Original subtitles

(wind whooshing)

(uplifting dramatic music)

- Our journey begins

at the city of Liverpool, once a gateway to the New World

for both trade and passengers.

Branching off the River Mersey is the Manchester Ship Canal

which, when finished in 1893, was the largest of its kind

in the world.

On the eastern side of Manchester

is the Peak District National Park,

attracting millions of visitors every year.

In the park is Derwent Water Reservoir

which played an important part in the Dam Busters Raid

of 1943 during World War Two.

To the south is Arbor Low,

one of the finest henge monuments in England,

built over two and a half thousand years ago.

Our final location Keddleston Hall

is a neoclassical masterpiece

whose architect was inspired by the buildings

of Ancient Rome.

The River Mersey empties into the Irish Sea

at the city of Liverpool.

As the rain clears away north,

we make our way up the river

which was once a major seaport

for anyone traveling to America.

You might say it was the international airport of its age

and the magnificent buildings that line the River Mersey

reinforce the importance of Liverpool

in the 19th century.

These two mythical Liver birds have symbolized the city

since they were put on top of the Royal Liver Building,

constructed around 1910.

The clock faces enabled ships to see the accurate time

as they came and went on the tide.

The city has a number of great civic buildings

which represent the importance of Liverpool

at the end of the 19th century.

These include a large railway station,

art galleries, and museums.

And perhaps the most outstanding, St George's Hall.

This is one of the finest neoclassical buildings in Europe

and one of the greatest assembly halls in Britain.

Liverpool boasts two cathedrals,

the 1960s Catholic one,

which, due to its shape was nicknamed Paddy's Wigwam.

Close by is the Protestant Cathedral

which took 74 years to build

and was only completed in 1978.

Its length of 189 meters, including the Lady Chapel

at the end makes it the longest cathedral in the world.

In 1839, a horse race was held here at Aintree

in the suburbs of Liverpool,

now known as the Grand National,

it had become the most valuable jump race in Europe

with a prize fund of well over $1,000,000.

It has become a cultural event

and is even popular with people

who do not normally follow horse racing.

One of the iconic sights of the city

are the ferries crossing the River Mersey.

They have been in existence for over 800 years.

The current ferries came into service

during the 1960s and were made famous

by the song "Ferry Cross The Mersey"

by Jerry & the Pacemakers in 1964.

Opposite Liverpool on the Wirral Peninsula

is the 1890s purpose-built village of Port Sunlight.

A rare example of an enlightened Victorian employer

looking after his workers.

The employers were the Lever brothers

and they built this model village

on one side of their Sunlight soap factory.

The style of some of the houses was adapted

from the black-beamed cottages of the Tudor age.

There were gardens, allotments, public buildings,

as well as a hospital, schools, and a church.

There was even an art gallery.

For the families who lived here,

it must've seemed like heaven

in comparison to the rows of small back-to-back housing

only a few miles away across the river in Liverpool.

A few kilometers down the Mersey on the north bank

and hidden by trees is one

of the finest Tudor houses in England, Speke Hall.

(stately music)

Building began around 1530 with the great hall

and over the next 70 years, other bays and wings were added

until the north side was completed in 1598.

Since then, there have only been minor changes

to the house, making this a rare example

of a virtually-untouched 16th century manor.

The main oak beams are stiffened with smaller timbers

and then filled or corked

with a sticky material, usually made

of some combination of wet soil,

clay, sand, animal dung, and straw.

Today, this historic and important house stands alone

in an industrial area

and almost at the end of the runway of Liverpool Airport.

In fact, the original airport

was built on part of the grounds of Speke Hall in the 1930s.

In 2001, it was renamed Liverpool John Lennon Airport

in honor of one of the city's most famous residents.

(airplane whooshing)

On the opposite bank of the Mersey is the start

of the Manchester Ship Canal at Eastham Lock

which is the largest on this 58-kilometer waterway.

(peaceful music)

This was the last great canal project in Britain

and enabled large ships to reach Manchester

and the docks at Salford Quays from the River Mersey.

It was finally completed in 1893

and at the time was the largest navigation canal

in the world.

There was an earlier 18th century canal

but it was only usable by small ships,

often dried out, and had fallen into disrepair

by the late 19th century, becoming unnavigable in parts.

The new canal would allow larger ships

and their cargo to boost Manchester's trade

and also to avoid paying the heavy dues levied

by the Port of Liverpool.

Even today, its quite a sight

to see a large ship quietly slipping past streets

of houses or through the swing bridges.

The building facts are impressive.

12,000 navvies were employed for six years

to dig out the 40,000,000 cubic meters of earth.

They were assisted by 124 steam cranes,

6000 trucks and wagons as well as 300 kilometers

of temporary track for the 180 locomotives.

The final cost was staggering.

In today's money, the bill was

in excess of two billion dollars.

All this effort made Manchester Britain's third largest port

despite being 65 kilometers inland.

Even today, the canal carries

around 7,000,000 tons of cargo every year.

(birds chirping)

A few kilometers south of the canal

is the red brick Georgian house of Dunham Massey.

In the 1770s,

the second Earl of Warrington completely remodeled

the old house as well as the ancient deer park

but retained the long intersecting avenues.

The money to make all these improvements to the estate

came from his advantageous marriage to the daughter

of a wealthy London merchant.

Though the new countess brought money to the union,

the marriage itself was a disaster.

The couple fell out so badly

that they would not speak to each other

and lived in the house as strangers.

So bad did the marriage become

that the earl wrote a pamphlet advocating divorce

on the grounds of incompatibility of temper.

The house was refashion and modernized

in the early 1900s and today is under the care

of the National Trust.

The Industrial Revolution of the late 18th century

saw the birth of new manufacturing processes

that gave rise to the factory system.

This is Quarry Bank Mill,

one of the best preserved early cotton mills

and which is still in working condition.

Textiles were the dominant industry of this revolution

and the first to use modern protection methods.

When the mill was built, it used water power

to turn a wheel which drove the machinery

in the weaving sheds.

Other wheels were added over the next few decades.

It was an efficient process

but only if the river flowed.

No water meant now power.

So in 1810 the first steam engine was introduced

and this was upgraded over the next century.

The mill operated until 1959

when it denoted to the National Trust

as a working museum.

To house his workforce in the late 18th century,

the mill's owner created Styal Village.

At the time this was an enlightened attitude as thousands

of other workers endured terrible housing conditions

in cramped industrial cities like Manchester.

Here in the countryside, plain terraced cottages were built.

Each one had a parlor, kitchen, and two bedrooms,

an outside privy and a small garden.

The rent was deducted from the worker's wages.

The mill owner attempted to bring the structured order

of a country village to his new industrial community.

He even built Oak School to educate his workers' children.

Most great houses in Britain have been altered

over the centuries according to the whims of each owner

and how rich they were at any particular time.

Many have fallen into ruin through debt

due to the enormous running costs.

Some have simply been demolished.

Lyme Park on the edge of the Peak District still survives

due to being gifted to the National Trust

by its last owner, William Lee,

whose ancestors had lived on the land for over 600 years.

The first house wall pulled down in the 16th century

and replaced by a Tudor building.

This was then transformed in the 1720s

into a neoclassical stately home in the Italian style

by the Venetian architect Giacomo Leoni,

one of the most fashionable architects of the day.

Over the next few years, he created an elegant house

whose style was copied

at many other country houses in England.

We are now entering the Peak District

which is an upland area lying south

of the Pennine chain of hills,

often referred to as the backbone of England.

(peaceful music)

In 1951, the Peak District

became the first national park in Britain

and with its proximity to the cities of Manchester,

Stoke-on-Trent, Derby and Sheffield.

It attracts millions of visitors every year.

Ahead of us the moorland plateau of Kinder Scout

and running out of it is Kinder Downfall.

This is the tallest waterfall in the Peak District

with a 30 meter drop.

It lies on the River Kinder where it flows west

over one of the gritstone cliffs

on the plateau edge.

In the strong prevailing westerly winds,

the water is blown back on itself

and the resulting cloud of spray

can be seen from several miles away.

Kinder Scout is also known as Dark Peak

due to a layer of millstone grit

which prevents rainwater from draining away

through the soil and leaving a dark and often dangerous bog

on the highest point in the national park.

Each year, walkers who have set out unprepared

have had to be rescued from this beautiful

but also treacherous landscape.

But for those who complete the climb to the top,

the views are magnificent.

(peaceful music)

This is a Vale of Edale and a favorite place

where visitors have walked for well over a century.

This whole area was once a royal hunting ground

and following the Norman conquest in 1066,

King William rewarded one of his followers,

William Peverell, with a large estate and custody

of the royal land.

Peverell Castle is built on a crag

above the village of Castleton

and is an important and well-documented example

of a tower keep castle

and is one of a very small number in England

to be build of stone rather than wood

immediately after the conquest.

The castle became unoccupied during the early 15th century

and only the keep was in use 200 years later

as a courthouse.

When this was abandoned, the castle gradually became ruined

until restoration work started in the late 19th century.

In the heart of the Peak District National Park

are a series of reservoirs constructed

in the early 20th century to supply water

to cities like Sheffield.

But one of these did much more than supply water.

It played a part in one of the most daring raids

during the Second World War.

Operation Chastise, better known

as the Dam Busters Raid of 1943.

This involved flying in the dark at very low level

and releasing a bouncing bomb to evade local defenses.

To accomplish this,

a high level of specialist training was required.

The Derwent Reservoir Dam had a long approach

and the two tours on the top looked similar

to one of the targets in Germany, the Eder Dam.

In the months before the raid,

local residents were constantly awoken at night

by the roar of low-flying Lancaster bombers

like this restored one

and the last flying example in Britain.

The crews undertook training missions

to fly at an exact height of just under 30 meters.

A formidable task especially when the altimeter

was useless at such a low height.

The solution was spotlight fitted under the bombers.

One in the nose and one behind the bomb bay.

They were angled so that the two beams would meet

when the aircraft was at the exact height.

It would be the job of the navigator

to look through the window and talk the pilot down

until the lamps met at the required altitude.

The practice paid off and the raid went ahead.

It was a success

and took German industry some time to recover.

But Dam Busters Raid was a real victory

and a morale booster for a country at war.

(airplane rumbling)

20 kilometers to the south is one of England's grandest

and most popular stately homes, Chatsworth House.

An earlier Tudor house was mostly swept aside

in the late 17th century by the fourth Earl of Devonshire

when he remodeled the house

into a very English classical Baroque style.

It was designed to impress as the most modern house

of its time.

Before it was finished, the earl had been created

the first Duke of Devonshire.

The enormous formal garden,

which was once of the grandest in the country,

has mostly disappeared

and only a few architectural sections remain

including the formal canal and the cascade.

This was built in 1696 and in 1703, a grand Baroque temple

or cascade house was added at the top.

It has 24 cut steps.

Every one slightly different and with a variety of textures

so that each gives a different sound

when water runs over and down them.

In the 19th century, the sixth duke added

a new north wind which includes a sculpture gallery

and servants' quarters.

The fame of Chatsworth spread and in 1843,

Tsar Nicholas the First of Russia informed the duke

that he was likely to visit Chatsworth the following year.

In anticipation of this imperial visit,

the sixth duke decided

to construct the world's highest fountain.

He named it the Emperor Fountain.

A lake was dug on the moors above the house

to supply the immense water pressure

which enabled the jet to reach up to 90 meters.

Sadly, the tsar died and never saw the fountain

but today, around 700,000 people a year

can enjoy it as Chatsworth is one

of the most popular stately homes in the country.

For those who want to travel even further back in time

then five to kilometers to the south is Haddon Hall.

This castellated medieval manor house constructed

around two courtyards has remained unchanged

since the reign of Henry the Eighth

in the early 16th century.

(stately music)

Building Haddon actually began 400 years earlier

in 1170 when Sir Richard Vernon acquired the manor.

He built most of the hall except

for the tower and part of the chapel

which was retained from an even earlier house.

New building work by successive generations

of the Vernon family was carried out at various stages

between the 13th and 16 centuries.

By the Tudor period, building stopped

and Haddon Hall became frozen in time.

Its an important, rare, and wonderful house

and was sensitively restored during the last century.

Its therefore no surprise that Haddon is often used

as a film location for many period films.

This is Arbor Low, one of the finest henge monuments

in England and sits on a high point

in the southern Peak District.

As with so many other ancient monuments,

no one knows quite why it was constructed

or what it was used for.

What we do know is that it was built

around two and a half thousand years ago

inside the earth bank and ditch.

There are 46 large and 13 smaller stones,

arranged in a circle with a group in the center.

What is surprising is that all the stones are lying flat

and no one now knows for certain

whether this was how they were placed originally

or whether they were once upright

and have since been toppled.

One theory is that early Christians laid them flat

in order to de-sanctify the site

but no archeological evidence exists to support this.

At the southern end of the Peak District National Park

is one of its most visited place, Dovedale.

The valley, which was carved out by the River Dove

over thousands of years, runs for about five kilometers.

It's notable for its numerous limestone formations.

Including Dovedale Castle, Ilam Rock

and a limestone promontory called Lover's Leap.

Throughout the ages, Dovedale has inspired painters

as well as writers, extolling its beauty,

including Samuel Johnson, Lord Tennyson,

and John Ruskin.

Lord Byron wrote to a fellow poet,

"I can assure there are things in Derbyshire as noble

"as Greece or Switzerland."

Jane Austin was not immune to Dovedale's beauty

when in her novel of 1813, "Pride and Prejudice",

Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy talk about her travels

in Derbyshire including Dovedale.

In the 18th century it was only the gentry

who had the time and means to enjoy this landscape.

By the mid 19th century with the arrival of the railway,

tourism became possibly for many more people.

Today over a million people a year come

to walk through this picturesque valley.

This is Kedleston Hall, just north of Derby.

In 1760 Sir Nathaniel Curzon decided

to build a new house on land his family had owned

since the 13th century.

He called in top architects to start work.

At the same time, a relatively unknown architect Robert Adam

was commissioned to design some garden buildings

and a bridge to enhance the landscape park

and Curzon was so impressed with his designs

that Adam was quickly put in charge

of building the new mansion

and this is what we see today.

The style of the house has become known as neoclassical

as it followed the ideas from the Roman Classical past.

Adam had traveled to Italy and made drawings

of all the best Classical ruins of Ancient Rome.

The decoration of the south front

is based on the triumphal arch

of the Roman Emperor Constantine

which, today, stands by the Colosseum in Rome.

You can just make it out in the middle section.

Robert Adam's work influenced the direction

of architecture and design

right across the Western world.

Indeed, the Adams style is still very much around today.

An inspiring place to end this journey.

(swelling dramatic music)