hot weather?
- It is very hot, yes.
I hope you had a comfortable
journey here.
I myself came on the railway
from Chippenham.
It was a very convenient journey.
I've learned today that the milk
goes in second.
Yes, indeed.
And the gaze is maintained on the
cup of tea until it reaches the face.
[HE WHISPERS]
Grant, how do I eat the sandwiches?
You pick up the plate
and bring it towards you.
The cucumber this season is
extremely crisp.
It must be something to do with
the unseasonably hot weather.
It's been such a joy to attend
such a very reactionary tea party!
And a pleasure to have you with us.
- Thank you.
Revitalised, I step out
into the streets of Bath to soak up
some more of the sandstone splendour.
I'm standing in front
of the Royal Crescent,
which Bradshaw's tells me
was a work of John Wood
the Younger from the second half
of the 18th century and apparently,
Tobias Smollett called it an antique
amphitheatre turned inside out.
I think
it's one of the most successful
pieces of architecture in Britain
and I think, if I lived in Bath,
and I saw this every morning,
particularly kissed with this
Wonderful light, my heart would soar.
Not far from here,
in Lansdown Crescent,
lived one of Bath's most
notorious characters.
William Beckford was born
in the permissive 18th century
and inherited a huge fortune founded
on Jamaican sugar plantations.
He moved to Bath in 1822 and promptly
purchased all the land leading
up to Lansdown Hill,
giving himself a mile-long garden.
On the summit he built an extraordinary
120-foot-high neoclassical tower.
Amy Frost is
the curator of Beckford's Tower
and an expert on its contents
and its owner.
I get the impression William Beckford
was a larger-than-life character.
Yeah. It all starts really, I think,
'cos he's born into this immense
Wealth and he inherits
when he's nine and a half.
And it's very well known
how much money he has,
because, you know, for
example, Byron,
when he writes about him
in Childe Harold,
refers to him as
"England's wealthiest son".
So it's an obscene amount of money
and just can indulge himself
in collecting paintings, furniture,
objects - books, above all.
What about his private life?
- Just as interesting, actually.
He has a rather kind of infamous
affair when he's in Venice,
when he's on his grand tour,
with the son of one of
the leading families in Venice.
At the same time,
he's very sort of feted in society.
People, particularly Women
of a certain age
with much, much older husbands,
find him incredibly appealing.
Shall we look inside?
- Yeah, come on in.
Every morning, Beckford would ride
out from his house in the centre of
Bath to spend the day in his tower,
which he used as a study retreat.
How did Beckford decorate
these rooms?
So originally, these rooms would
have been full of furniture
and above all, lots and lots
of objects on every surface.
The sort of objects that you can see
in these paintings, and he constantly
writes about his collection, saying
it's about Where things are placed.
He didn't sleep here. This was
hot his house. This was his retreat.
It's his treasure chest,
and he would move objects around.
And you get the idea of him sort
of putting a vase on a particular
table or surface and then not
sleeping that night,
because he knows he's put
that vase in the Wrong place.
By the time he arrived in Bath at
the age of 62, Beckford's lifestyle
was distinctly out of step with
the new Victorian morality.
His scandalous past was bad enough
but back in 1786,
he'd also published an infamous
novel, Caliph Vathek,
a tale of an Eastern potentate
of vast wealth, whose antics
still have the power to shock
and horrify 200 years on.
Why did the novel cause a furore?
Partly because of the content
itself - very decadent lifestyles
inside it - there's a palace
of the five senses, there's all these
incredibly elaborate parties
and affairs, and then this
extraordinary scene involving
50 beautiful young boys, which -
best thing for you to do is
to read that part for yourself
and make your own mind up.
"Vathek, who was still standing
on the edge of a chasm, called out,
"'let my 50 little
favourites approach me.'
"The Caliph undressed himself
by degrees and raising his arm,
"made each of the prizes
glitter in the air.
"But whilst he delivered it with
one hand to the child who sprung
"forward to receive it,
he with the other
"pushed the poor
innocent into the gulf."
Mass murder of children.
- Yes.
So you can see why it caused
quite a scandal.
Am I able to go to
the top of the tower?
Yes, of course, but, um,
you must go on your own.
It was a tower built for one man,
built for Beckford alone
so that one person could go to the top,
look at the view and read a book.
I have such a book.
Amy, thank you so much. Bye-bye.
Beckford had no qualms about
giving free rein to his lurid
and disturbing imagination and
ultimately, society ostracised him.
He died in 1844 and is buried in the
cemetery at the foot of his tower.
In the end, he'd gone through
most of his fortune,
but his great architectural legacy
is still maintained for public use.
This tower is a monument to a man
who could have whatever he wanted.
He collected Women and men the Way
he collected vases and paintings
and from all the things that he
loved and owned, he's bequeathed me
just one thing -
this exquisite view of Bath.
William Beckford was born
into the naughty 18th century
but died during
Queen Victoria's reign,
by which time
the outrageous lifestyle
and novel of his youth
would not have been tolerated.
The Victorians were serious people
who applied science to agriculture
and devised etiquette for taking tea.
Had I wandered into a 19th-century
tea party with all my social gaffes,
I would soon have
found myself snookered.
Next time, I enter the foul-smelling
world of a Victorian tannery...
I find myself well out of
my comfort zone here.
Is it dangerous?
Is pretty dangerous.
Soak up the splendour of one of
Britain's finest Gothic mansions...
Hah! A gentleman's library indeed.
The staircase is really a gem,
isn't it?
Absolutely magnificent.
And get in touch with
my spiritual side in Glastonbury.
Stay bright.
- Yeah, absolutely. And you.
[END THEME]
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 crisscross
the country 150 years later,
it helps me to discover
the Britain of today.
I'm continuing my journey
from the Midlands towards Dartmoor,
now passing through Gloucestershire.
In this most rural of counties,
I'll discover now Victorian
innovations revolutionised
the practices of agriculture,
creating new industries and
paving the Way for social change.
My route, which began in Birmingham,
now winds south
through the Cotswolds,
before striking out for the coast
and the ancient spas and port cities
of the South West,
ending up in one of Britain's
most glorious national parks.
This third leg begins in Stroud
in Gloucestershire,
then on to the market town
of Cirencester before arriving
the next day in time for tea
in elegant Georgian Bath.
On this journey, I take pot luck
with an early snooker cue...
Oh! A bit askew.
Hitch a ride with
a farmer of the future...
Just being out in the field getting
wet and muddy is absolutely wrong.
It's highly technical these days.
And hone my conversational skills
at a Victorian tea party...
The cucumber this season
is extremely crisp.
My first stop will be Stroud,
which, I'm informed, is situated
"hear the confluence of the
River Frome and the Slade-water.
"Woollen cloth forms
the staple manufacture."
So today, I will put the history of
that important textile on the table.
Bound for Stroud. Lovely.
- Thank you.
Stroud's peaceful appearance today
gives little hint of its history as
an industrial town making textiles.
The town was well supplied
with wool and Water
and became a refuge in the
17th century for immigrant Huguenots
and in the 19th century for Jews,
both communities renowned for
their skills as cloth manufacturers.
Morning.
In its heyday
during the Victorian era,
there were over 100 mills here
producing the woollen broadcloth
for military uniforms.
WSP Textiles,
named after its founding owners,
Messrs Winterbotham,
Strachan and Payne,
is one of the few survivors.
And I'm going to meet European
Sales Manager Stuart Gardiner
to hear how the business has
changed since Bradshaw's day.
Stuart, why is woollen cloth
made in this area?
Geographically,
it's positioned on the five valleys.
So you've got the Water
coming down off the hills
and good quality Water
in the rivers.
And that water is used, what,
both for treating the cloth
and then, I suppose, later, actually
for powering the mill.
Exactly. Powering the mill via the
waterwheel, which was located here.
What products do you make today?
Predominantly, snooker and pool
cloth and tennis-ball fabric.
The tennis balls
are used at Wimbledon
and the snooker cloth is used at the
World Championships in Sheffield.
Any connection between
the modern products
and What you were making
traditionally?
Yes. The modern snooker cloth
has a nap on it.
That evolved from
the old coaching cloths,
Where the coachmen used to Wear
these broadcloths with a napped pile,
so that the water
wouldn't stick on it
and it would just run off
their cloaks.
Um... would that do
for a snooker table?
Maybe some of the
cheaper ones, yeah.
[MICHAEL LAUGHS]
Let's have a look at your process.
There have been many changes.
The factory is run on electricity
rather than water power
and the wool that will eventually be
transformed into snooker cloth
comes from New Zealand,
rather than the Cotswolds.
But the production process
remains much the same.
What is happening here, then?
- OK...
This is the first process
that happens at Lodgemore,
and it's a mending process,
or burling.
So What they're looking to do is
remove any defects from the fabric,
take any knots out.
If there's any yarns or threads
that are missing or broken,
they get repaired here.
Having passed muster, the cloth is
then passed through a chemical bath
before being dyed, washed and dried.
So that is the most extraordinary
transformation.
What process has that gone through?
It's been shrunk, or fulled.
You shrink about a third of the
overall dimensions off the cloth
to give you a given thickness.
Much like shrinking your
fine woollen jumper in a hot wash.
And What's critical
about the thickness?
The thickness dictates the speed of the
ball when you're playing snooker.
These days, workers are protected
from the chemicals
used in fulling,
but at the time of my guidebook,
everything was done by hand
on an open factory floor.
Well, this is a very attractive,
I imagine Victorian, factory building
but conditions weren't necessarily
as attractive, were they?
No, absolutely. The conditions in here
would have been fairly horrendous.
There would have been huge
amounts of steam in here -
specifically in the Winter,
it would have been really bad.
There would be a lot of
acid processes,
so the condensation would drip, with
acid in it, onto your head.
It was horrible.
How long have you been
with the company?
I've been with the company for 30 years.
I remember steam Waist-high,
so you'd have to be sort of looking
under the steam, you know.
It was fairly grim.
The company's snooker cloth now
sells all over the world,
thanks to the advent of
colour television,
that took the game from bar-room sport
to mass entertainment.
But the mill's records date from
when it was the
gentleman's game of billiards
that was all the rage.
So, Michael, I thought you'd
be interested in seeing this.
This is a ledger dated 1897,
Where we sold cloth with a table
to the Queen for her full-size
number five mahogany table.
Now, she was quite short,
Queen Victoria; I imagine her having to
sit up on the table
to take those awkward shots.
What do you think?
- I'm sure she would've stood on a box.
I'm keen to find out more
about the game of snooker
and how it developed from billiards.
So leaving the factory behind,
I'm off to meet snooker
expert Peter Clare.
Hello, Peter.
- Very nice to meet you.
What was the origin of
the game of snooker?
The origins date it back to 1882.
It was said that
Col Neville Chamberlain, who
I believe is the uncle of the
"peace-in-our-time" Mr Chamberlain,
he wrote down the rules in the
Ooty Club up in the Highlands in
India for his other fellow officers
to play the game of snooker.
And why do they call it snooker?
We believe it was because young
recruits were called snookers
and because the game was new
and everybody was new to the game,
the game was called snooker.
Peter's brought along a set of ivory
balls that date from the end of the
19th century, as well as a curious
implement known as a mace, the
antecedent to the modern snooker cue,
which takes a bit of getting used to.
One hand on the cushion.
- How strange.
And you've got a
sighting line to use.
Oh, I see. Yes. Oh, sorry.
- And just push.
Oh! Now, a bit askew.
- Yeah!
Eventually, someone had the bright
idea of turning the mace
around to use the other end - and so
the modern snooker cue was born.
How did the game make the leap
from the gentry to the ordinary man?
Prior to World War ll,
we would have one set of snooker
balls in the billiard hall.
After the war, as the troops came
back, it was a popular game to play.
And nobody's found anything
better than the baize.
Yes, I think you'll get into trouble
calling it baize. It's pure wool.
Baize is a mixture of
wool and cotton
and probably sells for about
12 pounds a running meter.
This snooker cloth will sell for
about 50 pounds a running meter.
Mm. Well, Peter.
I have a While before my next train.
Shall we continue the frame?
Why not?
I think it's my shot now.
Ooh, my God.
Not bad!
I'm returning to Stroud station.
But sadly, there's little time to
admire the flowers before I pick up
the first Great Western service to
continue my journey south-east
through the Cotswolds.
I shall be leaving this train
at Kemble in order to reach
Cirencester, which is
described as one of the greatest
marts in England for wool.
I'm told that the Gloucestershire
downs which formerly lay open,
producing little else
other than furs,
are now converted into
arable enclosed fields.
In the Victorian period, agriculture
was becoming more productive
and more scientific, and farming was a
suitable subject for academic study -
not just something to be
picked up on the hoof.
There used to be
a station at Cirencester
designed by the great
Isambard Kingdom Brunei himself.
But it was closed in 1964,
a victim of the Beeching cuts.
Kemble station benefits from this
lovely garden, which was built by
and is maintained by students from
the Royal Agricultural University.
And with its beds of lavender and of
rosemary, it's full of summer scents.
The Royal Agricultural College
at Cirencester opened in 1845
and received its Royal Charter
from Queen Victoria.
Her husband, Prince Albert,
was one of the early shareholders.
Built in the Victorian Gothic style,
it resembles an Oxford college
and the first intake comprised
25 sons of local landowners.
The college became a university in 2013
and now 1,200 students study here.
The motto of the college is
Arvorum Cultus Pecorumque -
a quote from Virgil's Georgics,
which means "caring for the fields
and the beasts".
A noble aim indeed.
Prof Chris Gaskell is the principal.
Chris, how very good to see you.
- Hello. Welcome to the RAU.
Thank you very much indeed.
Before there was ah agricultural college
here, What was there oh this spot?
It was a farm.
Here's the farmhouse, the old
farmhouse oh which they built
the iconic college, and behind it is
the tithe barn, the original tithe barn
of the farm, Where they
stored grain and kept animals.
Dating back to What time?
- Oh, 16th century.
You became relatively
recently a university.
Is that an important thing?
- I think it is very important.
I think it's important
for agriculture to have a
university with "agriculture" in
its name. I think it's
very important because agriculture
as a career Went through
something of a doldrum in the late
1990s, when excess production meant
that society didn't value its food
and its farmers as much as it could.
But I also think it brings
agriculture into a more
technological age and people's
concept of agriculture as just
being out in a field getting wet
and muddy is absolutely wrong.
It's highly technical these days.
The mid-19th century was a pivotal
time for the teaching
and understanding of agriculture.
Early students learning about new
fertilisers would also study
the science behind traditional
methods of crop rotation
and soil management,
and how they might increase yield.
To find out more, I'm heading out to
the fields to meet Tom Overbury...
Good to see you.
Organic expert and director
of farming at the university.
How much difference is there
between agricultural methods
when the Royal Agricultural College
was founded in 1845 and today?
Some of them will be fairly similar.
The basic principles in terms
of crop production, in terms of
preserving forage for the Winter,
they would be much the same,
but obviously, the methods that we are
using are probably fairly different.
In this case, We're making
silage as opposed to hay.
Sometimes in some of the cropping,
We're growing oilseed rape,
which they would never have
heard of then.
Well, there have been huge
technological changes -
tractors instead of horse, but
chemicals, for example - big changes.
Our chemicals have allowed us,
and pesticides have allowed us to
do quite a lot of monoculture
and pushing things
forward from that point of view,
but we're almost getting to the
stage now Where We're needing to go
back and think, well, actually,
some of the things, those old
rotations and things like that, we
must make sure that we don't forget
those basic lessons that we learnt.
Well, I think I might talk to one
of your students about these issues
if I can flag her down.
These are challenging times
for farmers and I Want to find out
What the next generation thinks
about a return to Victorian values.
Hello, Megan.
- Hi, Michael.
Megan Berryman comes from
a Cornish farming family
and this is her final
year at the university.
Now, I'm an old townie,
so tell me What it is
you're actually doing here.
We're baling up some silage here.
- And silage is What?
Wettish grass, is it?
- Yes, it is.
It's, um, grass
which has been preserved.
Important to you to get a proper
university education in agriculture?
Um, I think so.
I'm female, so it allows me a
better chance in trying to find
a job somewhere out there.
Do they actually teach any
history of farming?
Yes, they do.
They cover quite a lot of history
at the um, at the Ag University.
We should really
look into the history
and remember the Way in which
farmers used to do it.
It was good to them, like by keeping
some of their techniques and their
skills going, um, could help the
agricultural industry go further.
I wish you all the very best. I hope you
have a Wonderful career in farming.
Bye-bye, Megan. Good luck to you.
- Nice to meet you.
After all that fresh country air,
I need a place to rest my head.
So I'm going into Cirencester town
to find a bed for the night.
I've been attracted to
this 14th century coaching inn
by a mention in my Bradshaw's Guide.
During the English Civil War,
Lord Chandos came here,
recruiting on behalf
of King Charles I.
But this was parliamentary territory
and a mob murdered his supporters,
burnt his coach, and he
had to take refuge here
in the King's Head.
The irony of the name of this
hotel must have struck him,
when shortly after,
his beloved monarch lost his.
The next day,
I'm up early to continue my journey
from Chippenham, Where I join up with
the main line service going west.
I've rejoined the railway
at Chippenham in order to get
to Bath, titillated by this
reference in Bradshaw's.
"A striking campanile tower
built by William Beckford
"who died here in 1844,
and is buried in the cemetery.
"He wrote Caliph Vathek,
a most original story,
"which created quite a furore
in those days."
It all sounds novel.
Do you know Bath?
- I know Bath.
And What do you think of Bath?
- I love Bath.
I'm going to see something today that
I've never seen before. A campanile.
Built by a kind of eccentric
British novelist and millionaire.
Well, that's What Britain is
all about, isn't it?
Look at the Way you dress!
Couldn't be more eccentric!
Moi?
- Yeah!
Bath, with its peerless neoclassical
architecture, is most often
associated with the Georgian period,
when eccentricity
and bawdy behaviour were tolerated or
even actively encouraged.
But I Want to get a flavour
of What the city was like
at the time of my guidebook,
when Victorian values
and a strict moral code dictated
behaviour - in public, at least.
So before I head off in search
of Beckford's Tower,
I'm going to learn about the social
graces of the Victorian upper class.
Few things are more closely
associated with the British
than the custom of taking
afternoon tea.
But when did the tradition begin?
And What are the rules of etiquette?
I've come to meet Grant Harold,
former royal butler
and etiquette expert.
Grant, good afternoon.
- Michael, good afternoon. Welcome.
When was afternoon tea invented?
Afternoon tea was invented around
about 1840 by the Duchess of Bedford.
She felt that there was a long gap
between lunch and dinner.
So she felt that something
had to kind of fill this gap, and
she came up with this idea of asking
for some tea and some sandwiches.
Afternoon tea developed
as a private social event
for ladies in the higher
echelons of society.
But when Queen Victoria adopted it,
the ritual became a formal
occasion on a larger scale,
known as a tea reception.
I Wanted to see you alone
because I've got a tea booked with
some ladies and I'm a little bit
Worried about etiquette.
I'm a grammar school boy myself and
I don't want to get anything wrong.
Could you give me some
pointers, please?
Yes, of course.
Milk in first or second?
- It depends which class you're from.
The lower classes would put
the milk in first,
because they had clay cups,
which sometimes couldn't resist the
heat of the tea, so they would crack
but the upstairs, they had fine bone
china, which could resist the heat,
so they could put the milk in after.
Now, What about topics
of conversation?
With topics of conversation, there
was four subjects which
I could say were taboo. That was
sex, religion, money and politics.
So you'd keep clear of those.
- Those are my four special subjects!
But the problem is, a lot of people
do discuss these, but What
I would say, is in somebody's home,
don't you bring them up.
Go with your host.
Let them take the lead.
Whatever the discussion is,
then you engage in,
but if they don't discuss it, then
you haven't brought it up, either.
Fortified by Grant's advice,
We're off to join a group of ladies
from the Bath Preservation Trust.
Good afternoon, ladies.
- ALL: Good afternoon.
Thank you.
- Won't you joins us?
Thank you so much.
I really don't recall a time
when it was so unseasonably hot.
Have you observed the hot weather?
- It is very hot, yes.
I hope you had a comfortable
journey here.
I myself came on the railway
from Chippenham.
It was a very convenient journey.
I've learned today that the milk
goes in second.
Yes, indeed.
And the gaze is maintained on the
cup of tea until it reaches the face.
[HE WHISPERS]
Grant, how do I eat the sandwiches?
You pick up the plate
and bring it towards you.
The cucumber this season is
extremely crisp.
It must be something to do with
the unseasonably hot weather.
It's been such a joy to attend
such a very reactionary tea party!
And a pleasure to have you with us.
- Thank you.
Revitalised, I step out
into the streets of Bath to soak up
some more of the sandstone splendour.
I'm standing in front
of the Royal Crescent,
which Bradshaw's tells me
was a work of John Wood
the Younger from the second half
of the 18th century and apparently,
Tobias Smollett called it an antique
amphitheatre turned inside out.
I think
it's one of the most successful
pieces of architecture in Britain
and I think, if I lived in Bath,
and I saw this every morning,
particularly kissed with this
Wonderful light, my heart would soar.
Not far from here,
in Lansdown Crescent,
lived one of Bath's most
notorious characters.
William Beckford was born
in the permissive 18th century
and inherited a huge fortune founded
on Jamaican sugar plantations.
He moved to Bath in 1822 and promptly
purchased all the land leading
up to Lansdown Hill,
giving himself a mile-long garden.
On the summit he built an extraordinary
120-foot-high neoclassical tower.
Amy Frost is
the curator of Beckford's Tower
and an expert on its contents
and its owner.
I get the impression William Beckford
was a larger-than-life character.
Yeah. It all starts really, I think,
'cos he's born into this immense
Wealth and he inherits
when he's nine and a half.
And it's very well known
how much money he has,
because, you know, for
example, Byron,
when he writes about him
in Childe Harold,
refers to him as
"England's wealthiest son".
So it's an obscene amount of money
and just can indulge himself
in collecting paintings, furniture,
objects - books, above all.
What about his private life?
- Just as interesting, actually.
He has a rather kind of infamous
affair when he's in Venice,
when he's on his grand tour,
with the son of one of
the leading families in Venice.
At the same time,
he's very sort of feted in society.
People, particularly Women
of a certain age
with much, much older husbands,
find him incredibly appealing.
Shall we look inside?
- Yeah, come on in.
Every morning, Beckford would ride
out from his house in the centre of
Bath to spend the day in his tower,
which he used as a study retreat.
How did Beckford decorate
these rooms?
So originally, these rooms would
have been full of furniture
and above all, lots and lots
of objects on every surface.
The sort of objects that you can see
in these paintings, and he constantly
writes about his collection, saying
it's about Where things are placed.
He didn't sleep here. This was
hot his house. This was his retreat.
It's his treasure chest,
and he would move objects around.
And you get the idea of him sort
of putting a vase on a particular
table or surface and then not
sleeping that night,
because he knows he's put
that vase in the Wrong place.
By the time he arrived in Bath at
the age of 62, Beckford's lifestyle
was distinctly out of step with
the new Victorian morality.
His scandalous past was bad enough
but back in 1786,
he'd also published an infamous
novel, Caliph Vathek,
a tale of an Eastern potentate
of vast wealth, whose antics
still have the power to shock
and horrify 200 years on.
Why did the novel cause a furore?
Partly because of the content
itself - very decadent lifestyles
inside it - there's a palace
of the five senses, there's all these
incredibly elaborate parties
and affairs, and then this
extraordinary scene involving
50 beautiful young boys, which -
best thing for you to do is
to read that part for yourself
and make your own mind up.
"Vathek, who was still standing
on the edge of a chasm, called out,
"'let my 50 little
favourites approach me.'
"The Caliph undressed himself
by degrees and raising his arm,
"made each of the prizes
glitter in the air.
"But whilst he delivered it with
one hand to the child who sprung
"forward to receive it,
he with the other
"pushed the poor
innocent into the gulf."
Mass murder of children.
- Yes.
So you can see why it caused
quite a scandal.
Am I able to go to
the top of the tower?
Yes, of course, but, um,
you must go on your own.
It was a tower built for one man,
built for Beckford alone
so that one person could go to the top,
look at the view and read a book.
I have such a book.
Amy, thank you so much. Bye-bye.
Beckford had no qualms about
giving free rein to his lurid
and disturbing imagination and
ultimately, society ostracised him.
He died in 1844 and is buried in the
cemetery at the foot of his tower.
In the end, he'd gone through
most of his fortune,
but his great architectural legacy
is still maintained for public use.
This tower is a monument to a man
who could have whatever he wanted.
He collected Women and men the Way
he collected vases and paintings
and from all the things that he
loved and owned, he's bequeathed me
just one thing -
this exquisite view of Bath.
William Beckford was born
into the naughty 18th century
but died during
Queen Victoria's reign,
by which time
the outrageous lifestyle
and novel of his youth
would not have been tolerated.
The Victorians were serious people
who applied science to agriculture
and devised etiquette for taking tea.
Had I wandered into a 19th-century
tea party with all my social gaffes,
I would soon have
found myself snookered.
Next time, I enter the foul-smelling
world of a Victorian tannery...
I find myself well out of
my comfort zone here.
Is it dangerous?
Is pretty dangerous.
Soak up the splendour of one of
Britain's finest Gothic mansions...
Hah! A gentleman's library indeed.
The staircase is really a gem,
isn't it?
Absolutely magnificent.
And get in touch with
my spiritual side in Glastonbury.
Stay bright.
- Yeah, absolutely. And you.
[END THEME]