Great British Railway Journeys (2010–…): Season 7, Episode 5 - Ashley to Alton - 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.
My journey continues through
the open countryside
and industrial heartland
of north-west England,
Where leafy Victorian suburbs
grew around polluted urban centres.
On this leg, I find out how
the Industrial Revolution created
new social classes, and about
its wider impact on leisure
and popular culture.
I began in Cumbria,
headed south through the dramatic
landscape of the Lake District,
and the mill towns of Lancashire,
onto Merseyside's historic docks.
I'm now travelling towards
my final destination
in the heart of Staffordshire.
On today's leg, I take
a trip to middle class suburbia,
head to the Victorian centre of silk,
visit a Cheshire market town,
steam my Way through
the Churnet Valley,
and end my journey at Alton Towers.
In this episode,
I'm blown away by beauty.
We just soared over the valley.
Absolutely beautiful.
I work up a sweat,
the Victorian Way.
Stoking up the fire,
giving the locomotive a
bit of oomph.
Builds good biceps, that.
And experience
the thrill of the rollercoaster.
[THEY SCREAM]
I am now completing my journey
through north and north-west England,
and my first stop
today will be Ashley.
Bradshaw's tells me that, "The Valley
of the Bollin about this locality
"is particularly attractive
to the denizens of Manchester.
"We should not be surprised
"if, in a few years, it is studded
with handsome residences."
Ashley is a leafy commuter
village in Cheshire,
close to the border
with Greater Manchester.
By the time of my guidebook,
rail links with the city
were well established and the area
was becoming gentrified.
Newly moneyed middle class
professionals
and industrialists fled
the pollution of the city
in favour of grand suburban villas,
befitting their new social standing.
Tremendous demand for domestic
service followed,
and Women found work cooking and
cleaning in middle class households.
Thousands of chimneys
needed to be swept,
and those skills
are still practised today.
Martin Cavanagh has offered
to show me the tricks of the trade.
How did you get into
chimney sweeping?
My father was a chimney sweep.
He did it for 50 years.
I've been sweeping chimneys
since I was 16.
We used to run about
knocking on houses,
and canvassing for chimney sweeping
when I was about eight years old.
But when you were eight years old,
you weren't actually made to
go up the chimney like a Victorian?
- No, no. Thank God!
Martin's brought me to a typical
Victorian middle-class house
which would have seen its fair
share of sweeps in Bradshaw's day.
Unlike my forbears, I'll be keeping
my feet firmly on the ground.
Why is it that Victorians had to
send people up chimneys?
Why couldn't they just use
the brushes, as We're doing?
They didn't have this kind of
system. They hadn't invented these
till probably the 19th century.
When they started using coal,
they found that the chimneys
sooted up a lot more,
so they had to invent
some type of Way of
getting up there,
and the young kids
were the ideal thing.
The Industrial Revolution
brought a housing boom,
and the numbers of properties
with chimneys grew rapidly.
Buildings were designed to greater
heights with chimney pots
grouped together.
Did Victorians have twisty
and turny chimneys?
Certainly. Yeah.
Sometimes they Went up 45 degrees,
some of them were 90 degrees.
Because there's more than one flue,
so if there's two chimneys
directly above each other
one has got to bend around
the other one further up.
And so these children would go up
through these narrow, narrow
chimneys, would they?
Nine inches by nine inches,
sometimes nine inches
by four inches,
Where they corbel over
in the stack.
And did kids get stuck in chimneys?
There's several cases Where children
have been trapped
and they've died.
Master sweeps sent boys
as young as four up hot flues.
The children propelled themselves
by their knees and elbows
which were rubbed raw, brushing
and scraping out the tar and soot
until they reached the top.
If an accident didn't kill them,
the carcinogenic soot might.
Where did the chimney sweeps
get their children from?
Families. Sometimes poor families
sold them to the master sweeps.
And were the sweep masters
kind or cruel to the children?
Some masters were kind.
When they got a bit older and couldn't
do chimney sweeping any more
and they got them into other jobs.
Some of the cruel masters, they
even lit fires underneath them
to get them to go up the chimney.
Orphaned and poor children
were indentured to master sweeps
in return for
food, board and clothing.
Employers did well
by selling the soot.
Was the soot valuable, then?
- They used to sell it for dyes,
they used to sell it for farming.
So it was a valuable fertiliser?
Yes, it used to be sold
abroad by the bushel.
Martin, the brush appears to
be at the top of the chimney,
should I bring it down now?
- Yes.
So just reverse the process?
- Yes.
Hold on tight, and unscrew.
I could've made it easier for
you by using smaller canes,
a smaller brush.
But that would be too easy.
Wouldn't it just!
Despite successive laws to regulate
and later to outlaw child sweeps,
the practice continued.
The publication in 1863 of Charles
Kingsley's The Water Babies
highlighted their plight
and fuelled the demand for change.
But it took a further decade
of campaigning for a ban.
Have you thought, Martin,
every time you send one of these
up the chimney, that's a child
that doesn't heed to go.
That's definitely true.
I've enjoyed my lesson from Martin
but there's no time to
perfect my newly acquired skill.
I have a train to catch.
My next destination is Macclesfield,
and to get to there
I must change at that great junction
of north-west England, Stockport.
The approach to the station
will take me across the impressive
27-arch Stockport Viaduct,
built of 11 million bricks.
At 110 feet high, it was
the biggest in the world
when it was completed in 1840.
From here, it's a ten-mile trip
south through Cheshire countryside
to Macclesfield.
Bradshaw's says of my next
destination
that the silk and cotton factories
should be viewed.
From my travels, I know a little
bit about the history of cotton,
but not of silk.
I'm hoping that at Macclesfield,
I'll find someone to spin me a line.
By the time the railway arrived in
1849, Macclesfield was perhaps
the largest producer of finished
silk in the World.
150 years later, pharmaceuticals
and digital businesses dominate here
and just two silk factories remain.
One of them is a couple
of miles south-east of the town
on the edge of the
River Bollin in Langley.
I'm meeting design director
Jo Ratcliffe.
Very good to see you.
- Welcome to Adamley.
So, Jo, to begin at the beginning.
Silk comes from silk worms,
is that right?
- It does, yes.
And Where are these
ndustrious silk Worms?
They're all living
quite happily in China.
That's always been the case, hasn't
it, because there used to be a
Silk Road from China to the UK.
- There did.
In actual fact, Macclesfield is
the official end of the Silk Road.
During the late 18th century,
high prices in London prompted
merchants to turn to cheaper
provincial centres like Macclesfield
for finished silk, and by the early
19th century, business was booming.
The Industrial Revolution created
a new class of Wealthy entrepreneur
with expensive tastes.
Silk gowns, ties,
top hats and bonnets
became important
middle-class status symbols.
The more extravagant the attire,
the clearer the message that the
wearer was hot a manual worker.
And in the old days,
in the 19th century for example,
was the silk coming in
as cloth or as thread?
It would have been
brought in as thread.
There would have been several
mills in Macclesfield
Where they wove the silk.
As time has gone on, the silk has
become too expensive
and we buy it in now, we buy
it in loom state
and we do all the other processes
here, the after-processes -
the dying, the printing,
steaming, finishing.
Everything is done here.
Over the years, the company has
acquired a rather special
collection of original designs.
These books date back
to the mid-1800s,
and they're all actually
hand-painted designs.
Beautiful work.
Now, today you use computers,
I suppose?
We do, yes.
But can you still do
this sort of stuff?
We've used this design
quite recently to create this hank.
So that is our same lady?
It is, I have given her
a little bit of a face-lift!
Yeah, you have. And, obviously,
you can make anything you like
of the colours,
but isn't that beautiful?
So that's the sort of thing that you
can buy today?
It is yes.
- Wow, that's really beautiful. Lovely.
In the early 19th century,
around 10,000 people worked in
Macclesfield's silk factories,
which numbered 70
in the 1820s and '30s.
Today, it's a niche industry,
with Jo's company employing
a staff of 32
and printing around 2,000 metres
of silk a week.
Some of your machinery looks quite
ancient, but still doing the job?
It is. In fact,
some of it's Victorian.
Is it really?
So how does the process begin?
The first process that we do
is boil the cloth,
then it goes through
the dyeing process.
When We're dying wool, can we dye
it in rope formation like that.
But silk, because it's a more
delicate fibre, has to be dyed flat,
and that's dyed in the machine
over there.
Once the silk is dry
it's ready for screen printing.
The method for creating the stencils
that make up the pattern
has moved on considerably
since Victorian times,
when hand carved blocks
were in use.
[COMMENTARY]
"It looks simple,
"but it takes years of practice.
"One mistake and a whole
length of silk may be ruined.
"Terrible thought."
Today, Jo uses a computer
to split the design into individual
colours, and lasers each one
onto a separate screen,
ready for printing.
But the final process
is reassuringly lo-tech.
Now it's time to get my
hands dirty.
Graham Cooper, a printer
and screen engraver,
is to guide me through the process.
You're printing this lovely bit
of red silk, are you?
I am, yeah.
The colour's in.
If you'd like to go round the other
side and give me a hand.
Get hold of the rubber.
Pull it towards you.
Drawing a rubber blade over
the screen pushes the colour
through the exposed sections
of the stencil onto the cloth.
The process is repeated for each
colour until the image is complete.
Graham, how many colours
can you put onto a silk?
We have printed up to
19 colours before.
Lovely stuff.
And we'll have a look at What
We've just printed.
Wow. If it isn't our lady again.
Going to be very, very beautiful.
I would of course stay
and help Graham finish the job,
but Jo has something to show me.
Before you leave, Michael,
I thought you you'd like to see
a selection of handkerchiefs.
They are absolutely wonderful, aren't
they? Beautiful, bright colours.
Can I have the lady We've been
looking at? You certainly can.
There she is.
She makes What I've got at the moment look
quite dull, doesn't she?
Let me get rid of that.
It's not every man who has
a secret lady in his pocket.
That looks marvellous.
- Thank you.
Feeling the Victorian dandy,
I'm ready to embark
on the final leg of my day.
Bradshaw's tells me that, "the route
from Macclesfield to Congleton
"is rich in natural beauties,
"and furnishes various objects
worthy of attention,
"amongst which is a stupendous
viaduct across the Dane Valley."
Oh, happy Dane!
I'm looking forward to this.
The journey to my hotel in Congleton
is less than ten miles south
and doesn't disappoint.
We just soared over the valley.
Absolutely beautiful!
Bradshaw's describes Congleton as
"a municipal borough and old town
"with manufactures of silk
and cotton".
Today, most of the mills
are long gone.
I'm heading to the heart of
the town to find a hotel
called the Lion & Swan,
as mentioned in my guidebook.
It's the final day of my journey,
and I'm hoping that the inclement
weather will clear
before I arrive
at my next destination.
I've left the north-west of England
and travelled 12 miles south-east
to a rural village station
on the edge of the Peak District
in the West Midlands.
Cheddleton Station opened in 1849.
Now it's the headquarters
of North Staffordshire's
Churnet Valley Railway.
According to Bradshaw's,
"The Churnet Valley railway line
"passes through one of the loveliest
valleys in England".
And thanks to the achievements
of railway enthusiasts,
it's still possible today
to appreciate
the Wonders of the vale
from a steam train.
Originally, this branch line
crossed nearly 28 miles of valley
and moorland
between North Rode in Cheshire
and Uttoxeter in Staffordshire.
Connections at either end
created a direct link
to Manchester and to London.
Over 150 years later, just over five
miles of track are still in use.
And one of the people
responsible for its preservation
is David Kemp, Director
of Churnet Valley Railway.
David, the Churnet Valley,
according to my Bradshaw's,
is one of the loveliest in England.
What makes it so?
Well, it's essentially a rural line.
And when it was
running its original length,
joining the Manchester line
ten or a dozen miles north of here
and the Derby line to the south,
it was a very useful line.
But most of the countryside is very
attractive all the way down.
It follows the river
all the Way down.
Why was it a useful line,
What was it carrying?
Back in the 19th century, lots
and lots of industry around here.
There's iron smelting, copper,
all sorts of things.
Coal and what-have-you.
There's quite a lot of quarries
around here, as well.
The railway first carried freight,
but soon opened up
one of the most scenic parts of
the country to passengers, too.
Leisure-seeking Victorians
travelled from all over Britain.
But a century later,
tourists and freight traffic
weren't enough to sustain the
Churnet Valley line, and sections
of track were closed in 1963.
What's the modern history
of the railway?
When was it rescued?
What you see in terms of the lines
that We're involved with
and going clown to Froghall,
um... are all left, basically,
because they served
quarries at the time.
If it hadn't been for that,
then it'd all have gone.
Now, all that traffic stopped...
about 20 years ago,
in the early 1990s.
And that's when the preservation
movement started.
I suppose,
like all these heritage railways,
it rests very heavily
on the enthusiasm of volunteers.
Yes, it's the guys who
turn up at 5:00 in the morning
and get the engines fired up
in the middle of Winter
and, er... you know,
wander about under engines,
trying to sort of defreeze them,
and all the rest of it.
Yeah, you've got to be pretty
dedicated to do this job.
David has certainly whetted
my appetite for the journey ahead.
I'm ready to step into the shoes
of a Victorian tourist
and lap up the scenery.
[WHISTLE]
Room
The Churnet Valley
sort of tells the story
of Britain's Industrial Revolution.
Of course, there's a river
running through it
which was used for navigation,
then, in the first part
of the Industrial Revolution,
a canal was built to carry minerals.
Then the railway company
took over the canal
and finally, bits of the canal
were filled in
to lay down railway lines.
As we reach Consall Station,
set deep in the valley,
I've a treat in store.
Engineer John Peake has invited me
to ride with him to the next stop.
But apparently, there's no such
thing as a free ride.
Tremendous heat now
coming out of the boiler!
Stoking up the fire!
Giving the locomotive
a bit of oomph!
This is good exercise, isn't it?
Yeah. Keeps you fit.
Builds good biceps, that!
Was this a Churnet Valley Railway
locomotive?
Yes. Originally, it was built
in Poland.
It was imported into the UK
by a gentleman
at the Spa Valley Railway.
Then, for various reasons,
the gentleman decided
he Wanted to sell it,
so a group of volunteers
at the railway
raised the money and bought
the steam loco,
just like when they first
started preservation.
How old is it?
It was built in 1952.
1952!
So, little Polish locomotive,
you're even older than I am
and you're a long Way from home.
Yes.
After all that exertion,
I'm ready to return to my carriage
for the remainder of the journey.
Room
The Churnet Valley
is indeed beautiful.
And I think it's beauty is enhanced
by the smoke of a steam locomotive.
This is pollution Victorian style!
And I think it's pollution
that we can forgive.
The Churnet Valley line
ends at Froghall,
but at the time of my guidebook,
it would have continued to my final
destination in Alton,
just four miles south-east.
Opened in 1849, Alton station
served an established noble family
travelling to and from
their nearby stately home.
Bradshaw's has brought me to
the princely seat
of the Earl of Shrewsbury
and Talbot.
"Built in 1814, a magnificent hall
"with an armoury 120-feet long."
And its gardens
are a picture of tranquility.
But this is Alton Towers.
And I think my visit
will be worth the ride.
The country estate was first taken
on by the Earl of Shrewsbury in 1412
and remained in the family
for over five centuries.
To find out more
about its fascinating history,
I'm meeting Liz Greenwood,
who's been with Alton Towers
for 25 years.
The house appears to be
pretty much gutted.
Is anything from my Bradshaw's
Guide still there?
I mean, for example, the armoury?
The armoury's there, although it's
perhaps not quite as you'd expect.
Come and have a look.
- Ha! Thank you.
In the early 20th century,
the cost of war,
death duties and the burden
of income tax
forced many upper-class families
to abandon their country houses.
In 1924, Alton Towers was sold
to a group of local businessmen.
And over the following
three decades,
the house was gradually stripped
bare and its contents sold off.
Ha-ha-ha!
- Here we are in the armoury.
Liz, it's a very impressive
room indeed.
It seems there are just a few
pikestaffs and suits of armour left.
Presumably, this would have been
filled with such things once?
Originally, each of these plinths
would have a suit of armour.
If you think about it, the whole
intent of these sorts of buildings
was to impress the visitor.
It was to show the Wealth of
the earls that owned the house.
I-low has this historic
and, I must say, rather gloomy
and rather ghostly house
lent itself to being a theme park?
This is the first area of the house
that We've actually been able
to incorporate into a ride.
This armoury now forms part of the
queue line into a ride called Hex.
No other theme park has got ah
18th-century mansion in the middle of it.
It also lends itself brilliantly
to Halloween activity.
So people are lapping up the gloom
and spookiness.
They lap up the atmosphere
of the house, which is just amazing.
Outside, the estate once laid claim
to some of the most magnificent
gardens in Britain.
Today, much of the parkland
is occupied by the theme park,
but the gardens have remained true
to their original design.
When I thought about Alton Towers,
I assumed it was just a modern
theme park, but actually,
it has a history going back to
the 19th century, doesn't it?
Yes. Originally, it was open to
the public in about 1860.
And guests were allowed to wander
around the gardens.
So it's always been open
to members of the public.
And in fact, the original earls
were very keen to have
original and unique features
in the gardens.
And they laid them out,
essentially, in small themed areas.
So, even then, it was
a kind of themed park?
It was kind of the precursor
to the modern theme park, yeah.
Urbanisation and the arrival
of the railways
changed popular culture
and leisure forever.
By the time of my guidebook,
rail travel
was reconnecting middle-
and lower-class Victorians
with the countryside,
and bringing entertainment
to the masses.
I came across this flyer from
the 1890s
advertising stuff
that was going on here.
"Alton Towers Illuminated."
"Horse leaping for 100 pounds."
"Ella, Zuila and Lulu."
These are apparently ladies
who walk on a wire over the lake
"500 feet across, 75 feet high."
And then,
"Sante, the man with the iron head.
"Granite blocks,
which were obtained locally,
"broken on his head
by sledgehammers.
"200 pounds forfeited if a fraud." #
So this stuff has been going on
for a very long time.
Yes. And in fact, the fetes
often attracted up to 30,000 people.
They were very popular,
very common across the UK.
And they attracted acts from all
over Europe.
It was Where you came to see
something unique and original
that you wouldn't get the chance
to see anywhere else.
Alton Towers' appeal lives on.
And it's one of the most-visited
theme parks in the United Kingdom.
People flock here each year to enjoy
over 50 rides and attractions.
What have I let myself in for?
Oh!
[SCREAMING]
[HE LAUGHS]
Are you scared?
You have those butterflies!
It's better if you haven't seen it
before, isn't it?
Oh, dear!
Is it too late to get off?
[SCREAMING]
[SCREAMING]
[TANNOY] Undo your safety belt
and exit to the left.
[TANNOY] Ensure you collect
all your personal belongings.
I've been on many tracks in my life,
but never have I been accelerated
to 60mph in 2.5 seconds
with 4.5 Gs of pressure on my body,
and I'm wrung out!
All this week, I've enjoyed
a rollercoaster of a ride,
thanks to Bradshaw's.
At the beginning of my journey
through north England
at the Honister slate mine,
I was struck as so often before
by the suffering of working men
and Women
during the Industrial Revolution.
And it came home to me
that industrialisation
and the spread of the railways
took a heavy toll
on England's blessed plot.
The artist Lowry painted the effects
and aesthetes like John Ruskin
set out to protect
this green and pleasant land.
To all the other achievements
of the Victorians,
we can add a dawning concern
for the environment.
Next time, inspired by a brave
Victorian, I take the plunge.
I can't believe I'm doing this.
Enjoy the exhilaration of steam.
At the moment, We're doing 18mph.
That is basically the equivalent
of doing 75 on the main line
because We're nearer to the ground.
And scale the heights
of the operatic World.
[SINGING]
Yah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!
[END THEME]
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.
My journey continues through
the open countryside
and industrial heartland
of north-west England,
Where leafy Victorian suburbs
grew around polluted urban centres.
On this leg, I find out how
the Industrial Revolution created
new social classes, and about
its wider impact on leisure
and popular culture.
I began in Cumbria,
headed south through the dramatic
landscape of the Lake District,
and the mill towns of Lancashire,
onto Merseyside's historic docks.
I'm now travelling towards
my final destination
in the heart of Staffordshire.
On today's leg, I take
a trip to middle class suburbia,
head to the Victorian centre of silk,
visit a Cheshire market town,
steam my Way through
the Churnet Valley,
and end my journey at Alton Towers.
In this episode,
I'm blown away by beauty.
We just soared over the valley.
Absolutely beautiful.
I work up a sweat,
the Victorian Way.
Stoking up the fire,
giving the locomotive a
bit of oomph.
Builds good biceps, that.
And experience
the thrill of the rollercoaster.
[THEY SCREAM]
I am now completing my journey
through north and north-west England,
and my first stop
today will be Ashley.
Bradshaw's tells me that, "The Valley
of the Bollin about this locality
"is particularly attractive
to the denizens of Manchester.
"We should not be surprised
"if, in a few years, it is studded
with handsome residences."
Ashley is a leafy commuter
village in Cheshire,
close to the border
with Greater Manchester.
By the time of my guidebook,
rail links with the city
were well established and the area
was becoming gentrified.
Newly moneyed middle class
professionals
and industrialists fled
the pollution of the city
in favour of grand suburban villas,
befitting their new social standing.
Tremendous demand for domestic
service followed,
and Women found work cooking and
cleaning in middle class households.
Thousands of chimneys
needed to be swept,
and those skills
are still practised today.
Martin Cavanagh has offered
to show me the tricks of the trade.
How did you get into
chimney sweeping?
My father was a chimney sweep.
He did it for 50 years.
I've been sweeping chimneys
since I was 16.
We used to run about
knocking on houses,
and canvassing for chimney sweeping
when I was about eight years old.
But when you were eight years old,
you weren't actually made to
go up the chimney like a Victorian?
- No, no. Thank God!
Martin's brought me to a typical
Victorian middle-class house
which would have seen its fair
share of sweeps in Bradshaw's day.
Unlike my forbears, I'll be keeping
my feet firmly on the ground.
Why is it that Victorians had to
send people up chimneys?
Why couldn't they just use
the brushes, as We're doing?
They didn't have this kind of
system. They hadn't invented these
till probably the 19th century.
When they started using coal,
they found that the chimneys
sooted up a lot more,
so they had to invent
some type of Way of
getting up there,
and the young kids
were the ideal thing.
The Industrial Revolution
brought a housing boom,
and the numbers of properties
with chimneys grew rapidly.
Buildings were designed to greater
heights with chimney pots
grouped together.
Did Victorians have twisty
and turny chimneys?
Certainly. Yeah.
Sometimes they Went up 45 degrees,
some of them were 90 degrees.
Because there's more than one flue,
so if there's two chimneys
directly above each other
one has got to bend around
the other one further up.
And so these children would go up
through these narrow, narrow
chimneys, would they?
Nine inches by nine inches,
sometimes nine inches
by four inches,
Where they corbel over
in the stack.
And did kids get stuck in chimneys?
There's several cases Where children
have been trapped
and they've died.
Master sweeps sent boys
as young as four up hot flues.
The children propelled themselves
by their knees and elbows
which were rubbed raw, brushing
and scraping out the tar and soot
until they reached the top.
If an accident didn't kill them,
the carcinogenic soot might.
Where did the chimney sweeps
get their children from?
Families. Sometimes poor families
sold them to the master sweeps.
And were the sweep masters
kind or cruel to the children?
Some masters were kind.
When they got a bit older and couldn't
do chimney sweeping any more
and they got them into other jobs.
Some of the cruel masters, they
even lit fires underneath them
to get them to go up the chimney.
Orphaned and poor children
were indentured to master sweeps
in return for
food, board and clothing.
Employers did well
by selling the soot.
Was the soot valuable, then?
- They used to sell it for dyes,
they used to sell it for farming.
So it was a valuable fertiliser?
Yes, it used to be sold
abroad by the bushel.
Martin, the brush appears to
be at the top of the chimney,
should I bring it down now?
- Yes.
So just reverse the process?
- Yes.
Hold on tight, and unscrew.
I could've made it easier for
you by using smaller canes,
a smaller brush.
But that would be too easy.
Wouldn't it just!
Despite successive laws to regulate
and later to outlaw child sweeps,
the practice continued.
The publication in 1863 of Charles
Kingsley's The Water Babies
highlighted their plight
and fuelled the demand for change.
But it took a further decade
of campaigning for a ban.
Have you thought, Martin,
every time you send one of these
up the chimney, that's a child
that doesn't heed to go.
That's definitely true.
I've enjoyed my lesson from Martin
but there's no time to
perfect my newly acquired skill.
I have a train to catch.
My next destination is Macclesfield,
and to get to there
I must change at that great junction
of north-west England, Stockport.
The approach to the station
will take me across the impressive
27-arch Stockport Viaduct,
built of 11 million bricks.
At 110 feet high, it was
the biggest in the world
when it was completed in 1840.
From here, it's a ten-mile trip
south through Cheshire countryside
to Macclesfield.
Bradshaw's says of my next
destination
that the silk and cotton factories
should be viewed.
From my travels, I know a little
bit about the history of cotton,
but not of silk.
I'm hoping that at Macclesfield,
I'll find someone to spin me a line.
By the time the railway arrived in
1849, Macclesfield was perhaps
the largest producer of finished
silk in the World.
150 years later, pharmaceuticals
and digital businesses dominate here
and just two silk factories remain.
One of them is a couple
of miles south-east of the town
on the edge of the
River Bollin in Langley.
I'm meeting design director
Jo Ratcliffe.
Very good to see you.
- Welcome to Adamley.
So, Jo, to begin at the beginning.
Silk comes from silk worms,
is that right?
- It does, yes.
And Where are these
ndustrious silk Worms?
They're all living
quite happily in China.
That's always been the case, hasn't
it, because there used to be a
Silk Road from China to the UK.
- There did.
In actual fact, Macclesfield is
the official end of the Silk Road.
During the late 18th century,
high prices in London prompted
merchants to turn to cheaper
provincial centres like Macclesfield
for finished silk, and by the early
19th century, business was booming.
The Industrial Revolution created
a new class of Wealthy entrepreneur
with expensive tastes.
Silk gowns, ties,
top hats and bonnets
became important
middle-class status symbols.
The more extravagant the attire,
the clearer the message that the
wearer was hot a manual worker.
And in the old days,
in the 19th century for example,
was the silk coming in
as cloth or as thread?
It would have been
brought in as thread.
There would have been several
mills in Macclesfield
Where they wove the silk.
As time has gone on, the silk has
become too expensive
and we buy it in now, we buy
it in loom state
and we do all the other processes
here, the after-processes -
the dying, the printing,
steaming, finishing.
Everything is done here.
Over the years, the company has
acquired a rather special
collection of original designs.
These books date back
to the mid-1800s,
and they're all actually
hand-painted designs.
Beautiful work.
Now, today you use computers,
I suppose?
We do, yes.
But can you still do
this sort of stuff?
We've used this design
quite recently to create this hank.
So that is our same lady?
It is, I have given her
a little bit of a face-lift!
Yeah, you have. And, obviously,
you can make anything you like
of the colours,
but isn't that beautiful?
So that's the sort of thing that you
can buy today?
It is yes.
- Wow, that's really beautiful. Lovely.
In the early 19th century,
around 10,000 people worked in
Macclesfield's silk factories,
which numbered 70
in the 1820s and '30s.
Today, it's a niche industry,
with Jo's company employing
a staff of 32
and printing around 2,000 metres
of silk a week.
Some of your machinery looks quite
ancient, but still doing the job?
It is. In fact,
some of it's Victorian.
Is it really?
So how does the process begin?
The first process that we do
is boil the cloth,
then it goes through
the dyeing process.
When We're dying wool, can we dye
it in rope formation like that.
But silk, because it's a more
delicate fibre, has to be dyed flat,
and that's dyed in the machine
over there.
Once the silk is dry
it's ready for screen printing.
The method for creating the stencils
that make up the pattern
has moved on considerably
since Victorian times,
when hand carved blocks
were in use.
[COMMENTARY]
"It looks simple,
"but it takes years of practice.
"One mistake and a whole
length of silk may be ruined.
"Terrible thought."
Today, Jo uses a computer
to split the design into individual
colours, and lasers each one
onto a separate screen,
ready for printing.
But the final process
is reassuringly lo-tech.
Now it's time to get my
hands dirty.
Graham Cooper, a printer
and screen engraver,
is to guide me through the process.
You're printing this lovely bit
of red silk, are you?
I am, yeah.
The colour's in.
If you'd like to go round the other
side and give me a hand.
Get hold of the rubber.
Pull it towards you.
Drawing a rubber blade over
the screen pushes the colour
through the exposed sections
of the stencil onto the cloth.
The process is repeated for each
colour until the image is complete.
Graham, how many colours
can you put onto a silk?
We have printed up to
19 colours before.
Lovely stuff.
And we'll have a look at What
We've just printed.
Wow. If it isn't our lady again.
Going to be very, very beautiful.
I would of course stay
and help Graham finish the job,
but Jo has something to show me.
Before you leave, Michael,
I thought you you'd like to see
a selection of handkerchiefs.
They are absolutely wonderful, aren't
they? Beautiful, bright colours.
Can I have the lady We've been
looking at? You certainly can.
There she is.
She makes What I've got at the moment look
quite dull, doesn't she?
Let me get rid of that.
It's not every man who has
a secret lady in his pocket.
That looks marvellous.
- Thank you.
Feeling the Victorian dandy,
I'm ready to embark
on the final leg of my day.
Bradshaw's tells me that, "the route
from Macclesfield to Congleton
"is rich in natural beauties,
"and furnishes various objects
worthy of attention,
"amongst which is a stupendous
viaduct across the Dane Valley."
Oh, happy Dane!
I'm looking forward to this.
The journey to my hotel in Congleton
is less than ten miles south
and doesn't disappoint.
We just soared over the valley.
Absolutely beautiful!
Bradshaw's describes Congleton as
"a municipal borough and old town
"with manufactures of silk
and cotton".
Today, most of the mills
are long gone.
I'm heading to the heart of
the town to find a hotel
called the Lion & Swan,
as mentioned in my guidebook.
It's the final day of my journey,
and I'm hoping that the inclement
weather will clear
before I arrive
at my next destination.
I've left the north-west of England
and travelled 12 miles south-east
to a rural village station
on the edge of the Peak District
in the West Midlands.
Cheddleton Station opened in 1849.
Now it's the headquarters
of North Staffordshire's
Churnet Valley Railway.
According to Bradshaw's,
"The Churnet Valley railway line
"passes through one of the loveliest
valleys in England".
And thanks to the achievements
of railway enthusiasts,
it's still possible today
to appreciate
the Wonders of the vale
from a steam train.
Originally, this branch line
crossed nearly 28 miles of valley
and moorland
between North Rode in Cheshire
and Uttoxeter in Staffordshire.
Connections at either end
created a direct link
to Manchester and to London.
Over 150 years later, just over five
miles of track are still in use.
And one of the people
responsible for its preservation
is David Kemp, Director
of Churnet Valley Railway.
David, the Churnet Valley,
according to my Bradshaw's,
is one of the loveliest in England.
What makes it so?
Well, it's essentially a rural line.
And when it was
running its original length,
joining the Manchester line
ten or a dozen miles north of here
and the Derby line to the south,
it was a very useful line.
But most of the countryside is very
attractive all the way down.
It follows the river
all the Way down.
Why was it a useful line,
What was it carrying?
Back in the 19th century, lots
and lots of industry around here.
There's iron smelting, copper,
all sorts of things.
Coal and what-have-you.
There's quite a lot of quarries
around here, as well.
The railway first carried freight,
but soon opened up
one of the most scenic parts of
the country to passengers, too.
Leisure-seeking Victorians
travelled from all over Britain.
But a century later,
tourists and freight traffic
weren't enough to sustain the
Churnet Valley line, and sections
of track were closed in 1963.
What's the modern history
of the railway?
When was it rescued?
What you see in terms of the lines
that We're involved with
and going clown to Froghall,
um... are all left, basically,
because they served
quarries at the time.
If it hadn't been for that,
then it'd all have gone.
Now, all that traffic stopped...
about 20 years ago,
in the early 1990s.
And that's when the preservation
movement started.
I suppose,
like all these heritage railways,
it rests very heavily
on the enthusiasm of volunteers.
Yes, it's the guys who
turn up at 5:00 in the morning
and get the engines fired up
in the middle of Winter
and, er... you know,
wander about under engines,
trying to sort of defreeze them,
and all the rest of it.
Yeah, you've got to be pretty
dedicated to do this job.
David has certainly whetted
my appetite for the journey ahead.
I'm ready to step into the shoes
of a Victorian tourist
and lap up the scenery.
[WHISTLE]
Room
The Churnet Valley
sort of tells the story
of Britain's Industrial Revolution.
Of course, there's a river
running through it
which was used for navigation,
then, in the first part
of the Industrial Revolution,
a canal was built to carry minerals.
Then the railway company
took over the canal
and finally, bits of the canal
were filled in
to lay down railway lines.
As we reach Consall Station,
set deep in the valley,
I've a treat in store.
Engineer John Peake has invited me
to ride with him to the next stop.
But apparently, there's no such
thing as a free ride.
Tremendous heat now
coming out of the boiler!
Stoking up the fire!
Giving the locomotive
a bit of oomph!
This is good exercise, isn't it?
Yeah. Keeps you fit.
Builds good biceps, that!
Was this a Churnet Valley Railway
locomotive?
Yes. Originally, it was built
in Poland.
It was imported into the UK
by a gentleman
at the Spa Valley Railway.
Then, for various reasons,
the gentleman decided
he Wanted to sell it,
so a group of volunteers
at the railway
raised the money and bought
the steam loco,
just like when they first
started preservation.
How old is it?
It was built in 1952.
1952!
So, little Polish locomotive,
you're even older than I am
and you're a long Way from home.
Yes.
After all that exertion,
I'm ready to return to my carriage
for the remainder of the journey.
Room
The Churnet Valley
is indeed beautiful.
And I think it's beauty is enhanced
by the smoke of a steam locomotive.
This is pollution Victorian style!
And I think it's pollution
that we can forgive.
The Churnet Valley line
ends at Froghall,
but at the time of my guidebook,
it would have continued to my final
destination in Alton,
just four miles south-east.
Opened in 1849, Alton station
served an established noble family
travelling to and from
their nearby stately home.
Bradshaw's has brought me to
the princely seat
of the Earl of Shrewsbury
and Talbot.
"Built in 1814, a magnificent hall
"with an armoury 120-feet long."
And its gardens
are a picture of tranquility.
But this is Alton Towers.
And I think my visit
will be worth the ride.
The country estate was first taken
on by the Earl of Shrewsbury in 1412
and remained in the family
for over five centuries.
To find out more
about its fascinating history,
I'm meeting Liz Greenwood,
who's been with Alton Towers
for 25 years.
The house appears to be
pretty much gutted.
Is anything from my Bradshaw's
Guide still there?
I mean, for example, the armoury?
The armoury's there, although it's
perhaps not quite as you'd expect.
Come and have a look.
- Ha! Thank you.
In the early 20th century,
the cost of war,
death duties and the burden
of income tax
forced many upper-class families
to abandon their country houses.
In 1924, Alton Towers was sold
to a group of local businessmen.
And over the following
three decades,
the house was gradually stripped
bare and its contents sold off.
Ha-ha-ha!
- Here we are in the armoury.
Liz, it's a very impressive
room indeed.
It seems there are just a few
pikestaffs and suits of armour left.
Presumably, this would have been
filled with such things once?
Originally, each of these plinths
would have a suit of armour.
If you think about it, the whole
intent of these sorts of buildings
was to impress the visitor.
It was to show the Wealth of
the earls that owned the house.
I-low has this historic
and, I must say, rather gloomy
and rather ghostly house
lent itself to being a theme park?
This is the first area of the house
that We've actually been able
to incorporate into a ride.
This armoury now forms part of the
queue line into a ride called Hex.
No other theme park has got ah
18th-century mansion in the middle of it.
It also lends itself brilliantly
to Halloween activity.
So people are lapping up the gloom
and spookiness.
They lap up the atmosphere
of the house, which is just amazing.
Outside, the estate once laid claim
to some of the most magnificent
gardens in Britain.
Today, much of the parkland
is occupied by the theme park,
but the gardens have remained true
to their original design.
When I thought about Alton Towers,
I assumed it was just a modern
theme park, but actually,
it has a history going back to
the 19th century, doesn't it?
Yes. Originally, it was open to
the public in about 1860.
And guests were allowed to wander
around the gardens.
So it's always been open
to members of the public.
And in fact, the original earls
were very keen to have
original and unique features
in the gardens.
And they laid them out,
essentially, in small themed areas.
So, even then, it was
a kind of themed park?
It was kind of the precursor
to the modern theme park, yeah.
Urbanisation and the arrival
of the railways
changed popular culture
and leisure forever.
By the time of my guidebook,
rail travel
was reconnecting middle-
and lower-class Victorians
with the countryside,
and bringing entertainment
to the masses.
I came across this flyer from
the 1890s
advertising stuff
that was going on here.
"Alton Towers Illuminated."
"Horse leaping for 100 pounds."
"Ella, Zuila and Lulu."
These are apparently ladies
who walk on a wire over the lake
"500 feet across, 75 feet high."
And then,
"Sante, the man with the iron head.
"Granite blocks,
which were obtained locally,
"broken on his head
by sledgehammers.
"200 pounds forfeited if a fraud." #
So this stuff has been going on
for a very long time.
Yes. And in fact, the fetes
often attracted up to 30,000 people.
They were very popular,
very common across the UK.
And they attracted acts from all
over Europe.
It was Where you came to see
something unique and original
that you wouldn't get the chance
to see anywhere else.
Alton Towers' appeal lives on.
And it's one of the most-visited
theme parks in the United Kingdom.
People flock here each year to enjoy
over 50 rides and attractions.
What have I let myself in for?
Oh!
[SCREAMING]
[HE LAUGHS]
Are you scared?
You have those butterflies!
It's better if you haven't seen it
before, isn't it?
Oh, dear!
Is it too late to get off?
[SCREAMING]
[SCREAMING]
[TANNOY] Undo your safety belt
and exit to the left.
[TANNOY] Ensure you collect
all your personal belongings.
I've been on many tracks in my life,
but never have I been accelerated
to 60mph in 2.5 seconds
with 4.5 Gs of pressure on my body,
and I'm wrung out!
All this week, I've enjoyed
a rollercoaster of a ride,
thanks to Bradshaw's.
At the beginning of my journey
through north England
at the Honister slate mine,
I was struck as so often before
by the suffering of working men
and Women
during the Industrial Revolution.
And it came home to me
that industrialisation
and the spread of the railways
took a heavy toll
on England's blessed plot.
The artist Lowry painted the effects
and aesthetes like John Ruskin
set out to protect
this green and pleasant land.
To all the other achievements
of the Victorians,
we can add a dawning concern
for the environment.
Next time, inspired by a brave
Victorian, I take the plunge.
I can't believe I'm doing this.
Enjoy the exhilaration of steam.
At the moment, We're doing 18mph.
That is basically the equivalent
of doing 75 on the main line
because We're nearer to the ground.
And scale the heights
of the operatic World.
[SINGING]
Yah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!
[END THEME]