Great British Railway Journeys

The first stop in today’s leg of Michael Portillo’s journey from Liverpool to Scarborough is the West Yorkshire town of Todmorden, as he continues to find out what remains of George Bradshaw’s Britain.

In Bradshaw’s day, the railways made it possible for food to travel quickly and cheaply all over the country, transforming the UK’s eating habits. Today, things are changing and, in Todmorden, the aim is to become self-sufficient and cut down on food miles. Michael meets Pam Warhurst, who is showing people how to grow vegetables and source their food locally.

Travelling on to Skipton, Michael meets railway carriage restorer Stephen Middleton and samples first-class travel Victorian style on the Embsay And Bolton Abbey Steam Railway. He visits the nearby ruins at Bolton Abbey, a great favourite with Victorian tourists, and spends the night at the Devonshire Arms, a 350-year-old coaching inn mentioned in Bradshaw’s guide.

For the next part of the journey, Michael and his Bradshaw guide take to the skies with a trip on the Network Rail helicopter to survey the tracks and monitor coastal erosion. In Bradshaw’s time, this kind of work would have been done by linesmen walking the tracks but, these days, the lines are checked with infrared cameras.

Back on the ground, Michael finds out what makes train spotters tick, before exploring York’s Roman remains with archaeologist Andy Jones. Bradshaw wrote a great deal about Roman York but what has been discovered since then?