The History of Morecambe and Heysham Past and Present

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When the rugby football schism occurred in 1895, the now defunct Morecambe RFC joined the Northern Rugby Football Union (now Rugby Football League) in its second season. Portillo finds out about Torquay's micro-climate, takes a ride on a steam-hauled train to Dartmouth, goes salmon fishing on the Dart estuary and spends some of Totnes's local currency, the Totnes pound. Next stop is the medieval town of Tewkesbury, scene of a grisly battle during the Wars of the Roses, where he joins a group of re-enactors for a taste of the action. From Newark Northgate, Portillo walks to the nearby St Mary Magdalene Church to learn about its song school and choir.

Portillo explores the extensive railway network within the Bog of Allen, discovers the Victorian secrets behind the amazing Boyne Viaduct, and travels underground into the vast Irish zinc mines.A miniature steam train, one third the size of a conventional locomotive, conveys him from Romney Marsh to Dungeness.

He begins in Barkingside, where Victorian philanthropist Thomas Barnardo made it his mission to transform the lives of destitute children, tries his hand at loading a container onto a pocket wagon at Tilbury Docks, and ends his trip in Rochester, where he encounters a host of familiar characters and explores a town that was an inspiration for many of Charles Dickens' works. All episodes were originally broadcast on consecutive weekdays on BBC Two, in the 6:30 pm time slot. Next stop is Severn Tunnel Junction in Wales, where he explores an extraordinary piece of Victorian engineering with its own pump house pumping out millions of gallons a day to keep the Severn Tunnel dry. At the family home of Florence Nightingale in the New Forest, he finds out what motivated the Lady of the Lamp, before seizing the chance to drive the first motor car at Beaulieu. On this journey, Portillo travels from Buxton along one of the first railway routes south to the capital, London.

This picture shows Hadath’s Tea Gardens which were in the grounds of the Old Rectory or ‘Greese Cottage’. Portillo gets up close to a piece of natural history, visits a garden that was used as a viewing platform for public hangings and experiences a timepiece like no other. Portillo sees how Lincolnshire farmers used rails to improve their harvests, visits Lincoln Cathedral, and looks to the future of rail freight. The third journey takes Portillo along the Great Western Railway from Swindon to Penzance, nicknamed 'the holiday line'. Now in Yorkshire, Portillo's first stop is Chapeltown for Wharncliffe Crags, where he learns about rock climbing and then climbs a crag himself.