1 00:00:02,120 --> 00:00:06,560 BBC Four Collections - archive programmes chosen by experts. 2 00:00:06,560 --> 00:00:10,120 For this Collection, Janet Street-Porter has selected 3 00:00:10,120 --> 00:00:12,680 programmes about Post-War Architecture. 4 00:00:12,680 --> 00:00:15,880 More programmes on this theme, and other BBC Four Collections, 5 00:00:15,880 --> 00:00:17,760 are available on BBC iPlayer. 6 00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:23,400 Leeds, the Settle and Carlisle railway 7 00:00:23,400 --> 00:00:25,720 and its great viaduct at Ribblehead, 8 00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:29,840 Carlisle, the border town of Hawick, Edinburgh. 9 00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:31,840 Ian Nairn hardly took a direct route. 10 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:35,280 But he did take a route that allowed him to sound off, 11 00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:36,800 and that's the important thing. 12 00:00:36,800 --> 00:00:41,480 His films are not travel programmes, though they are films about travel. 13 00:00:41,480 --> 00:00:43,760 This one is anecdotally strong. 14 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:47,560 It's also typically demonstrative of Nairn's desire to see the everyday 15 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:49,360 improved. 16 00:00:49,360 --> 00:00:52,640 He believed, and it's an unfashionable belief today, 17 00:00:52,640 --> 00:00:55,520 that better places might make better people 18 00:00:55,520 --> 00:01:00,240 and that better places could only be achieved through necessity, 19 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:03,480 that is, through buildings, transport systems, 20 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:07,400 public spaces and so on which are part of the organism of a town 21 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:10,440 or village, and not plastered-on gestures. 22 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:01,200 Leeds, in midsummer 1972. 23 00:02:01,200 --> 00:02:04,200 This is midsummer day, give or take a few inches of rain. 24 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:08,320 The last journey, by canal, ended only a few yards from here, 25 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:10,360 the back of Leeds City station. 26 00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:14,880 This journey starts from the station, to look at a railway 27 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:17,400 and the landscape it goes through. 28 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:21,240 This is a jumping-off point for the Settle and Carlisle, which is 29 00:02:21,240 --> 00:02:24,960 the most dramatic mainline in England. 30 00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:27,440 It goes from Settle right up into the Pennines, 31 00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:32,080 over the top, down to Kirby Stephen, then to Carlisle, 32 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:36,360 through the Eden Valley, which is marvellous countryside. 33 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:39,400 And then from there, from Carlisle to Edinburgh. 34 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:42,560 This time, the railway is gone, it went a few years ago, 35 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:46,080 a railway which used to be a lifeline to border towns like Hawick 36 00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:48,240 and Galashiels. 37 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:51,120 The first part of the journey, as far as Skipton, 38 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:53,800 is in fact the canal journey in reverse, because both railway 39 00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:55,640 and canal had to follow the Aire Valley, 40 00:02:55,640 --> 00:02:57,840 it was the only way they could get through the hills. 41 00:02:57,840 --> 00:02:59,520 HOOTER BLARES 42 00:03:17,880 --> 00:03:23,880 The great thing about journeys in different modes of transport is that 43 00:03:23,880 --> 00:03:25,640 each time you see a different place, 44 00:03:25,640 --> 00:03:26,920 the same place on the ground, 45 00:03:26,920 --> 00:03:30,040 but each time you see it you rediscover it in a different way. 46 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:32,760 Having come by canal down there, now going through it, 47 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:35,080 cleaving through it on the railway, 48 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:40,720 you could say that the canal was respecting the Aire Valley, 49 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:44,400 where the railway here is sort of using it, driving through it. 50 00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:48,640 But, as soon as we get up on the Pennines, the situation is reversed. 51 00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:50,800 The landscape is totally in charge. 52 00:04:01,720 --> 00:04:02,840 Here, beyond Keighley, 53 00:04:02,840 --> 00:04:05,680 we've just about run out of the industrial West Riding. 54 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:10,560 The landscape is already beginning to dominate 55 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:14,560 and the hills are turning up on either side of the Aire Valley. 56 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:17,680 The next port of call is Skipton. 57 00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:21,480 It's only 20 miles out, but already, from Leeds, 58 00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:25,600 you've got into a completely different landscape. 59 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:58,360 That's where I leave the train, though not the rail line itself. 60 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:01,040 The main reason is there aren't very many of them. 61 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:05,120 That was a service from Leeds to Morecambe. 62 00:05:05,120 --> 00:05:08,280 But, you know, a fair number of those every day. 63 00:05:08,280 --> 00:05:11,600 But that turns off from here and goes over to the other side of England, 64 00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:14,320 the main line north, the actual Settle and Carlisle, 65 00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:17,200 only has two trains each way every day, 66 00:05:17,200 --> 00:05:19,240 and two of those in the middle of the night. 67 00:05:20,280 --> 00:05:24,480 And anyway, this thing is not just about the railway, it's about 68 00:05:24,480 --> 00:05:26,320 all the places on and near the railway, 69 00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:28,360 and what the railway's done to them, 70 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:31,800 how their character has been changed by it, or not changed. 71 00:05:31,800 --> 00:05:35,560 The first of those, the one that gave half the name to the line, 72 00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:38,960 is Settle itself, which is 15 miles north of here, 73 00:05:38,960 --> 00:05:41,720 sort of 15 miles deeper into the Dales. 74 00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:04,440 It's a bit of Settle, and it's not quite what it seems, really. 75 00:06:04,440 --> 00:06:10,720 This street here is in fact the balcony above the Shambles, 76 00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:14,080 the old market hall. Four little houses on top. Why not? 77 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:17,480 It's a very reasonable way of doing it, uses the space twice, 78 00:06:17,480 --> 00:06:20,120 and it's sort of typical of the quirkiness of the place. 79 00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:24,080 It's very much its own, own person, Settle, 80 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:27,640 much more than Skipton down the road, which is not quite industrial, 81 00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:30,200 not quite tourist, not quite market town. 82 00:06:30,200 --> 00:06:32,480 This is the very end of market day 83 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:38,080 and you feel all the time that it's a local centre. 84 00:06:38,080 --> 00:06:41,720 It's not really worried by tourists, although it does have tourists. 85 00:06:41,720 --> 00:06:44,080 It's doing its own thing, 86 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:48,640 doing its own thing in the buildings, as well, the way they crowd together 87 00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:50,040 and huddle up. 88 00:06:50,040 --> 00:06:54,120 This isn't picturesqueness, so much as complete practicality, keeping 89 00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:57,720 the wind out, because the wind can be diabolical here in winter. 90 00:06:57,720 --> 00:06:59,280 And, in fact, in June. 91 00:06:59,280 --> 00:07:03,480 It's very well looked after, apart from the main road traffic which 92 00:07:03,480 --> 00:07:07,000 goes through here, which could be got rid of easily. 93 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:10,960 Everything else is well kept up, but not too well kept up, 94 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:14,640 it's just healthy and going on happily. 95 00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:19,640 There's a new public library and some flats just at the back, for example. 96 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:23,560 Nothing special, but just that bit more care, 97 00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:27,360 not leaving the site just as a vacant hole in the middle of the town. 98 00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:29,080 Everything's trim here. 99 00:07:29,080 --> 00:07:30,760 And opposite that library, 100 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:35,360 there's a typical bit of Settle or Dales bloody-mindedness. 101 00:07:35,360 --> 00:07:38,080 It's the most elaborate house in Settle. 102 00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:40,640 It's been called a folly, and with good reason. 103 00:07:40,640 --> 00:07:43,320 The designer, whoever he was, really did mix it. 104 00:07:43,320 --> 00:07:45,080 He mixed classical and Tudor 105 00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:48,600 and stirred the whole lot up into a colossal goulash. 106 00:07:48,600 --> 00:07:50,120 The railway? 107 00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:52,600 Well, it's just over at the back of the houses there. 108 00:07:52,600 --> 00:07:57,120 But it hardly affects the town at all. There's no railway suburb. 109 00:07:57,120 --> 00:08:00,160 The station now is almost a period piece, 110 00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:04,080 with gas lamps and what you might call Victoriana, you know, things 111 00:08:04,080 --> 00:08:07,280 you'd see in antiques shops in the King's Road, which is very nice, 112 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:11,280 but I suspect the reason is that British Rail are slowly running 113 00:08:11,280 --> 00:08:12,480 the line down. 114 00:08:12,480 --> 00:08:14,480 They won't bother to replace anything, 115 00:08:14,480 --> 00:08:16,880 they'll just leave it until it crumbles, which is sad. 116 00:08:49,800 --> 00:08:53,200 15 miles further on on the Settle and Carlisle, 117 00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:56,200 and 1,000 feet up, the Ribblehead Viaduct, which is 118 00:08:56,200 --> 00:08:59,480 probably the most impressive engineering structure on the line. 119 00:08:59,480 --> 00:09:02,320 A magnificent thing in magnificent scenery. 120 00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:05,200 A real case of where man's building 121 00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:08,240 and nature are completely complementary. 122 00:09:09,400 --> 00:09:14,520 This valley is actually a wind funnel into the prevailing wind and there is 123 00:09:14,520 --> 00:09:17,720 a story that a chap working on top had his hat taken off, 124 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:21,360 it got swirled under the arch, with the air currents, 125 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:24,520 came back the other side and back onto his head again. 126 00:09:24,520 --> 00:09:28,520 But a lot of the stories aren't as funny as that. 127 00:09:28,520 --> 00:09:32,480 In three years, 100 men died here building this viaduct. 128 00:09:32,480 --> 00:09:36,840 Not all accidents, but an awful lot of them were, accidents and disease. 129 00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:41,560 This was the last great railway work actually done by the navvies, 130 00:09:41,560 --> 00:09:45,880 that is, simple straightforward sweat and no mechanical aids. 131 00:09:47,560 --> 00:09:50,760 They travelled around and established shanty towns, 132 00:09:50,760 --> 00:09:53,560 and one of them was just here. It was called Batty Green. 133 00:09:53,560 --> 00:09:58,800 And when the line construction was at its peak, which was about 1870, 134 00:09:58,800 --> 00:10:01,440 there were about 2,000 people working here. 135 00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:05,280 And Batty Green was equipped not only with pubs but with a hospital 136 00:10:05,280 --> 00:10:06,880 and a public library. 137 00:10:09,040 --> 00:10:15,320 From here on, for about 15 miles now, we're stuck on or above 1,000 feet, 138 00:10:15,320 --> 00:10:19,080 almost nothing, just the tracks and the hills 139 00:10:19,080 --> 00:10:24,840 and very occasional wayside halts which now, alas, are closed. 140 00:10:42,200 --> 00:10:44,640 I said there weren't many passenger trains on this line, 141 00:10:44,640 --> 00:10:46,280 but there's an awful lot of freight. 142 00:10:46,280 --> 00:10:50,560 It's a link still worth keeping between Scotland and Yorkshire. 143 00:10:50,560 --> 00:10:52,280 This is Dent Station. 144 00:10:52,280 --> 00:10:55,800 It is, or rather was, the highest mainline station in Britain. 145 00:10:55,800 --> 00:10:58,040 1,150 feet up. 146 00:10:58,040 --> 00:11:00,560 And even though it is something like three miles 147 00:11:00,560 --> 00:11:03,840 from the village down there, something like 500 feet down, 148 00:11:03,840 --> 00:11:08,280 on one hell of a road, it is still a link, or could be. 149 00:11:08,280 --> 00:11:12,160 Now the station is closed, the buildings are used as a kind 150 00:11:12,160 --> 00:11:16,160 of adventure centre for a school in Burnley, which is good in itself. 151 00:11:16,160 --> 00:11:18,640 But meanwhile, especially in the winter, 152 00:11:18,640 --> 00:11:20,880 you just can't get out of Dent except by road. 153 00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:23,800 And there are times when that's impossible. 154 00:11:23,800 --> 00:11:27,160 They're not joking when they put snow fences up here. 155 00:11:27,160 --> 00:11:30,720 And Dent itself is a quite remarkable place. 156 00:11:30,720 --> 00:11:34,120 They've absolutely packed the houses together here. 157 00:11:34,120 --> 00:11:38,960 Just at this point, the village street is not much wider than I am. 158 00:11:38,960 --> 00:11:42,120 And it's all common sense, huddling together against the wind 159 00:11:42,120 --> 00:11:43,320 and the weather. 160 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:46,040 And it's common sense that's still relevant today, you know, 161 00:11:46,040 --> 00:11:49,680 in places in Britain that have this kind of winter weather, 162 00:11:49,680 --> 00:11:50,960 Scotsnewdowns, for example, 163 00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:54,000 because it can surely blow pretty hard up there. 164 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:56,720 And, although it's a very pretty village, 165 00:11:56,720 --> 00:12:00,840 you might say a kind of Clovelly, it is also a working village. 166 00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:03,840 There's one or two souvenir shops, inevitably, 167 00:12:03,840 --> 00:12:07,040 but nothing overwhelming, the place is in balance. 168 00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:10,400 It's still a real community, and still in a real Yorkshire Dale, 169 00:12:10,400 --> 00:12:12,480 we're still in the West Riding here, 170 00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:16,240 although it's only a few miles to Kendal and Westmorland. 171 00:12:16,240 --> 00:12:21,520 And what I'd like to see, even in what is a national park, 172 00:12:21,520 --> 00:12:25,800 the Dales National Park here, is just a bit more employment, 173 00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:31,560 you know, a small factory, to keep the spirit of the place alive, 174 00:12:31,560 --> 00:12:35,200 to stop mass immigration and all the houses fill up with weekenders 175 00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:37,160 or second homes. 176 00:12:37,160 --> 00:12:39,640 The place is bigger and stronger than that. 177 00:12:40,640 --> 00:12:45,360 It could be done. It could be done carefully, and they are careful here. 178 00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:48,480 Careful, for example, not to have asphalted this lot over. 179 00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:53,200 Careful in the car park, where instead, again, of mass asphalt, 180 00:12:53,200 --> 00:12:56,760 there's going to be a concrete framework, soil on that, 181 00:12:56,760 --> 00:12:59,600 grass on top of that. You can do it. 182 00:12:59,600 --> 00:13:02,800 And, with a bit of luck, just a tiny bypass, 183 00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:06,760 because it's quiet enough now, but when traffic comes through, 184 00:13:06,760 --> 00:13:10,480 and it has to because there are through roads through Dent, 185 00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:12,560 it gets a bit cramped up there. 186 00:13:14,120 --> 00:13:17,440 But what really hits me is the absolute need for the place to be 187 00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:19,440 just like this just here, 188 00:13:19,440 --> 00:13:23,600 with the hills behind the church and everything huddling in. 189 00:13:23,600 --> 00:13:27,560 You know, so many places now are built without any need at all, 190 00:13:27,560 --> 00:13:31,760 just for lowest common denominator materialism. 191 00:13:54,320 --> 00:13:57,360 Appleby is the only passenger stop between Settle and Carlisle. 192 00:13:57,360 --> 00:14:00,200 And it's certainly a place worth stopping off for. 193 00:14:00,200 --> 00:14:02,440 It was, in fact, a medieval new town. 194 00:14:02,440 --> 00:14:05,160 It didn't grow up accidentally at a ford in the river or 195 00:14:05,160 --> 00:14:06,200 anything like that. 196 00:14:06,200 --> 00:14:10,120 The whole town was laid out at one go, though the buildings, of course, 197 00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:11,160 have changed. 198 00:14:11,160 --> 00:14:13,400 There's a castle at the top of the hill here, 199 00:14:13,400 --> 00:14:17,200 a church down at the bottom, most of the town's shops in-between. 200 00:14:17,200 --> 00:14:21,560 It's... It's a very solid, nice plan, that. 201 00:14:21,560 --> 00:14:24,080 The kind of thing that's just as valid today, really. 202 00:14:25,600 --> 00:14:29,000 But as well as that, there's all the taste of Appleby. 203 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:30,400 Over the centuries, 204 00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:32,720 they've embellished it in all sorts of little ways. 205 00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:37,960 Like the obelisk here, which they think was put up to commemorate 206 00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:42,000 Charles II's restoration, because Appleby was a staunch Royalist place. 207 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:44,800 This sort of defines this end of the town. 208 00:14:44,800 --> 00:14:47,560 Not only that, there's another one, it's a sort of twin, 209 00:14:47,560 --> 00:14:49,800 down at the low end of the town, 210 00:14:49,800 --> 00:14:53,120 so that, wherever you are in this high street, Boroughgate, you can 211 00:14:53,120 --> 00:14:56,240 relate yourself exactly by looking at the two obelisks. 212 00:14:56,240 --> 00:14:59,000 Nearer to this one, further from that one. 213 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:02,600 And the church itself has a little screen in front of it. 214 00:15:02,600 --> 00:15:07,000 Super idea, this, because from the top end of town you see screen 215 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:10,520 and church as one building, you think it's an extra aisle. 216 00:15:10,520 --> 00:15:14,280 Lower down, you suddenly realise that it isn't, it's a thing in front, 217 00:15:14,280 --> 00:15:17,440 separate building, which you have to go through to get to the church, 218 00:15:17,440 --> 00:15:18,480 under an arch. 219 00:15:18,480 --> 00:15:23,440 Things like that crystallise a town, make it absolutely unique. 220 00:15:25,320 --> 00:15:29,920 And, overall, it's such a solid, sane uniqueness in Appleby. 221 00:15:29,920 --> 00:15:33,560 It's not loaded with international tourism and gimmicks. 222 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:38,080 It's just going on with its business, quietly, naturally, it's there to 223 00:15:38,080 --> 00:15:41,360 look at if you want to, it's not thrusting it down your throat. 224 00:15:41,360 --> 00:15:46,480 From here on in, slow diminuendo down to the Solway Firth, 225 00:15:46,480 --> 00:15:50,800 the hills gradually fading away, you know, hanging on as long as they can, 226 00:15:50,800 --> 00:15:53,440 but then, flat land and Carlisle. 227 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:29,520 Well, that's it. 228 00:16:29,520 --> 00:16:33,840 The end of the Settle and Carlisle line, with one of the two expresses 229 00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:40,040 being held up, alas, a few yards away from Carlisle Citadel Station. 230 00:16:40,040 --> 00:16:42,400 This is the mainline on the left, 231 00:16:42,400 --> 00:16:44,960 the one that comes up from Euston through Crewe. 232 00:16:44,960 --> 00:16:48,720 I reckon meself it ought to be given right of way because 233 00:16:48,720 --> 00:16:51,000 the Settle and Carlisle deserves it. 234 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:53,160 It must not go! 235 00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:56,800 British Rail have just started to reopen one or two lines, 236 00:16:56,800 --> 00:17:01,280 rather timid ones, really, to preserved steam locomotives. 237 00:17:01,280 --> 00:17:04,640 The whole of the Settle and Carlisle is ready-made for this. 238 00:17:04,640 --> 00:17:09,520 I was lucky enough just once to see one of those things panting up over 239 00:17:09,520 --> 00:17:10,880 the Ribblesdale viaduct. 240 00:17:10,880 --> 00:17:12,440 It's something I won't forget. 241 00:17:13,800 --> 00:17:17,760 And just beyond, when they eventually let it into the station, 242 00:17:17,760 --> 00:17:20,240 is Carlisle itself, which I'd like to have a look at. 243 00:17:28,200 --> 00:17:29,840 Almost everywhere between Settle 244 00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:32,520 and Carlisle has a very strong sense of identity. 245 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:37,160 Carlisle itself, to me, seems to have none at all. It's got addled. 246 00:17:37,160 --> 00:17:43,000 It's as if all the border people that have come through it have somehow 247 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:47,120 rubbed out the town altogether. This isn't only my opinion. 248 00:17:47,120 --> 00:17:52,600 Almost everyone I've spoken to has had the same feeling about the place. 249 00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:54,240 It goes back a long way. 250 00:17:54,240 --> 00:17:59,160 In 1830, a local newspaper was saying that they were neither Scots 251 00:17:59,160 --> 00:18:01,760 nor Irish nor English, but a mongrel breed of all three... 252 00:18:02,760 --> 00:18:05,200 ..which is puzzling when you think of Berwick-upon-Tweed 253 00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:06,720 on the other side of the country, 254 00:18:06,720 --> 00:18:09,880 which is so terribly strong and its own place. 255 00:18:11,080 --> 00:18:13,760 This is all reflected visually. 256 00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:15,960 In the marketplace in Carlisle, 257 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:20,080 I'm leaning on an Art Nouveau ladies' lavatory, which is about the last 258 00:18:20,080 --> 00:18:25,200 decent thing that's been put up here - it's all cacophony. It's a mess. 259 00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:26,560 The traffic's a mess. 260 00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:30,920 The...flowerbeds...they're nice flowers 261 00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:33,360 but they don't belong in a marketplace. 262 00:18:33,360 --> 00:18:37,120 The lamp standards are thick and ugly. 263 00:18:37,120 --> 00:18:39,960 It's all getting in the way of the shape of the town. 264 00:18:41,360 --> 00:18:43,960 You just can't see the wood for the trees here. 265 00:18:43,960 --> 00:18:46,680 It really does need its own head shrinker - 266 00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:49,240 what I mean by a town planner, or what he ought to be. 267 00:18:49,240 --> 00:18:53,920 And if I was trying to plan Carlisle, I might say, well, all right, it is 268 00:18:53,920 --> 00:18:56,680 such a mess, let's simply leave it as it is. 269 00:18:56,680 --> 00:18:58,240 But one or two things make me 270 00:18:58,240 --> 00:19:00,680 think the situation isn't as hopeless as that. 271 00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:03,720 One is that this place, like everywhere else, has 272 00:19:03,720 --> 00:19:07,400 something from the past that you can hang on to and develop and expand. 273 00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:11,680 And here, a collection of alleyways, about a dozen of them, 274 00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:13,200 very close together indeed. 275 00:19:13,200 --> 00:19:16,560 Some of them are still used for shopping now and they're not pretty 276 00:19:16,560 --> 00:19:18,440 but they are a working part of the town. 277 00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:21,960 Others are left derelict or blocked or car parks. 278 00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:25,000 That's not the way to get a sense of identity. 279 00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:30,280 And the other thing, which, perhaps, is more important, 280 00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:33,560 is that this marketplace didn't always look like this. 281 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:37,200 What has grown up here, this lack of identity, 282 00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:40,640 has happened in the last 30 or 40 years. 283 00:19:40,640 --> 00:19:46,080 From a photograph of 1898 you can see that it had a complete unity 284 00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:50,200 and it allowed the important parts of the town, like the statue 285 00:19:50,200 --> 00:19:53,520 and Carlisle Cross, the market cross there, 286 00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:55,880 the building behind it, to speak, 287 00:19:55,880 --> 00:20:01,680 to provide a real heart to the place, not, as I said before, this mess. 288 00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:04,880 Because now, look at it. 289 00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:06,640 County town of Cumberland? 290 00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:08,000 All the places in Cumberland 291 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:15,720 and the centre can be no more guts to it than you see here? It's not on. 292 00:20:15,720 --> 00:20:18,720 That, for me, is about enough of an addled place. 293 00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:21,880 I'd rather get on a bit further up the line towards Edinburgh. 294 00:20:35,440 --> 00:20:39,160 I'm sorry, I'm about three-and-a-half years late for the train to 295 00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:41,040 Edinburgh from Longtown. 296 00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:44,120 Expresses used to run through here all the way from St Pancras, up over 297 00:20:44,120 --> 00:20:49,880 the Settle and Carlisle, and then Carlisle to Edinburgh, on this route. 298 00:20:49,880 --> 00:20:51,960 The line was closed in 1969. 299 00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:56,680 There was a chance at one time it was going to be reopened privately, 300 00:20:56,680 --> 00:21:00,760 not done as an enthusiasts' railway, but as a proper commercial concern, 301 00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:02,520 quite independent of British Rail. 302 00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:07,280 They couldn't get the money in time, and now the track's been taken up. 303 00:21:07,280 --> 00:21:12,560 I don't really give it much chance. Pity, though. What a waste. 304 00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:16,000 What a waste here. This stuff is good machinery. 305 00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:22,960 Not to be left lying around derelict like this. 306 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:24,640 At the very least now, 307 00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:29,040 this could become a different sort of indoor adventure playground. 308 00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:31,720 It could become a house, I wouldn't mind living in this. 309 00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:35,200 Keep all the stuff, and convert these to beer pumps. 310 00:21:37,640 --> 00:21:41,760 Longtown itself is only, what, eight miles from Carlisle. 311 00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:46,160 So, closing the railway hasn't meant an enormous problem. 312 00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:48,120 Eight-mile bus journey is not too bad. 313 00:21:48,120 --> 00:21:51,480 But that's not at all true of the places further up there, 314 00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:52,520 into the hills. 315 00:22:02,360 --> 00:22:06,040 This is one of the wildest parts of the border, between Carlisle 316 00:22:06,040 --> 00:22:12,920 and Hawick. There's just greenery, me, and a railway junction. 317 00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:16,400 This is Riccarton, and it really was a junction 318 00:22:16,400 --> 00:22:21,000 because not only does the Carlisle Edinburgh come through here, but also 319 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:25,160 a line which went down to Bellingham, down the Tyne Valley to Hexham. 320 00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:28,120 So, you could, quite literally, go from here to both King's Cross 321 00:22:28,120 --> 00:22:31,080 and St Pancras. Now gone, all gone. 322 00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:35,840 It was very odd in another way 323 00:22:35,840 --> 00:22:38,680 because for almost 100 years there was absolutely no road access to 324 00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:40,960 this place, you just had to get in by rail, 325 00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:42,920 it was the only way you could do it. 326 00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:46,920 I can't visualise this half-mile of platform packed with 327 00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:50,560 Newcastle supporters or something, going to a Glasgow football match, 328 00:22:50,560 --> 00:22:53,000 but something like that could have happened. 329 00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:55,520 There's a road now, and it's rather sad, in a way, 330 00:22:55,520 --> 00:22:57,440 because it's a forestry road. 331 00:22:57,440 --> 00:23:01,080 In other words, little green fir trees are coming here by the million. 332 00:23:01,080 --> 00:23:06,000 It's a great pity to swamp these huge, rolling hills 333 00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:08,800 just for the sake of a bit more timber. 334 00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:10,080 Ah, get off. 335 00:23:12,360 --> 00:23:14,560 Hawick is the next town on the route, 336 00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:19,600 and it's the one which has suffered most from the closure of the railway, 337 00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:23,800 it's the one which is furthest from any railhead. 338 00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:32,400 Hawick Station. The station's open. 339 00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:35,600 The only thing is there don't happen to be any railway tracks running 340 00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:36,680 through it. 341 00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:41,360 The reason it's open is that British Rail operate a service here where 342 00:23:41,360 --> 00:23:44,880 the goods come in, collected, taken out in British Rail vans 343 00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:47,280 to either Carlisle or Edinburgh. 344 00:23:47,280 --> 00:23:50,560 It begins to look as though someone is trying really hard to invent 345 00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:52,000 the railway. 346 00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:55,840 And the reason why this is still going is that Hawick is an industrial 347 00:23:55,840 --> 00:24:00,400 town, it's not just a small, local centre. 348 00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:03,640 It's that as well, but, basically, it lives on textiles, 349 00:24:03,640 --> 00:24:05,080 particularly tweeds. 350 00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:11,160 You could almost be back in the West Riding here, same dark brown stone, 351 00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:13,200 the same mills crowding the river, 352 00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:16,840 the same hills coming in very close on all sides. 353 00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:20,720 And this industrial character is not conventionally beautiful, 354 00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:22,200 but very nice. 355 00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:25,400 It has a very strong sense of identity after Carlisle, 356 00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:27,000 which has very little. 357 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:30,680 And the main street has a very strong character. 358 00:24:30,680 --> 00:24:35,360 It's fairly narrow, tall buildings, so you really know you're there. 359 00:24:35,360 --> 00:24:39,760 Occasional outcrops on the skyline, like the Victorian town hall. 360 00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:43,560 And a set of, for a town of this size, colossal banks. 361 00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:47,840 Like Florentine palaces. All this is almost on an Edinburgh scale. 362 00:24:47,840 --> 00:24:51,440 Without having any dramatically beautiful buildings it's still 363 00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:52,760 a very worthwhile place. 364 00:24:52,760 --> 00:24:57,280 And if you do go anywhere by bus you're a bit stuck 365 00:24:57,280 --> 00:24:59,480 because there is no bus station. 366 00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:01,160 There is a bus turn-round place, 367 00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:03,160 I mean, you just pick it up at a bus stop. 368 00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:04,320 But when you compare that, 369 00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:08,120 standing out in the open entirely with no facilities, 370 00:25:08,120 --> 00:25:12,160 with the facilities that were, well, still are provided here in name 371 00:25:12,160 --> 00:25:15,560 though not in fact - you know, waiting rooms and ladies' and gents' 372 00:25:15,560 --> 00:25:17,400 and that, probably a buffet, bookstall, 373 00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:22,960 that's still there - it seems we're making a bad exchange. 374 00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:26,880 There's a sort of Marie Celeste feeling about this because, as I say, 375 00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:29,760 the parcels office is still going, so it's still inhabited, 376 00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:33,920 but nothing is happening this side of the station buildings. 377 00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:37,160 And the same thing will be true all the way up to Edinburgh now. 378 00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:41,080 Hawick I just wanted to show because it was representative. 379 00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:43,800 The point of this part of the journey, basically, 380 00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:49,680 is to make very sure that this kind of useless dereliction - you know, 381 00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:53,760 parts of the tracks are going to be a cemetery in the end. Eugh! - 382 00:25:53,760 --> 00:25:56,920 this kind of dereliction doesn't happen to the Settle and Carlisle. 383 00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:02,520 We're on a real railway again. 384 00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:07,040 We're also back to something pretty much like a British summer. 385 00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:09,960 But in terms of Edinburgh, it's not a bad thing 386 00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:13,080 because it's one hell of an atmospheric city. 387 00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:17,840 It just gives it an extra punch, whether it's to the castle, 388 00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:22,280 or to the long, straight avenue of Princes Street. 389 00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:26,840 Or even to the new shopping precinct which is not living up to Edinburgh's 390 00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:28,560 past traditions. 391 00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:31,520 We're up on the Calton Hill here, and some pretty odd things 392 00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:34,320 are happening up here, as well as over there. 393 00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:38,160 Like this, for example, which is a copy of the Parthenon. 394 00:26:38,160 --> 00:26:42,280 It was meant to be a national monument, the sort of thing 395 00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:47,480 they did in the French Revolution, these abstract conceptions. 396 00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:51,440 But the money ran out, didn't it? So we've now only got about half of it. 397 00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:53,680 And it's locally known not as a national monument but 398 00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:55,720 the disgrace of Edinburgh. 399 00:26:55,720 --> 00:26:57,680 For my money, I don't think it's a disgrace, 400 00:26:57,680 --> 00:27:00,800 I think it's a marvellous thing to do. But they didn't stop there. 401 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:02,800 See, this is 1822, 402 00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:06,120 and within a few years of that they went berserk on this hilltop. 403 00:27:06,120 --> 00:27:09,000 It's not only this half-finished Parthenon. 404 00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:11,600 There's a Royal Observatory with a dome, 405 00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:14,960 there's a Doric temple to a mathematician. 406 00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:19,160 There is a little rotunda to a philosopher. 407 00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:21,040 And there is a very large, 408 00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:24,840 telescopic Gothic tower to Nelson's achievements. 409 00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:29,200 This is all nuts, it's all crazy and marvellous at the same time. 410 00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:32,920 This place is a living proof of the fact that if God doesn't exist, 411 00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:36,000 because none of these are religious buildings, we've got to invent him. 412 00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:40,600 People have been building their cathedrals, that is 413 00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:43,760 reaching up to the skies here, for something like a thousand years. 414 00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:47,240 Right up till now, that is, right up till the inarticulate, 415 00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:49,720 flat roofs of the modern office blocks. 416 00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:56,400 If I had to sum up these journeys, I suppose very simply, 417 00:27:56,400 --> 00:28:01,680 the land surface is sacred. Means of transport are sacred. 418 00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:08,280 Each has its own ethos and each is useful for 419 00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:11,880 a different pace of journey, a different kind of journey. 420 00:28:11,880 --> 00:28:16,600 And, finally, I suppose, that all the time, now, 1972, 421 00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:20,440 for as long as we've got left, we must just go on building cathedrals.