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Wokingham to Bradford-on-Avon

On the third leg of his journey, Michael Portillo learns how demand from rail commuters fuelled the development of the modern printing press.

Steered by his Victorian guidebook, Michael Portillo heads north from the south coast towards the West Midlands.

The third leg begins in Wokingham, where Bradshaw's reports the proprietor of The Times newspaper resided and where he was a great benefactor. Michael finds out how demand from a growing number of rail commuters fuelled the development of the modern printing press and learns how to print on an iron press. He then heads to Newbury, where he encounters a Tudor captain of industry, who manufactured cloth in enormous volumes.

Michael's next destination is Trowbridge, where Sir Isaac Pitman invented his famous shorthand. He ends this leg of the journey in Bradford on Avon, where he hears from a local manufacturer how his Victorian forebears were the first in Britain to be licensed to vulcanise rubber. They supplied springs, buffers and hoses for the locomotive industry and now make rubber suspensions systems for bicycles.

29 minutes

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Michael Portillo
Series Producer Alison Kreps
Executive Producer John Comerford

Broadcasts

Steam railway programmes on ±«Óãtv iPlayer

A collection of programmes from the ±«Óãtv archives on the beauty of steam locomotives.