Great British Railway Journeys (2010–…): Season 7, Episode 17 - East Grinstead to Guildford - 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.
Oh my semi-circular route, through
the home counties south of London,
I'm continuing with the theme of
Victorian innovation,
some of which
was positively explosive.
And at the same time,
musicians and painters were also
exploring new frontiers.
Following my Bradshaw's Guide,
I've travelled through Kent
and am continuing through Surrey,
Where I'll be encountering Victorians
of talent,
fearlessness and pedigree.
My final destination is in
Oxfordshire, riverside,
at Henley-On-Thames.
Today's journey begins back in time,
at East Grinstead.
There are explosions in Merstham,
sweet music in Dorking
and art near Guildford.
[TRAIN WHISTLE SOUNDS]
Today, I volunteer at a heritage
railway...
Wah!
And feel the pressure.
I discover a 19th-century painter
who, 100 years later,
was to change
the course of history.
President Obama talks about being
converted to a
life of political activity,
through a sermon on Watt's painting
of Hope.
And I have a blast with a formidable
Victorian invention.
Three! Two! One!
[LOUD EXPLOSION]
Whoa!
That was a much bigger bang.
My first stop will be East Grinstead.
Bradshaw's tells me this was one of
the places
disfranchised by the
Reform Act of 1832.
It must've been very small then,
no longer to qualify for a
parliamentary seat.
And even in Bradshaw's time, the
population was just 4,000.
But, for railway buffs,
it is enfranchised by a line
that is as beautiful
as it is historic.
Today, East Grinstead is a railway
terminus
for one of the radial lines
out of London.
When my guidebook was published, and
for about 70 years in total,
the line continued on to Lewes, via a
few small, rural stations.
After being closed in the 1950s,
it was raised from the dead
as one of Britain's first heritage
railways,
with the beguiling name of
the Bluebell.
NEWSREEL: "Today the Bluebell line
is run entirely by amateurs,
"who give up their weekends to
pursue this so-English hobby."
"Where else in the world would
anyone spend every day off working?"
"But then, it's said, men
never grow up
"and we suppose this is
merely an extension
"of every boy's love of trains."
Hello.
- Hello, there.
Lovely day, isn't it?
I've donned my overalls to join
today's army of 800 volunteers.
But first, I'm going to enjoy the
Bluebell as a passenger
and my travelling companion is
chairman Roy Watts.
Hello, Roy!
- Hello, Michael.
It is a rather curious line
because it doesn't really serve
any populations,
apart from East Grinstead.
So why was it built in the
first place?
It was built during that classic
heyday of railway mania,
Where everybody built a railway
line, north to south, east to west,
simply, possibly, to stop another
railway company building a line.
You've got a few stately homes
on the line,
so was it built, really, by
aristocratic influence?
Very much so. The good lords of the
day had their own station,
because it was a great symbol.
And for the passenger, What's the
joy of the line?
Well, for a lot of them, it's a real
step back in time.
It has rolling stock
from the mid-1800s,
right the Way through to
the late '50s.
So you've got people who
come along and say,
"I've travelled as Great-Grandfather
travelled,"
or, "As Dad used to travel to work."
And you can see the expression on
their faces,
when they stand in front
of the door,
expecting it to open automatically.
Whereas, they realise, they actually
have to turn the handle.
Well, I'm old enough to say,
in this carriage, that I'm travelling
as I used to travel.
The railways carries around 200,000
visitors a year.
I'm alighting at Horsted Keynes,
as I can't resist a ride on
the footplate.
Hello, may I join you?
- Hello.
I'm Michael.
- Hi, I'm Liz.
Hello, Michael.
- How do, how do.
Who's driving the train today?
- I'm driving today, yeah.
Are you? Now, that's...
I've been on a lot of heritage
railways,
I don't believe I've met a Woman
driver before.
Are you quite rare, still?
A little bit rare, yeah. There are a
few Women at other railways,
probably more than there are here.
I'm the only Woman here that's
driving at the moment.
How long have you been driving trains?
- Two years.
Just two years here, but I've been
working here for about 16.
We're off.
[TRAIN WHISTLE TOOTS]
On a day like today,
there's no reason
to feel blue on a
belle of heritage railways.
[TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS]
Sheffield Park.
We're here.
- End of the line.
Smoothly done, thank you very much.
- Thank you.
Bye!
The railway operates around 35
steam locomotives,
which need to be kept in
tiptop condition.
I'm not wearing overalls for nothing,
I'm meeting Andrew Sabin, known to
all as Horace,
to help to Wash out a boiler.
Hello, Horace.
- Hello.
I'm Michael.
- Hello, Michael.
And I believe you've got a
little job for me?
Yes, every 25 to 35 days, we have to
Wash out a boiler,
because of all the sediment.
All the impurities in the water,
like your kettle at home,
get scaling.
Now, is that fairly strong,
that hose?
Yeah, you're just about to find out.
[LAUGHTER]
Right, if you pick it up.
- Yeah.
You put it towards your body.
Into my body?
- Yep.
Right.
- Stand with your legs far apart.
I'm braced.
And Jim, behind...
- Ah, hello, Jim.
He will turn it on and off
for you, OK?
I'm ready, Jim.
On!
Wah!
Really struggling just to hold
the hose down.
That is very, very fierce.
OK, Jim, Orr!
Think you can handle it?
- That's a relief.
I think so.
- Good.
My hose skills honed, I'm let loose
on the train's boiler.
So, I stick this into...
- Into the hole.
Into the hole.
Jim, Water on, please. On?
On!
Whoa! The pressure is
pushing me back.
I'm having to hold the
nozzle in position.
The pressure hose flushes out
the sediment,
which cascades from the engine.
How long do I have to do
this for, Horace?
Until I say so.
OK, that“ do, yeah.
Horace, how many of
these plugholes
do you have to Wash out?
- 25 of them.
25? Well, I think I've got you off to
a very good start.
I think you might've done,
thank you very much.
I'm going back up the line
to East Grinstead station
and to the comfort of being a
passenger, once again.
The next part of my journey leads me
out of West Sussex...
to a change of train at
East Croydon...
with the next service taking me on
to Surrey.
My next stop will be Merstham.
Bradshaw's tells me that it was
formerly famous for its
apple orchards.
There are valuable stone quarries in
the vicinity.
And, just a few years after the
publication of my guidebook,
those quarries witnessed a remarkable
demonstration
of the potency of
modern technology.
I arrive via the Merstham Tunnel,
a feat of Victorian engineering,
which cuts through the North Downs.
And blasting through the landscape,
is What brings me to my next
destination.
In 1868, a newspaper of the day
described, "Some curious experiments,
"at the Merstham Grey-Lime
Stone Works, with dynamite,
"a new blasting powder."
I'm heading to What was
once a quarry
to meet explosives expert
Mark Wynne-Pedder,
who's going to
give me a demonstration.
Hello, Mark.
- Ah, Michael, very good timing.
Literally just put the fuse in.
It looks like you're ready for
some pyrotechnics.
Indeed.
Who actually invented gunpowder?
That was the Chinese, back in the
9th century.
What were the limitations of
gunpowder?
I mean, it was obviously
pretty effective, you know,
they thought of blowing up
parliament with it and so on.
Absolutely, 1605, the Gunpowder
Plot. Yes, very much so.
Its limitations is how it's
confined.
So, Within the Gunpowder Plot,
it was a large quantity, but in
oak barrels,
because it needs to be confined
to work.
If it's not, then you just get a
flash and a big puff of smoke.
It's not particularly dangerous.
And what've you got in here?
Here is just pure gunpowder
at the bottom
and a delay fuse in the top, just
to make it safe for us to light.
Right, What you need to do is light
the fuse right at the end,
then we retire four paces.
OK.
- Light and retreat.
Whoa! Ha, ha!
Not much of a bang, but a lovely
plume of smoke and a flash.
So that's not good enough, when does
dynamite come along?
Well, dynamite, that was invented by
Alfred Nobel, back in 1866.
Swedish chemist and engineer Nobel
came up with a revolutionary
new product that made the
powerful explosive,
nitroglycerin, safe to use.
Nitroglycerin on its own is
incredibly unstable.
It's very susceptible to shock, so,
if you drop it, it can explode.
Or compress it, it'll explode,
it's very unstable.
So how did Nobel improve on
nitroglycerin?
Well, he found that mixing it with
diatomaceous earth,
effectively a clay,
absorbs the nitroglycerin.
That was his formula for dynamite.
At the time, it was Nobel's Blasting
Powder, which is strange,
'cos it Wasn't actually a powder.
And What was it, then, that forced
him to come to Merstham Quarry?
Money, basically.
He Wanted to sell it.
It was very difficult to get in,
there was a lot of bureaucracy at
the time,
so he had to convince the
authorities that it was safe to use.
He threw it off of a cliff here,
down into the quarry,
to demonstrate both its capabilities
and its safety features.
Nobel's invention was quickly taken
up for use in construction.
In particular, blasting the landscape
to make way for the new railways.
Munitions manufacturers
adopted it next,
developing dynamite into
lethal weapons of war.
The establishment of the Nobel Peace
Prize, by Alfred himself,
was a reaction to the harmful
consequences of his invention.
You wouldn't happen to have any about
your person now, would you,
that we could have a go with?
I thought you might ask
that question...
Wow.
- So that is a stick of dynamite.
Dynamite has a shelf life of
about a year.
You have to keep turning it,
even in storage.
You have a regular cycle of
turning it round,
otherwise it becomes unstable,
again, then likely to
combust and explode.
Well, I'm sure I'm in very safe hands
with you.
May we have a bigger bang, please?
- By all means.
So, explosive all ready to go.
And, judging by the amount of cable
We've got here,
We're going more than four paces.
Oh, yes, yes. We're going
40 metres on this one.
So, site is clear.
Standing by.
Firing in...
Three! Two! One!
[LOUD EXPLOSION]
Whoa!
That was a much bigger bang.
We have recreated history, a blast
from the past!
Absolutely.
As I leave behind a
trail of destruction,
I'm heading back to Merstham Station
to complete
the final leg of today's travels.
Winding my Way west across the
home counties, I change at Redhill...
from the Southern to the
First Great Western service.
I'm going to end my day in Dorking
Where Bradshaw's mentions
The White Horse,
which seems worth a flutter.
I'm saving my exploration of Dorking
until tomorrow...
Goodnight.
And make my Way to The White Horse
which has been a hostelry since 1750
and provides my bed for tonight.
I'm starting my second day
in historic and beautiful Dorking.
This old market town is
situated between
the hill range of the North Downs
and the Greensand Ridge
up whose steep gradients I'm heading.
Leith Hill rises 294 metres
above sea level.
And once you take into account the
18th-century folly at its summit,
it becomes the highest point
in south-east England.
"Dorking is situated in a valley
commanding some of the finest views
"in the kingdom. It's a favourite
resort of lovers of rural scenery.
"There are several very beautiful
villas and mansions around the town."
It brings out the poetry in my Bradshaw's
and it inspired a resident
of one of those mansions
to burst forth in song.
Set in this glorious landscape is
Leith Hill Place -
a 17th-century Palladian mansion
which was the childhood home
of one of England's great
composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Hello, Gabrielle.
- Hello, Michael.
It's a Wonderful house
and such a view.
- It is, isn't it? Fantastic.
I'm meeting Gabrielle Gale
of the National Trust.
Leith Hill Place is clearly
a substantial house.
I take it then that
Ralph Vaughan Williams came from
quite a well-to-do family.
Yes, he was part of the Wedgwood
family and, by extension,
the Darwin family as well, because
his grandparents,
Josiah Wedgwood Ill and
his Wife Caroline -
who was sister of Charles Darwin -
came to this house in 1847.
Did he begin his musical
life in this house?
He did. His first teacher was his
Aunt Sophie, and she taught him
the piano and the violin
and also musical theory.
And was he one of these prodigies,
like Mozart?
Was he composing early?
He certainly was. In fact,
the very first piece of music
that he wrote was
when he was six years old.
It was called The Robin's Nest
and it was six bars long.
It would be hard to live in this
house for any period
and not be inspired by the view.
Was the landscape
an important influence?
Absolutely. That peace and
tranquility, I'm sure,
filtered into his music.
Perhaps Vaughan Williams is
best known for his composition,
The Lark Ascending.
[MUSIC: THE LARK ASCENDING]
It typifies the Englishness
of his work which was influenced by
his studies at the Royal College of
Music under Sir Hubert Parry -
the composer of the
great English anthem Jerusalem.
COMMENTATOR:
"We are watching members of the
"BBC Symphony Orchestra recording
"R Vaughan Williams' interpretation
of Serenade To Music."
Vaughan Williams wrote prolifically
for opera, ballet and film,
as well as creating
great choral works
and numerous orchestral symphonies.
He worked right up to his death
in 1958 at the age of 85.
And if the landscape left
an impression on him,
did he then leave
a mark on Dorking?
He did, in the form of the
Leith Hill Musical Festival,
and he was the first conductor of
that festival
and he conducted it for 50 years.
In later life, Vaughan Williams
collected English folk songs
which he incorporated into
his works.
[MUSIC BUSHES AND BRIARS]
"Through bushes
and through briars"
"I lately took my way"
"All for to hear
"The small birds sing
"And the lambs to skip
"And play."
"if I show to him
"My boldness
"He'll never love me again."
Steph...
that was lovely. Quite sad,
quite moving. Vaughan Williams?
Yes, absolutely.
This was a very important
song for Vaughan Williams.
It was the first folk song
that he ever collected
and it was the beginning of a great
big snowball of folk song collecting
that was going to be a really
important part of his life.
As a young musician yourself,
are you inspired by Vaughan Williams?
Yes, absolutely.
I grew up here in Leith Hill
the same as Vaughan Williams
and, like him,
ended up being a classical composer
that is also a folk musician
and so I kind of exist
in the same borderlands
between the traditional
and the classical worlds.
And he's a major source
of inspiration for me.
Well, I hope that you, like he,
may go on innovating
inspired by the surroundings
of Leith Hill.
Thank you.
Yes, I hope so too.
Back at Dorking Deepdene Station,
I've hopped onto my next train
heading for Guildford.
This line is a little unusual
for England's south-east.
It's a diesel, not electric and,
instead of being a radius pointing
towards one of London's
terminus stations,
it's an arc - a little bit
like a quarter of a railway M25.
And at this point,
it hugs the North Downs
which, today, are showing the
first tints of autumn.
Afternoon. Tickets, please.
Thank you very much indeed, sir.
Beautiful section of line this,
isn't it?
It certainly is,
it's a great office to work in.
It never looks the same twice.
- Thank you.
I'm often struck by references
in Bradshaw's to things that were
clearly famous at the time,
but which to me now are obscure.
I'm now going in pursuit of a painter
whose Victorian celebrity status
has failed to pass down
to the present day.
And I hope to make that discovery
in Guildford which, suitably,
my Bradshaw's
describes as "picturesque".
Guildford, surrounded
by lovely countryside,
is an important railway junction,
sewing as an interchange
between four busy lines.
Hello!
Beyond the large station's
modern facade,
the town's historic centre
retains its charm.
I'm heading to the village of
Compton, just south of Guildford,
to visit a gallery
dedicated to the works of
Victorian artist
George Frederic Watts.
The curator is Nicholas Tromans.
Hello, Nick.
- Michael, hello.
Welcome to Watts Gallery.
Thank you very much. I don't know
much about GF Watts.
Would you describe him
as a typical Victorian artist?
Really, the opposite.
He really stood aside from the
mainstream of Victorian art.
Not very interested in the Royal
Academy, not very interested
in the art market. Always
ploughing his own furrow
and a furrow that really lasts
consistently for the career
of some 70 or even 80 years.
So, he really spans from
What artist to What artist?
Early in his life,
he was exhibiting alongside Turner,
as early as the 1830s, and at the
end of his life, he's influencing
the young Picasso at the beginning
of the 20th century.
So, you're looking at an artist
whose career spans, literally,
the whole of the reign
of Queen Victoria and further.
Extraordinary.
I'd love to see some stuff.
Please, come through.
Born in 1817, Watts produced
sculpture and portraiture
and works of symbolism
and social commentary.
Give me some idea of GF Watts'
popularity during his lifetime.
In the 1880s onwards,
he was, Without exaggeration,
the most famous artist in the World.
A lot of people don't believe that
today, but it's true.
In the 1880s, he had the first ever
one-person retrospective exhibition
at the Metropolitan Museum
in New York.
And hundreds of thousands of people
Went to see it.
Just looking at these walls, there is
obviously a variety of genre.
This picture here, for example,
is very, very dark.
Very dark, very traumatic,
very tragic.
This is called The Irish Famine
and it is, as far as I know,
the only major British painting
about the Irish famine of the 1840s.
Watts shows himself as a furious
defender of the impoverished,
the downtrodden, the forgotten.
Absolutely not What you
expect in a Victorian painting.
And so has GF Watts been taken
up by politicians?
Absolutely.
There's a strong tradition
in Labour politics of people
saving up their pennies to buy
a cheap reproduction of Watts.
At a very different level,
President Obama talks about,
in his memoirs, being converted
from a life of law to a life of
political activism through a sermon
on Watts' painting of Hope.
Regarded as one of the
finest portrait painters
of the Victorian era,
he was much in demand.
Recording likenesses of the great
and the good of the day.
His larger, more symbolic paintings,
such as Time, Death and Judgment,
were also prestigiously displayed.
The picture is on loan to us
from St Paul's Cathedral,
Where it hung in the nave for most
of the 20th century
and, there, it became one of the
best known paintings in London.
It actually occurs in a scene
in EM Forster's novel Howards End.
The gallery was built after his death
in 1904 in the grounds of his home
which he shared with his second wife,
Scottish artist Mary Fraser Tytler.
She was responsible
for commissioning
the now Grade 1 listed chapel,
which is a fine example of
Arts and Crafts architecture.
Today, the whole estate is an artist
village, Where Jennie Jewitt-Harris
is the artist in residence.
Do you share things in common
with GF Watts?
Definitely. He was very interested in
the subjects of mortality and time
and those are the things that really
interest me and come out in my work.
Are these here oh the subject
of time?
Yes, they are. They all start their
life as pieces of driftwood.
So, overtime, driftwood gets its
history beaten into it
and I feel that We're a
bit like that really.
So, they're metaphors
for the passage of time.
For the majority of people who don't
know very much about GF Watts,
What are they missing?
I think they're missing someone who
was a deep thinker.
He wrote a lot about how
he Worried about the world,
and that comes out in his work.
I don't think he should be neglected
and I don't think you
should be either.
Thank you.
Ralph Vaughan Williams' interest
in traditional folk songs
might seem like a reaction against
change, but in fact his own music
represented progress towards
something completely new.
The invention of dynamite was
innovation at its most raw.
It carried the potential for enormous
construction benefits,
such as the building of railways.
But its destructive power made this
an anxious age,
perhaps reflected in GF Watts'
painting Time, Death And Judgment.
Next time, I'll get my hands dirty
at Wisley...
In the long term, this will do
the plant no end of good.
A bit of rough love.
- Absolutely.
And pitch up to see some
early camping kit.
Probably not when it's full,
Michael.
That is actually a washing-up bowl.
And get a fright at the Wheel
of a vintage racing car.
The throttle's got stuck.
No, the throttle's got stuck.
Thank you very much.
That was a nasty moment.
[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.
Oh my semi-circular route, through
the home counties south of London,
I'm continuing with the theme of
Victorian innovation,
some of which
was positively explosive.
And at the same time,
musicians and painters were also
exploring new frontiers.
Following my Bradshaw's Guide,
I've travelled through Kent
and am continuing through Surrey,
Where I'll be encountering Victorians
of talent,
fearlessness and pedigree.
My final destination is in
Oxfordshire, riverside,
at Henley-On-Thames.
Today's journey begins back in time,
at East Grinstead.
There are explosions in Merstham,
sweet music in Dorking
and art near Guildford.
[TRAIN WHISTLE SOUNDS]
Today, I volunteer at a heritage
railway...
Wah!
And feel the pressure.
I discover a 19th-century painter
who, 100 years later,
was to change
the course of history.
President Obama talks about being
converted to a
life of political activity,
through a sermon on Watt's painting
of Hope.
And I have a blast with a formidable
Victorian invention.
Three! Two! One!
[LOUD EXPLOSION]
Whoa!
That was a much bigger bang.
My first stop will be East Grinstead.
Bradshaw's tells me this was one of
the places
disfranchised by the
Reform Act of 1832.
It must've been very small then,
no longer to qualify for a
parliamentary seat.
And even in Bradshaw's time, the
population was just 4,000.
But, for railway buffs,
it is enfranchised by a line
that is as beautiful
as it is historic.
Today, East Grinstead is a railway
terminus
for one of the radial lines
out of London.
When my guidebook was published, and
for about 70 years in total,
the line continued on to Lewes, via a
few small, rural stations.
After being closed in the 1950s,
it was raised from the dead
as one of Britain's first heritage
railways,
with the beguiling name of
the Bluebell.
NEWSREEL: "Today the Bluebell line
is run entirely by amateurs,
"who give up their weekends to
pursue this so-English hobby."
"Where else in the world would
anyone spend every day off working?"
"But then, it's said, men
never grow up
"and we suppose this is
merely an extension
"of every boy's love of trains."
Hello.
- Hello, there.
Lovely day, isn't it?
I've donned my overalls to join
today's army of 800 volunteers.
But first, I'm going to enjoy the
Bluebell as a passenger
and my travelling companion is
chairman Roy Watts.
Hello, Roy!
- Hello, Michael.
It is a rather curious line
because it doesn't really serve
any populations,
apart from East Grinstead.
So why was it built in the
first place?
It was built during that classic
heyday of railway mania,
Where everybody built a railway
line, north to south, east to west,
simply, possibly, to stop another
railway company building a line.
You've got a few stately homes
on the line,
so was it built, really, by
aristocratic influence?
Very much so. The good lords of the
day had their own station,
because it was a great symbol.
And for the passenger, What's the
joy of the line?
Well, for a lot of them, it's a real
step back in time.
It has rolling stock
from the mid-1800s,
right the Way through to
the late '50s.
So you've got people who
come along and say,
"I've travelled as Great-Grandfather
travelled,"
or, "As Dad used to travel to work."
And you can see the expression on
their faces,
when they stand in front
of the door,
expecting it to open automatically.
Whereas, they realise, they actually
have to turn the handle.
Well, I'm old enough to say,
in this carriage, that I'm travelling
as I used to travel.
The railways carries around 200,000
visitors a year.
I'm alighting at Horsted Keynes,
as I can't resist a ride on
the footplate.
Hello, may I join you?
- Hello.
I'm Michael.
- Hi, I'm Liz.
Hello, Michael.
- How do, how do.
Who's driving the train today?
- I'm driving today, yeah.
Are you? Now, that's...
I've been on a lot of heritage
railways,
I don't believe I've met a Woman
driver before.
Are you quite rare, still?
A little bit rare, yeah. There are a
few Women at other railways,
probably more than there are here.
I'm the only Woman here that's
driving at the moment.
How long have you been driving trains?
- Two years.
Just two years here, but I've been
working here for about 16.
We're off.
[TRAIN WHISTLE TOOTS]
On a day like today,
there's no reason
to feel blue on a
belle of heritage railways.
[TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS]
Sheffield Park.
We're here.
- End of the line.
Smoothly done, thank you very much.
- Thank you.
Bye!
The railway operates around 35
steam locomotives,
which need to be kept in
tiptop condition.
I'm not wearing overalls for nothing,
I'm meeting Andrew Sabin, known to
all as Horace,
to help to Wash out a boiler.
Hello, Horace.
- Hello.
I'm Michael.
- Hello, Michael.
And I believe you've got a
little job for me?
Yes, every 25 to 35 days, we have to
Wash out a boiler,
because of all the sediment.
All the impurities in the water,
like your kettle at home,
get scaling.
Now, is that fairly strong,
that hose?
Yeah, you're just about to find out.
[LAUGHTER]
Right, if you pick it up.
- Yeah.
You put it towards your body.
Into my body?
- Yep.
Right.
- Stand with your legs far apart.
I'm braced.
And Jim, behind...
- Ah, hello, Jim.
He will turn it on and off
for you, OK?
I'm ready, Jim.
On!
Wah!
Really struggling just to hold
the hose down.
That is very, very fierce.
OK, Jim, Orr!
Think you can handle it?
- That's a relief.
I think so.
- Good.
My hose skills honed, I'm let loose
on the train's boiler.
So, I stick this into...
- Into the hole.
Into the hole.
Jim, Water on, please. On?
On!
Whoa! The pressure is
pushing me back.
I'm having to hold the
nozzle in position.
The pressure hose flushes out
the sediment,
which cascades from the engine.
How long do I have to do
this for, Horace?
Until I say so.
OK, that“ do, yeah.
Horace, how many of
these plugholes
do you have to Wash out?
- 25 of them.
25? Well, I think I've got you off to
a very good start.
I think you might've done,
thank you very much.
I'm going back up the line
to East Grinstead station
and to the comfort of being a
passenger, once again.
The next part of my journey leads me
out of West Sussex...
to a change of train at
East Croydon...
with the next service taking me on
to Surrey.
My next stop will be Merstham.
Bradshaw's tells me that it was
formerly famous for its
apple orchards.
There are valuable stone quarries in
the vicinity.
And, just a few years after the
publication of my guidebook,
those quarries witnessed a remarkable
demonstration
of the potency of
modern technology.
I arrive via the Merstham Tunnel,
a feat of Victorian engineering,
which cuts through the North Downs.
And blasting through the landscape,
is What brings me to my next
destination.
In 1868, a newspaper of the day
described, "Some curious experiments,
"at the Merstham Grey-Lime
Stone Works, with dynamite,
"a new blasting powder."
I'm heading to What was
once a quarry
to meet explosives expert
Mark Wynne-Pedder,
who's going to
give me a demonstration.
Hello, Mark.
- Ah, Michael, very good timing.
Literally just put the fuse in.
It looks like you're ready for
some pyrotechnics.
Indeed.
Who actually invented gunpowder?
That was the Chinese, back in the
9th century.
What were the limitations of
gunpowder?
I mean, it was obviously
pretty effective, you know,
they thought of blowing up
parliament with it and so on.
Absolutely, 1605, the Gunpowder
Plot. Yes, very much so.
Its limitations is how it's
confined.
So, Within the Gunpowder Plot,
it was a large quantity, but in
oak barrels,
because it needs to be confined
to work.
If it's not, then you just get a
flash and a big puff of smoke.
It's not particularly dangerous.
And what've you got in here?
Here is just pure gunpowder
at the bottom
and a delay fuse in the top, just
to make it safe for us to light.
Right, What you need to do is light
the fuse right at the end,
then we retire four paces.
OK.
- Light and retreat.
Whoa! Ha, ha!
Not much of a bang, but a lovely
plume of smoke and a flash.
So that's not good enough, when does
dynamite come along?
Well, dynamite, that was invented by
Alfred Nobel, back in 1866.
Swedish chemist and engineer Nobel
came up with a revolutionary
new product that made the
powerful explosive,
nitroglycerin, safe to use.
Nitroglycerin on its own is
incredibly unstable.
It's very susceptible to shock, so,
if you drop it, it can explode.
Or compress it, it'll explode,
it's very unstable.
So how did Nobel improve on
nitroglycerin?
Well, he found that mixing it with
diatomaceous earth,
effectively a clay,
absorbs the nitroglycerin.
That was his formula for dynamite.
At the time, it was Nobel's Blasting
Powder, which is strange,
'cos it Wasn't actually a powder.
And What was it, then, that forced
him to come to Merstham Quarry?
Money, basically.
He Wanted to sell it.
It was very difficult to get in,
there was a lot of bureaucracy at
the time,
so he had to convince the
authorities that it was safe to use.
He threw it off of a cliff here,
down into the quarry,
to demonstrate both its capabilities
and its safety features.
Nobel's invention was quickly taken
up for use in construction.
In particular, blasting the landscape
to make way for the new railways.
Munitions manufacturers
adopted it next,
developing dynamite into
lethal weapons of war.
The establishment of the Nobel Peace
Prize, by Alfred himself,
was a reaction to the harmful
consequences of his invention.
You wouldn't happen to have any about
your person now, would you,
that we could have a go with?
I thought you might ask
that question...
Wow.
- So that is a stick of dynamite.
Dynamite has a shelf life of
about a year.
You have to keep turning it,
even in storage.
You have a regular cycle of
turning it round,
otherwise it becomes unstable,
again, then likely to
combust and explode.
Well, I'm sure I'm in very safe hands
with you.
May we have a bigger bang, please?
- By all means.
So, explosive all ready to go.
And, judging by the amount of cable
We've got here,
We're going more than four paces.
Oh, yes, yes. We're going
40 metres on this one.
So, site is clear.
Standing by.
Firing in...
Three! Two! One!
[LOUD EXPLOSION]
Whoa!
That was a much bigger bang.
We have recreated history, a blast
from the past!
Absolutely.
As I leave behind a
trail of destruction,
I'm heading back to Merstham Station
to complete
the final leg of today's travels.
Winding my Way west across the
home counties, I change at Redhill...
from the Southern to the
First Great Western service.
I'm going to end my day in Dorking
Where Bradshaw's mentions
The White Horse,
which seems worth a flutter.
I'm saving my exploration of Dorking
until tomorrow...
Goodnight.
And make my Way to The White Horse
which has been a hostelry since 1750
and provides my bed for tonight.
I'm starting my second day
in historic and beautiful Dorking.
This old market town is
situated between
the hill range of the North Downs
and the Greensand Ridge
up whose steep gradients I'm heading.
Leith Hill rises 294 metres
above sea level.
And once you take into account the
18th-century folly at its summit,
it becomes the highest point
in south-east England.
"Dorking is situated in a valley
commanding some of the finest views
"in the kingdom. It's a favourite
resort of lovers of rural scenery.
"There are several very beautiful
villas and mansions around the town."
It brings out the poetry in my Bradshaw's
and it inspired a resident
of one of those mansions
to burst forth in song.
Set in this glorious landscape is
Leith Hill Place -
a 17th-century Palladian mansion
which was the childhood home
of one of England's great
composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Hello, Gabrielle.
- Hello, Michael.
It's a Wonderful house
and such a view.
- It is, isn't it? Fantastic.
I'm meeting Gabrielle Gale
of the National Trust.
Leith Hill Place is clearly
a substantial house.
I take it then that
Ralph Vaughan Williams came from
quite a well-to-do family.
Yes, he was part of the Wedgwood
family and, by extension,
the Darwin family as well, because
his grandparents,
Josiah Wedgwood Ill and
his Wife Caroline -
who was sister of Charles Darwin -
came to this house in 1847.
Did he begin his musical
life in this house?
He did. His first teacher was his
Aunt Sophie, and she taught him
the piano and the violin
and also musical theory.
And was he one of these prodigies,
like Mozart?
Was he composing early?
He certainly was. In fact,
the very first piece of music
that he wrote was
when he was six years old.
It was called The Robin's Nest
and it was six bars long.
It would be hard to live in this
house for any period
and not be inspired by the view.
Was the landscape
an important influence?
Absolutely. That peace and
tranquility, I'm sure,
filtered into his music.
Perhaps Vaughan Williams is
best known for his composition,
The Lark Ascending.
[MUSIC: THE LARK ASCENDING]
It typifies the Englishness
of his work which was influenced by
his studies at the Royal College of
Music under Sir Hubert Parry -
the composer of the
great English anthem Jerusalem.
COMMENTATOR:
"We are watching members of the
"BBC Symphony Orchestra recording
"R Vaughan Williams' interpretation
of Serenade To Music."
Vaughan Williams wrote prolifically
for opera, ballet and film,
as well as creating
great choral works
and numerous orchestral symphonies.
He worked right up to his death
in 1958 at the age of 85.
And if the landscape left
an impression on him,
did he then leave
a mark on Dorking?
He did, in the form of the
Leith Hill Musical Festival,
and he was the first conductor of
that festival
and he conducted it for 50 years.
In later life, Vaughan Williams
collected English folk songs
which he incorporated into
his works.
[MUSIC BUSHES AND BRIARS]
"Through bushes
and through briars"
"I lately took my way"
"All for to hear
"The small birds sing
"And the lambs to skip
"And play."
"if I show to him
"My boldness
"He'll never love me again."
Steph...
that was lovely. Quite sad,
quite moving. Vaughan Williams?
Yes, absolutely.
This was a very important
song for Vaughan Williams.
It was the first folk song
that he ever collected
and it was the beginning of a great
big snowball of folk song collecting
that was going to be a really
important part of his life.
As a young musician yourself,
are you inspired by Vaughan Williams?
Yes, absolutely.
I grew up here in Leith Hill
the same as Vaughan Williams
and, like him,
ended up being a classical composer
that is also a folk musician
and so I kind of exist
in the same borderlands
between the traditional
and the classical worlds.
And he's a major source
of inspiration for me.
Well, I hope that you, like he,
may go on innovating
inspired by the surroundings
of Leith Hill.
Thank you.
Yes, I hope so too.
Back at Dorking Deepdene Station,
I've hopped onto my next train
heading for Guildford.
This line is a little unusual
for England's south-east.
It's a diesel, not electric and,
instead of being a radius pointing
towards one of London's
terminus stations,
it's an arc - a little bit
like a quarter of a railway M25.
And at this point,
it hugs the North Downs
which, today, are showing the
first tints of autumn.
Afternoon. Tickets, please.
Thank you very much indeed, sir.
Beautiful section of line this,
isn't it?
It certainly is,
it's a great office to work in.
It never looks the same twice.
- Thank you.
I'm often struck by references
in Bradshaw's to things that were
clearly famous at the time,
but which to me now are obscure.
I'm now going in pursuit of a painter
whose Victorian celebrity status
has failed to pass down
to the present day.
And I hope to make that discovery
in Guildford which, suitably,
my Bradshaw's
describes as "picturesque".
Guildford, surrounded
by lovely countryside,
is an important railway junction,
sewing as an interchange
between four busy lines.
Hello!
Beyond the large station's
modern facade,
the town's historic centre
retains its charm.
I'm heading to the village of
Compton, just south of Guildford,
to visit a gallery
dedicated to the works of
Victorian artist
George Frederic Watts.
The curator is Nicholas Tromans.
Hello, Nick.
- Michael, hello.
Welcome to Watts Gallery.
Thank you very much. I don't know
much about GF Watts.
Would you describe him
as a typical Victorian artist?
Really, the opposite.
He really stood aside from the
mainstream of Victorian art.
Not very interested in the Royal
Academy, not very interested
in the art market. Always
ploughing his own furrow
and a furrow that really lasts
consistently for the career
of some 70 or even 80 years.
So, he really spans from
What artist to What artist?
Early in his life,
he was exhibiting alongside Turner,
as early as the 1830s, and at the
end of his life, he's influencing
the young Picasso at the beginning
of the 20th century.
So, you're looking at an artist
whose career spans, literally,
the whole of the reign
of Queen Victoria and further.
Extraordinary.
I'd love to see some stuff.
Please, come through.
Born in 1817, Watts produced
sculpture and portraiture
and works of symbolism
and social commentary.
Give me some idea of GF Watts'
popularity during his lifetime.
In the 1880s onwards,
he was, Without exaggeration,
the most famous artist in the World.
A lot of people don't believe that
today, but it's true.
In the 1880s, he had the first ever
one-person retrospective exhibition
at the Metropolitan Museum
in New York.
And hundreds of thousands of people
Went to see it.
Just looking at these walls, there is
obviously a variety of genre.
This picture here, for example,
is very, very dark.
Very dark, very traumatic,
very tragic.
This is called The Irish Famine
and it is, as far as I know,
the only major British painting
about the Irish famine of the 1840s.
Watts shows himself as a furious
defender of the impoverished,
the downtrodden, the forgotten.
Absolutely not What you
expect in a Victorian painting.
And so has GF Watts been taken
up by politicians?
Absolutely.
There's a strong tradition
in Labour politics of people
saving up their pennies to buy
a cheap reproduction of Watts.
At a very different level,
President Obama talks about,
in his memoirs, being converted
from a life of law to a life of
political activism through a sermon
on Watts' painting of Hope.
Regarded as one of the
finest portrait painters
of the Victorian era,
he was much in demand.
Recording likenesses of the great
and the good of the day.
His larger, more symbolic paintings,
such as Time, Death and Judgment,
were also prestigiously displayed.
The picture is on loan to us
from St Paul's Cathedral,
Where it hung in the nave for most
of the 20th century
and, there, it became one of the
best known paintings in London.
It actually occurs in a scene
in EM Forster's novel Howards End.
The gallery was built after his death
in 1904 in the grounds of his home
which he shared with his second wife,
Scottish artist Mary Fraser Tytler.
She was responsible
for commissioning
the now Grade 1 listed chapel,
which is a fine example of
Arts and Crafts architecture.
Today, the whole estate is an artist
village, Where Jennie Jewitt-Harris
is the artist in residence.
Do you share things in common
with GF Watts?
Definitely. He was very interested in
the subjects of mortality and time
and those are the things that really
interest me and come out in my work.
Are these here oh the subject
of time?
Yes, they are. They all start their
life as pieces of driftwood.
So, overtime, driftwood gets its
history beaten into it
and I feel that We're a
bit like that really.
So, they're metaphors
for the passage of time.
For the majority of people who don't
know very much about GF Watts,
What are they missing?
I think they're missing someone who
was a deep thinker.
He wrote a lot about how
he Worried about the world,
and that comes out in his work.
I don't think he should be neglected
and I don't think you
should be either.
Thank you.
Ralph Vaughan Williams' interest
in traditional folk songs
might seem like a reaction against
change, but in fact his own music
represented progress towards
something completely new.
The invention of dynamite was
innovation at its most raw.
It carried the potential for enormous
construction benefits,
such as the building of railways.
But its destructive power made this
an anxious age,
perhaps reflected in GF Watts'
painting Time, Death And Judgment.
Next time, I'll get my hands dirty
at Wisley...
In the long term, this will do
the plant no end of good.
A bit of rough love.
- Absolutely.
And pitch up to see some
early camping kit.
Probably not when it's full,
Michael.
That is actually a washing-up bowl.
And get a fright at the Wheel
of a vintage racing car.
The throttle's got stuck.
No, the throttle's got stuck.
Thank you very much.
That was a nasty moment.
[END THEME]