Great British Railway Journeys (2010–…): Season 7, Episode 16 - Ashford to Sevenoaks - 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 embarking on a new rail journey
which will take me
in a semi-circular sweep through
the Home Counties, skirting London,
which, at the time of my
Bradshaw's Guide,
was the world's greatest city at a
time of extraordinary innovation.
As we know from our own times,
technological progress goes
hand in hand with changes in
social behaviour.
And I'm looking forward to seeing how
customs and manners
were altered in a newly
mechanised age.
Following my Bradshaw's Guide,
I'll be travelling from
the county of Kent,
winding my Way through Surrey,
discovering Victorians
of great talent,
daredevil pioneers, and a royal
residence or two.
Journey's end will be riverside in
Oxfordshire at Henley-on-Thames.
Today, my journey begins in the
railway town of Ashford,
before moving on through the Kentish
Weald to call in at Marden.
I'll finish this leg in the leafy
town of Sevenoaks.
I discover the secrets of the
Victorian beauty business...
Eurgh!
That is a Princess Alexandra-style
false fringe.
Real human hair from the 1880s.
Fine-tune my piano skills...
Sounding better?
- That's pretty impressive,
considering it's your first attempt!
- Got it in one!
[THEY LAUGH]
and hear of a violent
mob in Sevenoaks.
1,500 townspeople threatened
that if Mortimer
was brought out to them,
they would hang him.
I imagine you Sackvilles
have been
fairly cautious about public
opinion ever since?
Extremely!
My first stop will be Ashford,
which Bradshaw's tells me
was "a quiet, agricultural town
in East Kent until
"the Southeastern Railway
Company made it
"the chief station for
their works,
"since which time the population has
greatly increased.
"There's a carriage house,
repairing shop,
an engine room, factories for Wheels
and boilers etc."
And I might say that today,
Ashford has the unique claim
amongst British towns of being
connected by high-speed rail to
London in 34 minutes
and Paris in well under two hours.
Ashford is one of just five stations
in the United Kingdom
to offer both domestic and
international services.
In 1996, it became Ashford
International,
with Eurostar trains stopping here en
route to and from the Continent.
The railway works, described in my
Bradshaw's Guide,
stood here for around 150 years.
Now, a new engineering operation is
based here.
In 2007, the vast Hitachi
maintenance plant was built
to support a fleet of high-speed
trains which
run on the Southeastern network.
It has both old and
new railway lines,
so these trains have to run on both.
I'm meeting Nigel King,
the fleet manager.
Nigel, a most impressive,
spanking-new facility.
What is it that you have to do here?
What we do is maintain
29 high-speed trains
for our customer, Southeastern.
It's different levels of
maintenance that we do.
The smallest is
an overnight check,
which we do every evening to
ensure the trains are
fit and available for service, all the
way through to the heavy overhaul,
which you see here today, which is
done at a frequency of 600,000 miles.
That, for us, in terms of time, is
around three and a half years
to accumulate that mileage.
What are the vital statistics to these
trains, What speed can they do?
The maximum speed is 225kph,
which is 140mph.
One of the complications is that
you have to have two sources
of electric power for these trains.
Yep, so when they're on the
high-speed line, which is
between
Ashford and London,
they're oh the AC 25,000 volts, and
they pick that up from the overhead line.
Then when we get Ashford and we go
on to the classic network,
the older network, we change over to
750-volt DC and the driver
changes to collector shoes that
go down and pick up the power.
And does that make the train much
more complicated to deal with?
It does make it more
complicated. However,
we knew that from the outset and
built that into the design.
So, train over there...
bogie, wheels, over here...
- Yeah.
How do you get the two to meet?
Human power.
- No!
All of this technology, and we still
have to use human power for this.
Nigel, if I may say so, you're
lucky that I'm here today.
Once serviced, each of the
12 bogies per train
is reattached to the carriages.
Nigel, how many tonnes are
we pushing here?
These are around 8.5 tonnes,
each bogie.
OK, well, let's go to it then.
Eurrrgh!
That's amazing. It's underway!
There's a total of 29 trains
in the system,
and during Weekday peak periods,
26 must be available for use,
making the maintenance
schedule a challenge.
It's crucial to get the trains back
into service Without delay.
James, hello.
- Hello, Michael.
Good to see you.
- And you.
I understand this train has
been serviced,
and is now going back into
the network.
Yes, it's had a 29-day exam,
it's fit to run
and we'll be taking it out on to
the stabling area.
The complication of these trains is
that they have to pick up power
from two places, both from a third
rail and from an overhead wire...
So presumably, both those systems
have to be tested before you go out?
Yes, we have to make sure that both
the pantographs are working
correctly, and also the shoe gear
we test before it leaves the shed.
The pantograph goes up,
and then the shoes go down.
Can I help with that?
Basically, if you push
the CTRL button...
And then you push the
"Pan Up Shoes Down" button
and that will raise the pantograph.
That's it.
Having checked the pantograph,
the train is then positioned
so the shoes below it can be deployed
to take power from the third rail.
Yeah, I can confirm We've got lined
volts and all ready to move
when you are, over.
[RADIO]
All received, James,
[RADIO] Yes, you are clear to
exit the shed when ready.
I imagine we will not be travelling
at 140mph?
Er, no, no.
Only 3mph out of the shed.
3mph. What's the fastest you've
ever driven one of these?
Up to 10mph on certain parts of the
yard, which We're allowed to.
[MICHAEL CHUCKLES]
I feel rather sad about this. It's a bit
like taxiing in a 747, isn't it?
All that pent-up power that
We're not using.
Well, thank you, James.
I believe that was one of the slowest
train rides I've ever taken,
but also
one of the most interesting.
Lovely, thank you.
- Thank you very much.
As I leave the hi-tech, high-speed
train to make its Way
back into the network,
I'm struck by how advances
in railways
have changed the face of Ashford.
Their arrival in the Victorian era
started a population boom
and today, the fast journey times
have made it into a commuter town.
Its transport links to the Continent
have attracted major businesses
and I'm off to see one of them.
While in Ashford, I thought I'd brush
up on the history of cosmetics.
I BLUSH to say that I know very
little about it,
but I think it has a Victorian
FOUNDATION.
I'm visiting British make-up
brand Rimmel,
which was founded in the
19th century.
It moved to the current site when its
previous factory was demolished
to make way for the international
railway station.
Before taking a tour of
the production line,
I'm meeting make-up historian
Madeleine Marsh to find out
more about the potions and powders
of Bradshaw's day.
Madeline, who was wearing make-up in
the middle of the 19th century?
People wearing cosmetics are
maybe actresses,
prostitutes, and the French.
If you were an English lady,
you Wanted a pale, refined
and unblemished complexion.
Soaps, cold creams and powders
were permissible as long as
you used a tiny bit.
So you had to look as though you did
nothing to your face,
but in fact you're putting
all these things on it.
The language on these is
particularly fascinating.
This one "used by refined
ladies and perfectly harmless".
Now What did they mean by that?
That implies that something
had been harmFUL.
Yeah, and What had been harmful
was face paints.
Enamelling, as they called it,
As used in the 18th century, ladies
died from lead poisoning.
There was arsenic, there was
mercury included.
So all these manufacturers
are desperate to say this was safe.
Now, What We've left out is hair.
Hair was very important.
And the less you did to your face,
the more you Wanted to do
to your hair.
Big hair, huge pompadour hairstyles,
everything had to be frizzed.
Now think, What would that crimper
have done to your hair?
Terrible stories of ladies burning
themselves and losing their hair.
And because of that, we needed this,
and you would have worn this as
well, Michael, this is bear's grease.
You're not serious?
- Oh, you Would.
Everybody wore this.
It was made from the fat of bears.
Brown bears were particularly
preferred.
Later on in the 19th century, they
turned to vegetal oils
like Rowlands' Macassar Oil,
which might be palm,
it might be olive oil, and that's
why on chairs and in trains today,
even so, you get the anti-macassar
on the back of the seat to stop
a gentlemen's greasy head from
leaving a nasty trail.
What's in the box?
Be my guest.
Eurgh!
' Mmm!
What is that?
Well, What with curling your hair,
dyeing your hair,
female baldness was quite a problem
and that is a Princess
Alexandra-style false fringe.
' Mmm!
- A fringe'?
Yes. Real human hair from
the 1880s.
In this period, an important new name
in the cosmetic industry emerged.
In 1880, Eugene Rimmel, a perfumer
to the court of Queen Victoria
invented What's believed to be the
world's first non-toxic mascara.
So popular was this product that it
made him a household name,
and today the word for "mascara"
in several languages is "Rimmel".
I'm meeting Mary Brady,
the Ashford plant manager, to take
a look at today's operations.
Mary, you have really a vast
facility here.
How many products are coming
out of this factory?
We end up manufacturing about
160 million units a year.
I get the impression that Eugene was
the great innovator.
What was it about the man that made
him a success, do you think?
He was brilliant. He was a brilliant
marketeer, he was a pioneer.
He took advantage of some
of the things that were
going on in the Victorian era.
For example,
Valentine's Day cards were really
popular, so he started sending
the first Valentine's Day cards
that were scented!
[MICHAEL LAUGHS]
It Wasn't until the early 20th
century that make-up
became widely accepted in society.
Here on the high-speed
production line,
two mascaras are made every second.
I'm sure that Eugene Rimmel would be
impressed that his invention,
now applied on an industrial scale,
has changed the face of beauty.
From Ashford International station,
I'm taking a short trip westwards
along the line towards Tonbridge.
My next stop will be Headcorn.
Bradshaw's rather dismissively says
that the village possesses
"no feature of particular or general
interest beyond the splendid
"old oak tree in the churchyard".
But with evening drawing on, there is
a cryptic mention of a hotel.
I plan to finish my day at the
George, if I can locate it.
Several miles later, and I find myself
in the next town.
Looking for the George Inn
at Headcorn,
mentioned in my Bradshaw's, I've had
to come as far as Cranbrook,
but this could well be the one
mentioned in the guidebook,
because it's old enough.
Queen Elizabeth I stayed here
in 1573.
Now she, poor lady, was probably
slowly poisoned by the
white face paint that
she applied.
So I'd like to drink her health.
Not that that Will MAKE UP for it.
It's the start of my second day,
and at Headcorn, I'm rejoining
the Southeastern network
that serves this beautiful part of
Kent to make another short journey.
I shall be leaving this
train at Marden.
Before the wireless or television,
music provided entertainment
for many a home.
And thanks to technological
development
throughout the 19th century,
one instrument in particular
contributed mightily to family
harmony.
[PIANO PLAYS A SEDATE MELODY]
On the Southeastern main line,
Marden is my alighting point for
Finchcocks Musical Museum.
Housed in a glorious
Georgian mansion,
it's an outstanding collection of
over 100 keyboard instruments,
with chamber organs, harpsichords, as
well as around 70 pianos.
From the original grands to the
more compact squares,
right through to modern uprights.
I want to find out more
about this instrument,
which became ubiquitous in the
Victorian era.
Gary Branch is both pianist
and piano historian.
Gary, a lovely welcome.
What was that piece?
Well, that was a piece called The Lake,
by William Sterndale Bennett
and it was very typical of the type
of music that would have been
played on square pianos
just like this one.
What sorts of families would
be able to
afford pianos during the
19th century?
And did they spread, as it were,
down the social scale?
Absolutely. When you go back to
the 18th century,
they would have only been affordable
by the wealthiest people in society.
As the Industrial Revolution came
along, mechanisation
and changes in industrial skills and
technology made it easier
and cheaper to make pianos,
so you have more people who
could afford, and also you
were able to make the instruments
much cheaper,
so it became hugely popular.
The piano was sort of the
centre of the home.
It was the home
entertainment system.
So it was really put upon, often,
young ladies of the house to learn to
play the instruments, then other
members of the family sing along.
This is a very handsome instrument.
Do we know its origin,
do we know who owned it?
We do. And it's an interesting story,
because
this particular one was
hired by a very, very special person
indeed, and that was Queen Victoria.
Queen Victoria hired this piano?
- She did indeed, yes.
On three or four occasions
in the 1860s,
and then permanently from
1870 to 1901.
And she played?
- She played, she was a good pianist.
She was not as good, of course,
as her husband Prince Albert.
He'd had lessons with
Felix Mendelssohn,
Queen Victoria
was a Wonderful singer.
So they would sit and play and sing
together to the family.
So they were doing very much
What people
in the rest of the country were
doing in their own homes
and sort of leading the way, as it
were, in music at that time.
The instrument that Queen Victoria
hired was a square piano
by Broadwood, one of the
pre-eminent makers of the day.
In the late 19th century,
it started to produce a model
designed for the masses.
The upright piano.
Compact and cheaper, it suited
smaller houses and Wallets.
The company still exists today as
John Broadwood and Sons.
And alongside manufacturing, they
conserve and restore pianos.
Hilary Martin is one of
the restorers.
Hello, Hilary.
Hello.
- Sorry to disturb you.
What is this piano
you're working on?
This is a 1870s Broadwood
Cottage upright.
It came in in a very sorry state.
Looks like you're
pretty much finished
and you're just tuning it up
now, are you?
Yes. This will give you
the first note, C.
We put that C into that fork note
and then we work out from there the
intervals Within the scale
and then work out in octaves going
to the top and going to the bottom.
We've pretty much done
this one, but...
[PLAYS OUT-OF-TUNE NOTE]
Ooh.
There's one note that's not
quite right.
We've put the crank on
the right string...
So if you care to have a
hold of...
the lever there.
- Yes.
And then play that octave, F to F.
And just see if you can bring up
that note.
[PLAYS NOTE IN TUNE]
Oh!
- Sounding better?
That's pretty impressive,
considering it's your first attempt!
Got it in one!
[THEY LAUGH]
Beginner's luck, I think.
Yes, not bad.
This piano, it's about 145 years
old. Will it last another 145?
Oh, yes, easily.
I'm sure the people who made it
would never have guessed that
this was going to last well into
21 St century.
The Victorians built to last.
- They certainly did.
I'm heading back to the
station at Marden.
And for the next part of my journey,
I'll remain in the gentle, rural
scenery of the Kentish Weald as I
travel westwards along the tracks.
My next stop will be in What
Bradshaw's calls
"the beautiful village of Sevenoaks,
"which contains Knole Park, the
seat of the Sackvilles."
"The mansion is in the
old English style,
"castellated with square towers,
one of the most splendid
"seats in the kingdom, and the
collection of paintings is very fine".
I look forward to hearing the family
history from a Sackville.
The Southeastern Railway came to
Sevenoaks relatively late, in 1868.
And Within just a few years,
it was already an attractive commuter
town for London,
with access to beautiful
green spaces.
Located close to the town centre is
Knole Park, a vast 'LOGO-acre
medieval deer park, which is also the
setting for the imposing Knole House.
Originally built in the
mid 15th century,
since 1604, it's been the seat of the
Sackvilles, an aristocratic family
which over the years has been in and
out of the public eye.
Michael, Welcome to Knole.
To find more about this
intriguing family,
I'm meeting the current Baron,
Robert Sackville-West.
It is a stunning house, as my
Bradshaw's had promised me.
How did it come into
the Sackville family?
Well, it began life as a small
manor house. It was then
acquired by the archbishops of
Canterbury, as their sort of
personal residence, and then was
confiscated from them
by King Henry VIII, who used it as
a royal residence, and then
Thomas Sackville, the first member
of my family to live at Knole,
who was Lord Treasurer - that's
sort of the equivalent of
Chancellor
of the Exchequer.
And in those days, if you were
Lord Treasurer,
you could award or sell to
Whoever you liked,
royal freeholds, and so he did
decide to sell
a royal freehold to himself at a
reasonable price.
And, well, he got a very nice
property
and I dare say a good bargain too.
What somewhat surprises me is it's
so close to Sevenoaks.
It's not removed at all. That's quite
unusual, isn't it?
Well, it is unusual
and it was the temporary closure of
the park in the 19th century
that sparked What can only be
described as riots in Sevenoaks in 1884.
One of my ancestors, Mortimer,
decided for his own reasons to close
the park to the public.
And 1,500 townspeople
tore down the posts
he'd erected across the
gate, shouted abuse at Mortimer,
broke a few windows and
threatened that
if Mortimer was brought out to them,
they would hang him.
A compromise was reached
Within about a year
and it's been open Without
interruption ever since.
I imagine you Sackvilles have
been fairly cautious
about public opinion ever since?
- Extremely!
[THEY LAUGH]
Knole House is enormous,
built on a magnificent scale.
Its interior reveals one opulent
chamber after another,
housing priceless artworks and
tapestries
collected over the centuries.
It's also home to the most complete
set of royal Stuart furniture
in the world, which came from the
royal palaces of
Kensington, Whitehall
and Hampton Court.
So who was it that succeeded
Mortimer?
Well, he was succeeded by his rather
feckless younger brother,
Lionel Sackville-West, in 1888.
But he brought with him to Knole
an encumbrance, really.
And that encumbrance was the fact
that he had five illegitimate children.
Lionel Sackville-West had a
19-year relationship
with a Spanish dancer known as
"Pepita",
which produced the five children.
One of them, Victoria, managed to
inherit the estate
by marrying her first cousin, also
called Lionel, who was the heir.
Such a prize didn't go
unchallenged.
There was a moment in 1910 Where
they were probably the most
notorious family in the country,
because one of the five illegitimate
children brought a claim
that he was in fact the legitimate
heir to the title and to Knole.
The succession case in which they
were embroiled was on the front
pages of newspapers both in America
and in England.
And did he succeed in that?
He didn't succeed and, tragically,
about four years later,
he committed suicide.
The best known member of your family
is probably Vita Sackville-West.
Now, Where did she derive from?
She was the daughter of Victoria and
Victoria's first cousin, Lionel,
and she was born and brought up
at Knole
and she absolutely loved her
lonely childhood,
Wandering around the house, looking
in drawers, finding things out.
She adored the place.
Born in 1892, Vita Sackville-West was
a successful poet and novelist.
She's remembered for her
works of literature
and for her same-sex affairs,
notably with Virginia Woolf,
whose famous novel Orlando
celebrates their friendship.
On the death of Vita's father in
1928, Knole passed not to her,
but to the next male heir, Robert's
great-uncle, Charles Sackville-West.
You're the 14th generation of your
family to live at Knole.
What is it about the place that
captures you?
I think most people, the first thing
that strikes you about Knole
is its sheer size.
And that you can wander around it
and still make discoveries here.
But the other thing,
from my perspective,
is that it is very unusual for one
house to have been inhabited
continuously, really, for 400 years
by members of one family.
And though at times that sense of
history can be a little oppressive,
at other times, it's a Wonderful
experience.
Whilst one family has lived
here for hundreds of years,
the 19th century was
a time of change.
Advances in piano-making enabled the
middle-classes to enjoy
home-made music, and the sight of
mothers and daughters playing
and singing together is
a Victorian cliche.
Elsewhere, technological advances
produced non-toxic make-up
and the change
was more than cosmetic.
It transformed What was considered
proper and decent
and the New Woman, in her lipstick
and mascara, was unlikely to
believe that her proper place in life
was on the piano stool.
Next time...
[TRAIN WHISTLES]
I volunteer at a heritage
railway...
Wah!
And feel the pressure.
I discover a 19th-century painter
who, 100 years later,
changed the course of history...
President Obama talks about being
converted to a life of political activity
through a sermon
on Watts's painting of Hope.
And I have a blast with a
formidable Victorian invention.
Three, two, one...
Whoa!
[END THEME]
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 embarking on a new rail journey
which will take me
in a semi-circular sweep through
the Home Counties, skirting London,
which, at the time of my
Bradshaw's Guide,
was the world's greatest city at a
time of extraordinary innovation.
As we know from our own times,
technological progress goes
hand in hand with changes in
social behaviour.
And I'm looking forward to seeing how
customs and manners
were altered in a newly
mechanised age.
Following my Bradshaw's Guide,
I'll be travelling from
the county of Kent,
winding my Way through Surrey,
discovering Victorians
of great talent,
daredevil pioneers, and a royal
residence or two.
Journey's end will be riverside in
Oxfordshire at Henley-on-Thames.
Today, my journey begins in the
railway town of Ashford,
before moving on through the Kentish
Weald to call in at Marden.
I'll finish this leg in the leafy
town of Sevenoaks.
I discover the secrets of the
Victorian beauty business...
Eurgh!
That is a Princess Alexandra-style
false fringe.
Real human hair from the 1880s.
Fine-tune my piano skills...
Sounding better?
- That's pretty impressive,
considering it's your first attempt!
- Got it in one!
[THEY LAUGH]
and hear of a violent
mob in Sevenoaks.
1,500 townspeople threatened
that if Mortimer
was brought out to them,
they would hang him.
I imagine you Sackvilles
have been
fairly cautious about public
opinion ever since?
Extremely!
My first stop will be Ashford,
which Bradshaw's tells me
was "a quiet, agricultural town
in East Kent until
"the Southeastern Railway
Company made it
"the chief station for
their works,
"since which time the population has
greatly increased.
"There's a carriage house,
repairing shop,
an engine room, factories for Wheels
and boilers etc."
And I might say that today,
Ashford has the unique claim
amongst British towns of being
connected by high-speed rail to
London in 34 minutes
and Paris in well under two hours.
Ashford is one of just five stations
in the United Kingdom
to offer both domestic and
international services.
In 1996, it became Ashford
International,
with Eurostar trains stopping here en
route to and from the Continent.
The railway works, described in my
Bradshaw's Guide,
stood here for around 150 years.
Now, a new engineering operation is
based here.
In 2007, the vast Hitachi
maintenance plant was built
to support a fleet of high-speed
trains which
run on the Southeastern network.
It has both old and
new railway lines,
so these trains have to run on both.
I'm meeting Nigel King,
the fleet manager.
Nigel, a most impressive,
spanking-new facility.
What is it that you have to do here?
What we do is maintain
29 high-speed trains
for our customer, Southeastern.
It's different levels of
maintenance that we do.
The smallest is
an overnight check,
which we do every evening to
ensure the trains are
fit and available for service, all the
way through to the heavy overhaul,
which you see here today, which is
done at a frequency of 600,000 miles.
That, for us, in terms of time, is
around three and a half years
to accumulate that mileage.
What are the vital statistics to these
trains, What speed can they do?
The maximum speed is 225kph,
which is 140mph.
One of the complications is that
you have to have two sources
of electric power for these trains.
Yep, so when they're on the
high-speed line, which is
between
Ashford and London,
they're oh the AC 25,000 volts, and
they pick that up from the overhead line.
Then when we get Ashford and we go
on to the classic network,
the older network, we change over to
750-volt DC and the driver
changes to collector shoes that
go down and pick up the power.
And does that make the train much
more complicated to deal with?
It does make it more
complicated. However,
we knew that from the outset and
built that into the design.
So, train over there...
bogie, wheels, over here...
- Yeah.
How do you get the two to meet?
Human power.
- No!
All of this technology, and we still
have to use human power for this.
Nigel, if I may say so, you're
lucky that I'm here today.
Once serviced, each of the
12 bogies per train
is reattached to the carriages.
Nigel, how many tonnes are
we pushing here?
These are around 8.5 tonnes,
each bogie.
OK, well, let's go to it then.
Eurrrgh!
That's amazing. It's underway!
There's a total of 29 trains
in the system,
and during Weekday peak periods,
26 must be available for use,
making the maintenance
schedule a challenge.
It's crucial to get the trains back
into service Without delay.
James, hello.
- Hello, Michael.
Good to see you.
- And you.
I understand this train has
been serviced,
and is now going back into
the network.
Yes, it's had a 29-day exam,
it's fit to run
and we'll be taking it out on to
the stabling area.
The complication of these trains is
that they have to pick up power
from two places, both from a third
rail and from an overhead wire...
So presumably, both those systems
have to be tested before you go out?
Yes, we have to make sure that both
the pantographs are working
correctly, and also the shoe gear
we test before it leaves the shed.
The pantograph goes up,
and then the shoes go down.
Can I help with that?
Basically, if you push
the CTRL button...
And then you push the
"Pan Up Shoes Down" button
and that will raise the pantograph.
That's it.
Having checked the pantograph,
the train is then positioned
so the shoes below it can be deployed
to take power from the third rail.
Yeah, I can confirm We've got lined
volts and all ready to move
when you are, over.
[RADIO]
All received, James,
[RADIO] Yes, you are clear to
exit the shed when ready.
I imagine we will not be travelling
at 140mph?
Er, no, no.
Only 3mph out of the shed.
3mph. What's the fastest you've
ever driven one of these?
Up to 10mph on certain parts of the
yard, which We're allowed to.
[MICHAEL CHUCKLES]
I feel rather sad about this. It's a bit
like taxiing in a 747, isn't it?
All that pent-up power that
We're not using.
Well, thank you, James.
I believe that was one of the slowest
train rides I've ever taken,
but also
one of the most interesting.
Lovely, thank you.
- Thank you very much.
As I leave the hi-tech, high-speed
train to make its Way
back into the network,
I'm struck by how advances
in railways
have changed the face of Ashford.
Their arrival in the Victorian era
started a population boom
and today, the fast journey times
have made it into a commuter town.
Its transport links to the Continent
have attracted major businesses
and I'm off to see one of them.
While in Ashford, I thought I'd brush
up on the history of cosmetics.
I BLUSH to say that I know very
little about it,
but I think it has a Victorian
FOUNDATION.
I'm visiting British make-up
brand Rimmel,
which was founded in the
19th century.
It moved to the current site when its
previous factory was demolished
to make way for the international
railway station.
Before taking a tour of
the production line,
I'm meeting make-up historian
Madeleine Marsh to find out
more about the potions and powders
of Bradshaw's day.
Madeline, who was wearing make-up in
the middle of the 19th century?
People wearing cosmetics are
maybe actresses,
prostitutes, and the French.
If you were an English lady,
you Wanted a pale, refined
and unblemished complexion.
Soaps, cold creams and powders
were permissible as long as
you used a tiny bit.
So you had to look as though you did
nothing to your face,
but in fact you're putting
all these things on it.
The language on these is
particularly fascinating.
This one "used by refined
ladies and perfectly harmless".
Now What did they mean by that?
That implies that something
had been harmFUL.
Yeah, and What had been harmful
was face paints.
Enamelling, as they called it,
As used in the 18th century, ladies
died from lead poisoning.
There was arsenic, there was
mercury included.
So all these manufacturers
are desperate to say this was safe.
Now, What We've left out is hair.
Hair was very important.
And the less you did to your face,
the more you Wanted to do
to your hair.
Big hair, huge pompadour hairstyles,
everything had to be frizzed.
Now think, What would that crimper
have done to your hair?
Terrible stories of ladies burning
themselves and losing their hair.
And because of that, we needed this,
and you would have worn this as
well, Michael, this is bear's grease.
You're not serious?
- Oh, you Would.
Everybody wore this.
It was made from the fat of bears.
Brown bears were particularly
preferred.
Later on in the 19th century, they
turned to vegetal oils
like Rowlands' Macassar Oil,
which might be palm,
it might be olive oil, and that's
why on chairs and in trains today,
even so, you get the anti-macassar
on the back of the seat to stop
a gentlemen's greasy head from
leaving a nasty trail.
What's in the box?
Be my guest.
Eurgh!
' Mmm!
What is that?
Well, What with curling your hair,
dyeing your hair,
female baldness was quite a problem
and that is a Princess
Alexandra-style false fringe.
' Mmm!
- A fringe'?
Yes. Real human hair from
the 1880s.
In this period, an important new name
in the cosmetic industry emerged.
In 1880, Eugene Rimmel, a perfumer
to the court of Queen Victoria
invented What's believed to be the
world's first non-toxic mascara.
So popular was this product that it
made him a household name,
and today the word for "mascara"
in several languages is "Rimmel".
I'm meeting Mary Brady,
the Ashford plant manager, to take
a look at today's operations.
Mary, you have really a vast
facility here.
How many products are coming
out of this factory?
We end up manufacturing about
160 million units a year.
I get the impression that Eugene was
the great innovator.
What was it about the man that made
him a success, do you think?
He was brilliant. He was a brilliant
marketeer, he was a pioneer.
He took advantage of some
of the things that were
going on in the Victorian era.
For example,
Valentine's Day cards were really
popular, so he started sending
the first Valentine's Day cards
that were scented!
[MICHAEL LAUGHS]
It Wasn't until the early 20th
century that make-up
became widely accepted in society.
Here on the high-speed
production line,
two mascaras are made every second.
I'm sure that Eugene Rimmel would be
impressed that his invention,
now applied on an industrial scale,
has changed the face of beauty.
From Ashford International station,
I'm taking a short trip westwards
along the line towards Tonbridge.
My next stop will be Headcorn.
Bradshaw's rather dismissively says
that the village possesses
"no feature of particular or general
interest beyond the splendid
"old oak tree in the churchyard".
But with evening drawing on, there is
a cryptic mention of a hotel.
I plan to finish my day at the
George, if I can locate it.
Several miles later, and I find myself
in the next town.
Looking for the George Inn
at Headcorn,
mentioned in my Bradshaw's, I've had
to come as far as Cranbrook,
but this could well be the one
mentioned in the guidebook,
because it's old enough.
Queen Elizabeth I stayed here
in 1573.
Now she, poor lady, was probably
slowly poisoned by the
white face paint that
she applied.
So I'd like to drink her health.
Not that that Will MAKE UP for it.
It's the start of my second day,
and at Headcorn, I'm rejoining
the Southeastern network
that serves this beautiful part of
Kent to make another short journey.
I shall be leaving this
train at Marden.
Before the wireless or television,
music provided entertainment
for many a home.
And thanks to technological
development
throughout the 19th century,
one instrument in particular
contributed mightily to family
harmony.
[PIANO PLAYS A SEDATE MELODY]
On the Southeastern main line,
Marden is my alighting point for
Finchcocks Musical Museum.
Housed in a glorious
Georgian mansion,
it's an outstanding collection of
over 100 keyboard instruments,
with chamber organs, harpsichords, as
well as around 70 pianos.
From the original grands to the
more compact squares,
right through to modern uprights.
I want to find out more
about this instrument,
which became ubiquitous in the
Victorian era.
Gary Branch is both pianist
and piano historian.
Gary, a lovely welcome.
What was that piece?
Well, that was a piece called The Lake,
by William Sterndale Bennett
and it was very typical of the type
of music that would have been
played on square pianos
just like this one.
What sorts of families would
be able to
afford pianos during the
19th century?
And did they spread, as it were,
down the social scale?
Absolutely. When you go back to
the 18th century,
they would have only been affordable
by the wealthiest people in society.
As the Industrial Revolution came
along, mechanisation
and changes in industrial skills and
technology made it easier
and cheaper to make pianos,
so you have more people who
could afford, and also you
were able to make the instruments
much cheaper,
so it became hugely popular.
The piano was sort of the
centre of the home.
It was the home
entertainment system.
So it was really put upon, often,
young ladies of the house to learn to
play the instruments, then other
members of the family sing along.
This is a very handsome instrument.
Do we know its origin,
do we know who owned it?
We do. And it's an interesting story,
because
this particular one was
hired by a very, very special person
indeed, and that was Queen Victoria.
Queen Victoria hired this piano?
- She did indeed, yes.
On three or four occasions
in the 1860s,
and then permanently from
1870 to 1901.
And she played?
- She played, she was a good pianist.
She was not as good, of course,
as her husband Prince Albert.
He'd had lessons with
Felix Mendelssohn,
Queen Victoria
was a Wonderful singer.
So they would sit and play and sing
together to the family.
So they were doing very much
What people
in the rest of the country were
doing in their own homes
and sort of leading the way, as it
were, in music at that time.
The instrument that Queen Victoria
hired was a square piano
by Broadwood, one of the
pre-eminent makers of the day.
In the late 19th century,
it started to produce a model
designed for the masses.
The upright piano.
Compact and cheaper, it suited
smaller houses and Wallets.
The company still exists today as
John Broadwood and Sons.
And alongside manufacturing, they
conserve and restore pianos.
Hilary Martin is one of
the restorers.
Hello, Hilary.
Hello.
- Sorry to disturb you.
What is this piano
you're working on?
This is a 1870s Broadwood
Cottage upright.
It came in in a very sorry state.
Looks like you're
pretty much finished
and you're just tuning it up
now, are you?
Yes. This will give you
the first note, C.
We put that C into that fork note
and then we work out from there the
intervals Within the scale
and then work out in octaves going
to the top and going to the bottom.
We've pretty much done
this one, but...
[PLAYS OUT-OF-TUNE NOTE]
Ooh.
There's one note that's not
quite right.
We've put the crank on
the right string...
So if you care to have a
hold of...
the lever there.
- Yes.
And then play that octave, F to F.
And just see if you can bring up
that note.
[PLAYS NOTE IN TUNE]
Oh!
- Sounding better?
That's pretty impressive,
considering it's your first attempt!
Got it in one!
[THEY LAUGH]
Beginner's luck, I think.
Yes, not bad.
This piano, it's about 145 years
old. Will it last another 145?
Oh, yes, easily.
I'm sure the people who made it
would never have guessed that
this was going to last well into
21 St century.
The Victorians built to last.
- They certainly did.
I'm heading back to the
station at Marden.
And for the next part of my journey,
I'll remain in the gentle, rural
scenery of the Kentish Weald as I
travel westwards along the tracks.
My next stop will be in What
Bradshaw's calls
"the beautiful village of Sevenoaks,
"which contains Knole Park, the
seat of the Sackvilles."
"The mansion is in the
old English style,
"castellated with square towers,
one of the most splendid
"seats in the kingdom, and the
collection of paintings is very fine".
I look forward to hearing the family
history from a Sackville.
The Southeastern Railway came to
Sevenoaks relatively late, in 1868.
And Within just a few years,
it was already an attractive commuter
town for London,
with access to beautiful
green spaces.
Located close to the town centre is
Knole Park, a vast 'LOGO-acre
medieval deer park, which is also the
setting for the imposing Knole House.
Originally built in the
mid 15th century,
since 1604, it's been the seat of the
Sackvilles, an aristocratic family
which over the years has been in and
out of the public eye.
Michael, Welcome to Knole.
To find more about this
intriguing family,
I'm meeting the current Baron,
Robert Sackville-West.
It is a stunning house, as my
Bradshaw's had promised me.
How did it come into
the Sackville family?
Well, it began life as a small
manor house. It was then
acquired by the archbishops of
Canterbury, as their sort of
personal residence, and then was
confiscated from them
by King Henry VIII, who used it as
a royal residence, and then
Thomas Sackville, the first member
of my family to live at Knole,
who was Lord Treasurer - that's
sort of the equivalent of
Chancellor
of the Exchequer.
And in those days, if you were
Lord Treasurer,
you could award or sell to
Whoever you liked,
royal freeholds, and so he did
decide to sell
a royal freehold to himself at a
reasonable price.
And, well, he got a very nice
property
and I dare say a good bargain too.
What somewhat surprises me is it's
so close to Sevenoaks.
It's not removed at all. That's quite
unusual, isn't it?
Well, it is unusual
and it was the temporary closure of
the park in the 19th century
that sparked What can only be
described as riots in Sevenoaks in 1884.
One of my ancestors, Mortimer,
decided for his own reasons to close
the park to the public.
And 1,500 townspeople
tore down the posts
he'd erected across the
gate, shouted abuse at Mortimer,
broke a few windows and
threatened that
if Mortimer was brought out to them,
they would hang him.
A compromise was reached
Within about a year
and it's been open Without
interruption ever since.
I imagine you Sackvilles have
been fairly cautious
about public opinion ever since?
- Extremely!
[THEY LAUGH]
Knole House is enormous,
built on a magnificent scale.
Its interior reveals one opulent
chamber after another,
housing priceless artworks and
tapestries
collected over the centuries.
It's also home to the most complete
set of royal Stuart furniture
in the world, which came from the
royal palaces of
Kensington, Whitehall
and Hampton Court.
So who was it that succeeded
Mortimer?
Well, he was succeeded by his rather
feckless younger brother,
Lionel Sackville-West, in 1888.
But he brought with him to Knole
an encumbrance, really.
And that encumbrance was the fact
that he had five illegitimate children.
Lionel Sackville-West had a
19-year relationship
with a Spanish dancer known as
"Pepita",
which produced the five children.
One of them, Victoria, managed to
inherit the estate
by marrying her first cousin, also
called Lionel, who was the heir.
Such a prize didn't go
unchallenged.
There was a moment in 1910 Where
they were probably the most
notorious family in the country,
because one of the five illegitimate
children brought a claim
that he was in fact the legitimate
heir to the title and to Knole.
The succession case in which they
were embroiled was on the front
pages of newspapers both in America
and in England.
And did he succeed in that?
He didn't succeed and, tragically,
about four years later,
he committed suicide.
The best known member of your family
is probably Vita Sackville-West.
Now, Where did she derive from?
She was the daughter of Victoria and
Victoria's first cousin, Lionel,
and she was born and brought up
at Knole
and she absolutely loved her
lonely childhood,
Wandering around the house, looking
in drawers, finding things out.
She adored the place.
Born in 1892, Vita Sackville-West was
a successful poet and novelist.
She's remembered for her
works of literature
and for her same-sex affairs,
notably with Virginia Woolf,
whose famous novel Orlando
celebrates their friendship.
On the death of Vita's father in
1928, Knole passed not to her,
but to the next male heir, Robert's
great-uncle, Charles Sackville-West.
You're the 14th generation of your
family to live at Knole.
What is it about the place that
captures you?
I think most people, the first thing
that strikes you about Knole
is its sheer size.
And that you can wander around it
and still make discoveries here.
But the other thing,
from my perspective,
is that it is very unusual for one
house to have been inhabited
continuously, really, for 400 years
by members of one family.
And though at times that sense of
history can be a little oppressive,
at other times, it's a Wonderful
experience.
Whilst one family has lived
here for hundreds of years,
the 19th century was
a time of change.
Advances in piano-making enabled the
middle-classes to enjoy
home-made music, and the sight of
mothers and daughters playing
and singing together is
a Victorian cliche.
Elsewhere, technological advances
produced non-toxic make-up
and the change
was more than cosmetic.
It transformed What was considered
proper and decent
and the New Woman, in her lipstick
and mascara, was unlikely to
believe that her proper place in life
was on the piano stool.
Next time...
[TRAIN WHISTLES]
I volunteer at a heritage
railway...
Wah!
And feel the pressure.
I discover a 19th-century painter
who, 100 years later,
changed the course of history...
President Obama talks about being
converted to a life of political activity
through a sermon
on Watts's painting of Hope.
And I have a blast with a
formidable Victorian invention.
Three, two, one...
Whoa!
[END THEME]