Great British Railway Journeys (2010–…): Season 8, Episode 6 - Blackpool to Manchester Victoria - full transcript

[OPENING THEME MUSIC]

For Victorian Britons,

George Bradshaw was
a household name.

At a time when railways were new,

Bradshaw's guide book 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've embarked on
a new railway adventure -



from Blackpool to Harwich.

From resort to port,
from sea to shining sea

on a gentle slope from
north western to eastern England.

There will be some poetry
as I traverse,

and my Bradshaw's Guide
will help me to glorify

Victorian civil engineering
and science.

But my journey will also reveal
some spectacular infrastructure

being built now,

and transformational discoveries
being made

in Britain's
present-day laboratories.

My route will take me south-east
across the country to East Anglia.

It begins in Lancashire
and heads across to the

mighty northern conurbations
of the industrial age.

In Manchester,
I'll join the route of the



North Country Continental
rail service

and descend through the Fens
to arrive in Essex, gateway

to continental Europe.

The first leg of my journey
starts in Blackpool,

and takes me to neighbouring
Fleetwood. From there,

I'll head south-east, stopping off
near Bolton, before finishing

in the manufacturing
powerhouse of Manchester.

'On this trip...'

Oh...!

'there's terror on the tracks.'

Only a skeleton staff today!

'I play a small part
in a monumental project...'

Looks like you're a natural
at this, Michael.

Do they do it "weld done"?

'and pay tribute to
the ultimate sacrifice made by

Thousands of rail workers'

And so it is perhaps understandable
that when the call came in 1914,

railwaymen were so prominent
and so numerous in stepping forward.

My first stop will be Blackpool,

which Bradshaw's tells me is,
"A pretty bathing place, situated

"on a range of cliffs,
much frequented by visitors,

"possessing an excellent library and
sea-bathing at all times of tide."

Well, I don't know how many books
have been borrowed

in the last 150 years,

but vast amounts of rock and
candyfloss and fish and chips

have been devoured -
some of it unwisely -

before taking the scariest of rides
at Blackpool's Pleasure Beach.

[FAIRGROUND ORGAN MUSIC]

Like so many others, I'm here to
experience the Pleasure Beach,

a 42-acre cornucopia of
edge-of-the-seat excitement

that has entertained thrill-seekers
for over a century.

Andy Highgate, Assistant Operations
Director at the Pleasure Beach,

has agreed to help me explore
the delights on offer by train.

Hello, Andy.
- Hello.

What a lovely station,
a beautiful little train.

Would you like to take a ride?
- I would love to.

[HORN SOUNDS]

How long have you had a railway?

Well, the original Pleasure Beach
Express was built in 1933.

Beginning to hear the screams
of people on your rides.

[MICHAEL CHUCKLES]

What makes it great is
there's not that many railways

where you get to see
so many roller-coasters, ten

roller-coasters on your route,
and also dinosaurs as well,

so that makes it
a little bit unusual.

The opening of a rail line
to Blackpool in 1846

gave manual workers in
the Lancashire cotton mills

an opportunity
to enjoy seaside leisure.

By the turn of the century, around
two million people visited annually

to experience the traditional
British seaside pleasures of piers,

donkey rides, and fortune tellers.

How did Blackpool
Pleasure Beach start?

There was a guy called William Bean,

and in 1896, he ran a small
collection of rides on the beach.

He had visited America

and was inspired by a park called
Coney Island near New York.

It was his vision to bring some of
the rides and attractions

and that type of amusement park
to the UK,

which is what he did
over the next 30 years.

The amusement park was
officially named

Blackpool Pleasure Beach in 1905

and grew quickly to
include new rides

such as the water chute
and a wooden roller-coaster.

Here we are passing some
absolutely enormous structures.

Tell me about these.

This is the Big One,
which, at one point,

was actually the tallest and fastest
rollercoaster in the world,

and it's 235 feet tall.

In 1928, William Bean's daughter,
Lillian, married Leonard Thompson,

and when his father-in-law died
in 1929, he took over the park.

Today, it's still run by
the Thompson family.

What have been
the other important firsts

during the history of
Blackpool Pleasure Beach?

We had the world's first
ghost train.

The ghost train was
basically introduced

as what's called a pretzel ride -
named after the layout of the track.

Pretzels don't really mean anything
to people in the UK.

The suggestion of one of
the ride operators

that had seen a play called
The Ghost Train,

they changed the theme to
a scary ride,

and the ride was an instant success,
and then copied all over the world.

So every other ghost train
that you see has come from

our original ghost train here.

I am about to experience the most
incorporeal thing on tracks,

the most ethereal of
all railway journeys,

the most phantasmagorical
of all choo-choos.

Shudder!

[SINISTER MUSIC]

Only a skeleton staff today.

Ooh, very nasty things!

[GROWLING]
Argh! Didn't expect that one.

Oh...!

[SIREN WAILS]

An oncoming train!

Argh!

[TRAIN HORN BLARES]

Ah!

Definitely the most scared
I ever want to be on a train.

It was brilliant.

From Blackpool,
my journey takes me nine miles

up the coast to Fleetwood.

The railway between the two towns
closed in 1970,

but I can still make tracks

by boarding
the much-loved Blackpool tramway.

Blackpool had one of the world's
first electric tramways from 1885,

and unlike any other city
in mainland Britain,

it's kept its trams ever since.

Hello, Bill.
- Good afternoon, Michael.

You must be a happy man
driving this wonderful historic car.

It's an absolute thrill
to be able to

drive something over 100 years old
and making the passers-by smile.

As a frequent visitor to Blackpool,
at least in the old days,

what surprised me on this visit

is to see the absolutely
modern, brand-new trams.

How do you feel about them?

They're fast, clean,
efficient, very well-run.

I still prefer the old ones, Michael.
- I bet you do!

Fleetwood was the first planned town
of the Victorian era.

Its sheltered river mouth location

was ideal for a port
and holiday resort.

Work on the town and a rail link
to Preston began simultaneously,

and in 1840, the line opened.

Fleetwood Harbour became
the starting point

for journeys across the Irish Sea.

Its port grew to be
one of the country's largest.

"Fleetwood, on the mouth of
the River Wyre, built on

"what was formerly
a rabbit warren. A modern town,

"which had
no existence before 1836.

"Now a commodious harbour from
which steamers go to Belfast."

On my arrival, I'm greeted by
a salty breeze.

[HE SNIFFS]
Wonderful...

for clearing the sinuses!

Today, the town's seafaring legacy
lives on in its most famous export -

Fisherman's Friend lozenges.

I'm meeting Tony Lofthouse,

the great grandson of founder
James Lofthouse.

Tony, how does the story
of Fisherman's Friend begin?

It started 1865

when my great grandfather moved down
from Lancaster to Fleetwood

and opened an apothecary shop,
and he traded from there.

And as the trawlers went further
and further from Fleetwood,

they went into colder
and colder weather,

and the trawlermen got
infections of the chest.

So he created menthol and
eucalyptus lozenges for them.

No name on it at all, but

it was given the name
by the people of Fleetwood.

The trawlermen would
come in and say,

"Could I have some of my friends,
please?" And the public would say,

"I want some of those lozenges
the fishermen have."

So, you're making it sound like
a very local product...

Yes, it was.
- For trawlermen in Fleetwood.

My grandfather, father, uncle
were only interested in

the chemist shop side of it, really.

They weren't bothered
about marketing at all.

It was only when we opened the,
what we call the summer shops,

on the promenade in Fleetwood,

we used to get the holiday workers
coming from the cotton towns.

They'd buy the product,
90 home and couldn't find it,

so they'd write to us.

And my wife collated
the letters into towns

and then set off with
a box full of loose packets

and picked a post office
or another chemist shop

and said, "Look, if you will
stock this product,

"I will go home and
write to these people

"to say they can get them from you,"
and that's how it started.

It seems to me that,
in the history of your company, you owe

quite a lot to your wife, Doreen.
- Absolutely, she's always

full of ideas and bringing
something new in.

And what position does Doreen
occupy now?

She's chairman of the company -
and quite rightly so!

The company has grown to employ 380
people in Fleetwood.

96% of their lozenges go abroad,

and they've won three Queen's Awards
for export.

How many lozenges do you make?
- We make about 23 million a day.

[MICHAEL LAUGHS]

That's a lot of sore throats being dealt with.
- Yes!

Hello, Duncan.
- Hello, Michael.

Another member of the family
shows me the factory floor,

where the lozenges are made.

Duncan, a beautiful,
pristine environment.

It's as though
there's a mist in the air,

I feel my eyes watering slightly
and the smell penetrating my nose.

Yes, I think that's probably
the menthol that's

causing that sensation for you.

A rather surprising sight
to me, Duncan - these lumps

of brown product.

What's happening at this point?

Well, once the ingredients
have been mixed together,

the product then comes along
this conveyer belt

and goes into a moulder.

The moulder makes
the shape of the lozenge, which are

then transferred onto trays.

The trays are then onto palettes

and they go into a drying oven
for anything up to seven days.

We've two identical lines to this,
each producing

five tonnes of product every day.

How similar is this to
the first product

that was produced by your ancestors?

It's very, very similar indeed.

The only difference is now
we do a moulding process,

where, previously,
the product was stamped out.

That's the only difference.

I think your ancestors, though,
would've been just amazed

by this degree of production
and automation.

I'm sure they would, yes.

Hello. Have you worked
for Fisherman's Friend long?

Coming up to three years this year.

Anyone in your family work
for the company?

My grandma.
She's been here 23 years.

Do you ever get used to
the sensation

in your eyes and your nose?

You get used to it how, yeah.
Now that I've been here for a while.

Very nice to talk to you.
- Yeah, you too.

Bye-bye.
- Bye.

The smell of menthol
and eucalyptus is pervasive.

But the range of tastes around the
world demands additional flavouring.

Which one is the original?
- That is the original, there.

Thank you very much.

Quite a strong smell, but of course,

nothing by comparison
with the factory floor.

Quickly it begins to release eucalyptus...
- Yes.

And menthol. Mm.

Very effective.

I'm sure, if I were on a trawler,
I would find that very efficacious.

And what else should I try?
I'd like you to try this one.

This is a rather unusual one.

This is a salmiak variant

that sells particularly well
in Scandinavia.

It's liquorice!
I hate liquorice!

I think you must be in the minority,

because it's one of
our bestselling variants, actually.

With head cleared,
I seek out my bed for the night.

Why have I chosen
the North Euston Hotel

for the first night of my journey?

I'll give you one guess.

It's in my Bradshaw's!

The hotel's grandeur
illustrates railway history.

When it opened in 1841,

there were trains from London,
but not onwards to Scotland.

Passengers would therefore overnight
in Fleetwood,

before taking the ferry to Ardrossan
for the train to Glasgow.

In 1846, a direct line
to Scotland opened,

so the North Euston's heyday
was brief.

I'm ready to resume my journey east
to Manchester.

George Bradshaw often marvelled
at the tiumphs

of the civil engineers
of his day

in both canals and railways.

But they did leave some gaps,

for example, between Victoria and
Piccadilly stations in Manchester.

I want to see how modern-day
engineers cope with those issues

And how they live up to
the standards of their forebears.

I'm travelling 40 miles south east
to Lostock near Bolton,

where I will see a railway bridge
taking shape.

When complete, it will be part of
an £85 million project

called the Ordsall Chord.

300 metres of new track
will allow trains to run

between Victoria and Piccadilly
stations in Manchester.

It's part of an investment of
more than £1 billion

in the railways in
the north of England.

Project manager Jarrod Hulme
shows me the bridge

that will form a vital part of
the Ordsall Chord.

For whatever reason,
the Victorians did not link

Piccadilly and Victoria stations
in Manchester.

What advantages do you have
over the Victorians?

I'd say the biggest key factor
is the technology

that has come about
over the last 20 years or so.

We design everything within
a 3-D world, then transmit that onto

the shop floor
for the guys to actually use.

They'll measure things with
laser-guided technology rather than

the spirit levels and plumb-bobs
that the Victorians used to use.

To extraordinary levels of accuracy.
- Yes.

You're looking at between
one and two millimetres.

Have you developed any Victorian
engineering heroes?

Yes, I have!

I'd say Brunel's probably
one of my favourite heroes.

Some of the structures he's done,

in the timescale
and the tools that they had,

I find absolutely unbelievable.

The Ordsall Chord development

crosses the world's first
modern railway line,

built by George Stephenson between
Liverpool and Manchester in 1830.

Jarrod, it looks like Meccano
on the mega-scale.

Yeah, this is
a full-scale trial erection

of one of the structures on
Ordsall Chord called Trinity Way.

Basically, what you're looking
at here is how we make sure

that the actual items fit together
before they get to site.

The main span girders that you
can see on the left and the right,

they're fabricated in
another area of the bay.

Then they're brought to
this particular area

where they're assimilated
into the final span position.

The centrepiece of the Ordsall Chord
will be the network arch bridge,

which some have compared to
a squashed tennis racket,

with a distinctive swoosh
at one end.

The ground-breaking
design is destined to become

a Manchester landmark.

How do you feel, being in your case,

a very significant part of
this extraordinary transformation

in the middle of Manchester?

I'm a local boy, so the fact
that you can actually see this

on a daily basis
when you go into the city,

it's going to be an iconic structure
that everybody gets to see,

so, yeah, really proud
to be part of it.

The Victorians would be amazed
to see

the technology at Jarrod's disposal.

But they'd be very familiar with
the skills involved

in constructing the bridge.

Hello.

My name's Michael.
- This is Steve.

How do you do, Steve?
- Fantastic.

What's going on here, then?
- OK, so this is the welding process.

This is a main span girder
for a River Irwell arch.

Must be operating, obviously,
at a very high temperature

'cause actually I can feel that
there's heat

all the way through
this vast piece of metal.

Steve is using a process called
submerged arc welding.

This produces slag
as a waste material.

I may as well make myself useful.

Steve, my mother taught me
to vacuum clean.

Can I have a go at that?
- Certainly.

Thank you very much.

Let me have that dooberry as well.
There we go.

Sucking up all the bits of flux here.
- Perfect.

Keep the place nice and tidy.

And then the other thing you do
is you chip these bits off...

Looks like you're a natural at this,
Michael.

My mother taught me well.

Do you think it's "weld done"?

When, in decades to come,
I travel along the Ordsall Chord,

I shall think back to Steve
and the vacuum cleaner.

I'm re-joining the train at Lostock,
and travelling

16 miles to Salford station,

close to where the bridge
is to be assembled.

The plan to build a new link across
Manchester has been controversial

because it interferes with
George Stephenson's bridge

across which Robert Stephenson's
rocket locomotive has so often run.

Certainly we need to preserve
our old heritage,

but what better tribute to
those railway pioneers

than that today,
nearly 200 years later,

their technology of metal wheels
on metal rails is still

being used,
refined and developed?

When finished, the new bridge
will be taken to Manchester

and assembled on-site.

I've come to meet Alan Parker,

programme manager for Network Rail,
at the construction zone,

just south of Salford station

and to the west of
Manchester's city centre.

It's an amazing sight, isn't it?

Railway line, canal, river,
several bridges - complicated!

Where are you going to put
your new railway line?

Directly over
where we're standing now.

We've already done quite a lot of
work to link Piccadilly with Victoria

in earlier stages of the job.

This is the final link
which takes two existing viaducts -

one comes from
Victoria to Liverpool, the other

links Piccadilly through to Liverpool
as well.

This is a link which joins
the two together,

allowing the railway to run from
Victoria to Piccadilly

for the first time.

When the Ordsall Chord is completed,

there will be two new
fast trains per hour

between Manchester Victoria
and Liverpool.

A new direct service will run across

Manchester city centre to
the airport, and

faster journey times to Hull,
Newcastle and across the north

will be possible.

Where is the famous
George Stephenson bridge?

Stephenson's bridge at the moment
is hidden away,

behind this bridge,
behind a further bridge.

And if you look closely underneath
the bottom booms of the bridge,

it's two stone arches with
a central pier in the river.

We're going to reveal
the whole of Stephenson's bridge

for the first time since round
about the 18303, 18403.

So we're going to fully refurbish
the external faces of the bridge

and bring it back
to an original condition.

A bit of a renaissance going on
for the railways in the north?

I think so. It's a good time
for the railway in Manchester.

Exciting?
- Very exciting, yeah.

Bradshaw's says that
"The Liverpool and Manchester line

"is pre-eminently entitled to
rank as the pioneer of

"those stupendous undertakings

"which have given a new stimulus to

"the mechanical and architectural
genius of the age."

Mechanical and architectural
flair are key today.

All my rail journeys using
my Bradshaw's guide

are really about historic memory,

but I'm now on my way to
Manchester Piccadilly station

for a very special
act of remembrance.

Railways and their workers played
a vital role

in the Great War of 1914 to 1918.

Over 19,000 railwaymen
lost their lives.

Manchester Piccadilly used to have
a memorial honouring

87 fallen railwaymen of the
London and North Western Railway.

It was dedicated in 1920

but mislaid when the station
was redeveloped in the 19603.

Train managers for Virgin Trains
Andy Partington and Wayne McDonald

[dashed to ream] the “333 WM
3 new monument,

and after many hours of research,
they've discovered

the biographies
of 75 of the 87 men listed.

What gave you the idea, not only
of recreating the memorial, but

actually investigating
the people whose names were on it?

I think it's important that they're
not just a name on a memorial.

They were somebody's father,
son, brother,

and they were individuals.

It's interesting,
as railwaymen, to learn.

Although the railway is different
today than 100 years ago,

it's more or less getting to know
them personally,

that's how we've felt as we've
progressed through this project.

How did you set about
your researches?

Mostly through sites like
the Commonwealth War Grave site,

family tree sites.

And then, obviously, the release of
the headstone registers

by the Commonwealth War Graves
last year

answered a lot of questions
and let us narrow down

that that's definitely the person
we are looking at.

I'm deeply honoured to have been
asked to give a speech

at the unveiling ceremony.

Lord Mayor, Deputy Lord Lieutenant,
and ladies and gentlemen.

The men who joined the railways
during the 19th century

and in the first years of
the 20th century were

typically brave
and resourceful people

because the railways were dangerous.

And they were also people
who were

strongly dedicated to
public service.

And so it is perhaps understandable,
that when the call came in 1914,

railwaymen were so prominent
and so numerous in stepping forward.

I want to say how very delighted
I am that

the First World War memorial here
at Manchester Piccadilly station

is now to be restored.

[APPLAUSE]

[TRUMPETER PLAYS LAST POST]

Who is in this photograph?
- It's our granddad. Joseph Daly.

A day you'll remember?
Absolutely, yes.

Fantastic.
- It's very nice.

The memorial includes
the name of my late husband's uncle.

A couple of years before
my husband fell in,

he came in to Manchester to
see if he could find the memorial

and he was really upset
to find it had gone.

So I'm here to represent my husband,

and I'm so sad
that he's not here today.

George and Robert Stephenson left
their mark on Manchester

when the world's first trains
ran to and from the city

while Queen Victoria
was still a child.

Today, Manchester is being
transformed by new lines, proving that

this 19th-century technology
can still be

exploited in the 21st.

The railways attracted
a particular sort of man -

tough, resourceful and duty-bound.

And from amongst their ranks,

there stepped forward some of
the most effective volunteers

for the First World War.

Britain owes them a debt.

'Next time, I discover Victorian
grandeur deep underground...'

This is known as the cathedral,

which has this
vaulted cast-iron arch.

This is a monumental piece of work.

'find my travels lit
by starlight...'

Lift it, please!
Let there be light.

Bravo.
[MICHAEL APPLAUDS]

'and take a miniature detour.'

[END THEME MUSIC]