Northern England
Birthplace of industrial revolution.
Its great cities changed the history of the world
And helped forge an empire.
A land of contrast...
Where a lightbulb moment illuminated a whole city...
And an ancient ruin spawned horror's bloodiest fiend.
From the castle where harry potter learned to fly,
To the birthplace of a band that changed pop music forever,
The forest where the legend of robin hood was born,
And a theater of dreams
Where the world's greatest team sport plays out.
Ever changing, always innovating,
Past, present and future in perfect harmony.
This is northern England.
♪♪
Beadnell bay in northumberland.
A sandy two-mile stretch of England's northeast coast.
At this northerly latitude,
Winds blowing off the north sea can be bracing, even in summer.
But for father and son kite surfers
Kevin and jonny anderson, it's paradise.
Kevin used to work in the auto industry,
But left to follow his dream in the world of adventure sports.
Jonny first took to the water nine years ago.
Since then, he's developed a passion
For this exhilarating sport that's evolved
Into a full-time job as a kite surfing instructor
With his dad.
The waters of the north sea are famously cold,
But jonny's not bothered.
Northerners are famously hardy folk.
Up here, where the tides of history have turned many times,
There's a real pride of place,
Hard won and fiercely maintained.
♪♪
This was once the northern frontier of the roman empire--
Hadrian's wall, completed around 134 a.D.
A fortified barrier 73 miles long,
Rising 20 feet high,
Dividing britain from coast to coast.
Built to contain and subdue
The fierce tribes of scotland,
The wall would remain intact,
Manned by legions of soldiers, for more than three centuries.
The romans abandoned britain over 1,600 years ago,
But even now, evidence of their military infrastructure
Can still be seen.
And one of the most impressive examples
Is right here in northumberland.
Ever since he visited hadrian's wall at the age of 10,
William cassidy has been fascinated by archaeology.
Before retirement, he traveled the world
As a royal air force engineer.
Now, he spends his days uncovering the secrets
Of this ancient fort called vindolanda.
Once the front line of roman britain,
This huge military complex is the most extensive ruin
Of its kind anywhere in europe.
It contains the remains of cavalry stables,
Infantry barracks, administrative offices,
And even a main street
Along which shops and taverns once stood.
Vindolanda was the largest of many military bases
South of hadrian's wall.
Romans haven't set foot here for over 1,600 years.
At least, not ancient romans.
Italian-born site supervisor marta alberti
Could well be walking in her ancestors' footsteps.
She's one of the many archaeologists
Bringing the past to life.
Already, they've unearthed 400 carved wooden pages
Known as the vindolanda tablets;
Remarkable accounts of daily life at the fort,
From troop movements
To a birthday party invite sent by the wife of an official,
The earliest known letter written in latin by a woman.
The romans may have been the first to conquer britain,
But they weren't the last.
This is alnwick, historic seat of the dukes of northumberland.
And possibly the most photographed castle in England.
Founded in 1096, 30 years after the norman invasion,
It changed hands three times
During the 15th century war of the roses,
A 32-year struggle for the english throne
Between the rival factions of york and lancaster.
For some however, this castle will always be associated
With the world's most famous boy wizard.
In "harry potter and the philosopher's stone,"
Alnwick's battlements became the walls of hogwarts.
This section was used as a backdrop
To the scene where harry is taught to fly
For the first time.
Today, a group of fans, young and not so young,
Are recreating the memorable broomstick lesson
Given by madam hooch.
The classes are hugely popular.
A chance for disciples of the franchise
To indulge their own flights of fancy,
Without the crash landing.
♪♪
Harry potter's second favorite mode of transport
Was, of course, steam,
Less fanciful perhaps, but in some ways just as magical.
Running through the west yorkshire village of haworth
Is the keighley and worth valley railway.
A former main line,
Now operated as a self-contained heritage railway,
It carries over 100,000 tourists every year.
Steam railways like this
Once served the greatest transport network in the world,
Serving hundreds of mills and factories
In the industrial north of England.
The railways would change England forever,
Opening the way for free movement of goods and people.
By 1838, manchester and london,
Once separated by a four-day journey,
Were just four hours apart.
[whistle blows]
For the wealthy industrialists of the 19th century,
A new age had begun.
♪♪
At one time, this vast 19th century textile mill
At shipley in west yorkshire
Turned vast quantities of raw fiber into fabrics and clothing.
But it was more than just a manufacturing plant.
It was a unique social experiment
Founded by industrialist sir titus salt.
His statue in nearby roberts park depicts a man
Who would revolutionize the very nature of victorian industry.
Sir titus salt was deeply religious
And considered it his duty to better the living conditions
Of those who worked for him.
And this was his grand plan, saltaire,
A model town designed to fulfill all the needs
Of his workforce and their families.
And so, in 1853, beside the leeds and liverpool canal,
Salt built his factory.
Along with it, he built homes, schools, infirmaries,
Libraries, and public bath houses,
Insisting that all his employees bathed at least twice a week.
Saltaire wasn't the first industrialized model village,
But it was one of the largest and most successful.
Today it's a unesco world heritage site.
Salt's experiment made him famous,
The epitome of a new kind of enlightened capitalist.
When he died in 1876,
Over 100,000 people, including thousands of grateful employees,
Lined the route of his funeral procession.
The same sense of community that once prevailed here
Resonates elsewhere in english life.
♪♪
Swimmer jenna chatburn competed several times
At the english national championships.
These days, this ornate mushroom-shaped pool
Is her office.
For the past eight years she has worked here
As a leisure attendant and swimming instructor.
To americans, it's simply an outdoor pool,
But to britons of a certain age,
The lido, a latin word meaning beach,
Is a place that evokes unique childhood memories.
This lido at ilkley near bradford
Was built in the 1930s,
A time when England's love of outdoor swimming
Was matched by a craze for art deco design.
Just as these elegant remnants of 20th century life
Are preserved,
Great swathes of northern England's natural landscape
Remain untouched by development.
♪♪
The peak district of derbyshire
Was England's first designated national park
And it still attracts millions of visitors every year.
Covering over 550 square miles,
Most of it a thousand feet above sea level.
The landscape of the peak district
Ranges from high moorlands and cliffs in the north
To rolling green hills and dales to the south.
One of the peak district's most idyllic landscapes
Is the monsal valley...
Its shaded woodlands and crystal waters
Glorious at the height of summer.
Friends neil, john, jackie, and susan live nearby
And walk here together most days.
It's hard to believe
Anything could spoil this bucolic splendor.
♪♪
The headstone viaduct was built in 1863
By the midland railway company,
It spans the river wey and once completed the rail line
From manchester to london.
But it wasn't to everybody's taste.
The 19th century writer john ruskin
Deemed it a monstrosity,
A monument to the greed of the railway company,
And a blight on the natural beauty of the peaks.
There hasn't been a train in the valley
Since the line was closed in 1968.
But even though the rails are gone,
This route still sees a lot of traffic.
Today, it forms part of an 8.5-mile hiking route
Known as the monsal trail.
Here at this magnificent stately home in derbyshire,
The sister of a future american president
Once fell in love with an english duke.
Chatsworth house, seat of the dukes of devonshire,
Passed down through 16 generations
Of the cavendish family.
Their vast estate once covered 35,000 acres
Of the derbyshire countryside.
The house still contains
One of the world's finest art collections.
In its heyday, chatsworth employed a staff of 40
To maintain its day-to-day affairs.
Two full-time window cleaners worked all year round
To maintain the dukes' pristine view
Of their magnificent domain.
Chatsworth's 100-acre garden was created
By England's foremost landscape designer, capability brown.
At one time, 100 gardeners tended these grounds.
First set out in 1555, they were redesigned many times.
1,200 yew trees were planted to create chatsworth's maze.
It stands on the site
Of what was once England's largest glass structure:
A greenhouse so vast that its eight boilers required
An underground railway to keep them supplied with coal.
For all its good fortune,
Chatsworth has also known tragedy.
In 1944, kathleen kennedy,
Sister of the future u.S. President john f. Kennedy,
Married william cavendish.
William, a soldier and the heir to chatsworth,
Was killed in action that same year.
Kathleen herself died in a plane crash in 1948.
♪♪
In derbyshire, at the southeast of the peak district,
Stands the town of matlock.
Like a swiss alpine village without the snow,
Matlock seems an unlikely place to find cable cars,
But they've transformed the once-faded glory of this town.
In the late 18th century,
Matlock was a fashionable spa resort
Whose thermal springs were believed
To have curative properties.
But the real attraction was located on an escarpment
Above the town, known as the heights of abraham.
Once, the former workers of a lead mine
Decommissioned in the 19th century
Took visitors deep beneath the earth
And into a labyrinth of mineshafts and natural caves.
In time, however,
When the thermal springs lost their appeal
And visitors tired of the long climb up the hill,
Matlock went into decline.
Until in 1984, a spark of genius led to the introduction
Of the cable cars and a new era in the fortunes of the town.
Traveling a third of a mile in groups of three,
Reaching heights of more than 500 feet,
The cable cars offer spectacular views of matlock
And the surrounding landscape of the peak district.
♪♪
Centuries ago, giant oak forests covered much of England--
A great sea of green that would gradually disappear
To make way for agricultural expansion.
But there are still places
Where vestiges of that ancient woodland remain.
And here in the northwestern county of nottinghamshire
Stands the most famous of them all: Sherwood forest.
These are the woods
Where the legendary medieval outlaw robin hood
Is said to have lived,
Robbing the rich to help the poor.
In the middle ages,
Sherwood was the hunting ground of kings and princes,
And it covered nearly a quarter of the county.
Today, just 1,000 acres remain,
Protected as a national nature reserve.
At the heart of sherwood stands the tree, according to legend,
That sheltered robin and his merry men as they slept.
The tree measures 33 feet around the base
And weighs around 23 tons,
Its massive limbs have been supported by scaffolding
Since victorian times.
Thought to be at least 800 years old,
The major oak would almost certainly have been alive
During the late medieval period
In which robin hood's legend is set.
At the nearby village of edwinstowe
In the heart of sherwood forest,
The 12th century church of saint mary
Attracts thousands of visitors every year.
According to legend,
It was here that robin hood and maid marion were wed.
♪♪
Told and retold over the centuries,
The legend of robin hood has adapted to suit a changing world
Without ever losing its connection to the past.
And the same can be said
Of northern England's greatest city, manchester.
Once a hub of commerce and manufacture
Like nowhere else on earth, in the 19th century,
It would become the world's first fully industrialized city.
Today, its innovative architecture and gleaming towers
Reflect a new phase in manchester's history.
On quays that once jostled with trade ships,
Stood warehouses crammed full of the raw material
That gave manchester its 19th century nickname,
Cottonopolis.
Founded in 79 a.D.,
The roman fort of mamucium
Would grow to become England's second city.
Built for the modern equivalent of three billion dollars,
The ship canal that connected it to the port of liverpool
Was once the longest river navigation system in the world.
Three fifths of all the cotton produced in the u.S.
Once passed through these waters.
During the american civil war,
That same industry was devastated
When the city's workforce
Refused to handle slave-picked cotton.
A stance that president lincoln would later praise
As "sublime christian heroism."
As its heavy industries declined,
The city would survive,
Renewing its own fortune through innovation.
And it was at manchester university
That much of that innovation took place.
Here in 1917, the nuclear age began,
When the pioneering work of physicist ernest rutherford
Resulted in the splitting of the atom.
Another manchester alumnus
Was the brilliant mathematician alan turing,
Who deciphered germany's enigma machine
And changed the course of the second world war.
At his office in this building,
Turing's work on artificial intelligence
Would lay the foundations for modern computing.
Tragically, turing was betrayed by the prejudice of his time.
Criminally convicted for homosexuality,
He took his own life in 1954.
Manchester continues to innovate through architecture and design.
The award-winning civil justice building
Is known to locals as the filing cabinet.
Half a mile south,
The 47-story beetham tower rises high above the city;
One of the thinnest skyscrapers in the world.
In a city once known for its smog,
One angel square is among the cleanest,
Most progressive designs in europe.
It's heated by passive solar gain.
It recycles both rain and wastewater,
And even though 3,000 people work here,
The entire building has a carbon emissions rating of zero.
Once the heart of cottonopolis, salford quays epitomize
Manchester's 21st century regeneration.
Flanking the canal, the t.V. Studios of media city
And the deconstructed architecture
Of the imperial war museum.
And completing the cultural triangle, the lowry,
An arts and theater complex
Named after manchester's most famous painter, l.S. Lowry.
Close by, at another great theater,
A different kind of drama plays out.
This is old trafford, home to the world's richest soccer club,
Manchester united.
Known as the theater of dreams,
This stadium has seen some of the greatest players
The game has ever known,
And two of its most legendary managers,
Sir matt busby and sir alex ferguson.
The club is currently owned by the american glazer family,
Who also own the tampa bay buccaneers nfl franchise.
Recently valued at $4.12 billion,
Manchester united is little short of a global phenomenon.
But that's of mere passing interest
To the people of salford.
With its history deeply rooted in the community,
United is and always will be their team.
♪♪
For sam chesters, soccer is more than just a game.
In 1944, her grandfather owen chesters
Founded barr hill ladies football club at salford.
Sam's been playing on this pitch since the age of 10.
It's all about team spirit and camaraderie,
Honed with a fierce, competitive edge.
Sam has played every defensive
And attacking position in the game,
But the one that appealed to her most was goalkeeping.
In a way, she's following an old family tradition.
Sam's grandfather arthur also kept goal for a local team.
That team just happened to be manchester united.
Of course, soccer's not the only way to fill a stadium.
Who needs a ball when you can have "wonderwall?"
After world war ii, suburbs like burnage,
Just four miles south of manchester,
Saw an explosion in their population.
And as the children of the baby boomers found their voice,
Creativity surged from these conservative red-brick homes.
Gallagher brothers liam and noel
Formed their band oasis not far from here.
This playing field was the backdrop
To the video for "shaker maker," one of their first hits.
In the lyrics, noel gallagher wrote,
"mr. Sifter sold me songs when I was just 16."
And this was what he was singing about:
Sifters record shop on fog lane,
A favorite haunt of the gallagher brothers
Long before they were famous.
♪♪
Before cheap air travel opened up the sunspots of europe,
This is where northerners came on holiday:
Blackpool, 40 miles northwest of manchester,
England's most famous resort.
Blackpool was once a fashionable spa town
For well-to-do victorians.
But when the railways brought it within reach of factory towns
Across the northwest, everything changed.
Happy to escape the tedium of their working lives,
If only for a few days,
Workers flocked to blackpool in their thousands.
Today, the town's pleasure beach
Is England's most popular amusement park.
Along with the carousels and waltzers
Of the central and north pier,
The park is home to giant roller coasters,
Including britain's highest, the big one.
♪♪
But it's at night that blackpool really comes alive.
Every autumn, a million bulbs create a light show
Known as the blackpool illuminations.
And its centerpiece is the 518-foot blackpool tower,
One of northern England's most iconic landmarks.
Modeled on the eiffel tower,
It has overlooked the promenade since 1894.
Back then, visitors paid the princely sum of one shilling
To take the elevator to the observation deck.
In 1879, the street lights of blackpool
Became one of the first in the world
To be powered by electricity,
An innovation that would forever change the way people lived.
Not that there's anything wrong
With wanting things to stay the same.
♪♪
The rugged beauty of the yorkshire moors
Is often shrouded by the clouds and rain
Of an unforgiving climate; but not today.
These classic british roadsters,
One of which featured memorably
In mel brooks' 1976 film silent movie ,
Are morgans.
They're hand-built, with a distinctive look and feel
That's hardly changed in decades.
Richard and sandy cole like them so much,
They spent the best part of their life savings on one,
And they don't regret that for a second.
A retired royal air force combat pilot,
Richard saw active duty over iraq
During operation desert storm.
These days, though he still travels in formation,
It's a little closer to the ground.
♪♪
For all the world, the village of haworth
On the edge of the moors looks frozen in time.
It would appear little has changed
Since clergyman patrick bronte came here
In the early 19th century.
Three of the parson's daughters, charlotte, emily and anne,
Would write some of the greatest novels in english literature.
In her late 20s, emily wrote "wuthering heights,"
Using the moors as an unforgettable backdrop
To her masterpiece.
The intense passion of cathy and heathcliff's doomed romance
Still resonates to this day,
Made even more poignant
By the fate of its author and her sisters.
Tragically, all three would die young.
Anne was buried in scarborough.
Her sisters lie here in the family vault at haworth.
♪♪
In 1890, the irish author bram stoker paid a visit
To the fishing village of whitby on the yorkshire coast.
A random book choice at a local library
Could well have inspired the creation
Of the greatest fiend of horror culture,
Count dracula.
[thunder]
During his time here, stoker visited
The atmospheric 16th century ruin of whitby abbey.
[thunder]
Its ghostly silhouette would fire his imagination.
♪♪
Stoker was especially intrigued
By the constantly changing light on the abbey's walls,
Not to mention the thousands of bats
He found roosting in its shadows.
Later, at a library that once stood on the village quay,
He found a history book
That mentioned a mysterious transylvanian count.
And so, a blood-soaked legend was born.
In stoker's tale, the ship carrying dracula
Is driven ashore at whitby during a storm.
Coming ashore as a black dog,
The shadow of the count soon falls
Over the sleepy fishing village.
[thunder]
[bird squawks]
Whitby continues to attract fans of the legend,
Some of whom have even been known
To ask for dracula's grave.
Such is the power of the novel.
♪♪
268 miles long,
The pennine mountain range
Stretches from derbyshire to the scottish border.
Separating northwest England
From yorkshire,
They are known as
The backbone of England.
In the pennine uplands of yorkshire lie the dales,
An area of outstanding natural beauty
And a national park since 1954.
800 square miles of stunning hills and u-shaped valleys
That yorkshire people have long since dubbed
"god's own country."
Farmed for thousands of years,
The rolling pastures of its foothills are divided
Into a vast patchwork of fields by dry stone walls.
From the highest point at the top of whernside hill,
You can see blackpool 50 miles to the south.
At the foot of whernside,
The settle carlisle railway line
Crosses the spectacular ribblehead viaduct...
A 19th century bridge whose 24 stone arches
Took four years to build.
It's said that an accidental train journey
Gave yorkshire one of its best-loved institutions.
Every year, England consumes 60 billion cups of tea,
Many of them sipped in tearooms
Like bettys in the yorkshire town of harrogate.
Bettys was established in 1919, when, legend has it,
A swiss immigrant called frederick belmont
Boarded the wrong train in london
And ended up in harrogate by chance.
A confectioner by trade,
Belmont fell in love with the town and set up shop,
Serving tea and swiss confectionary;
A winning formula, as it turned out.
Oddly, given the fame of this tearoom,
Nobody is quite sure
Where the name bettys actually came from.
The undulating roads of the yorkshire dales,
Largely free of traffic, are ideal for serious road cycling.
The sport has become hugely popular in recent years,
Thanks in part to the 20 gold medals
Won by british cyclists at the last two summer olympics.
As of 2018, britons also dominate
The greatest road race of them all:
The tour de France, winning six out of the last seven events.
In typically proud yorkshire fashion,
Richmond cycle club claims to be one of the oldest in britain,
If not the world.
Leader of the pack sven wardle has been cycling the dales
For over 20 years,
Competing on the toughest circuits
This terrain has to offer.
Sven's dedication to the sport has seen him take on
The most challenging mountain roads in europe,
Attempting the same murderous ascents
Faced by tour de France cyclists.
Every year, richmond cycle club organizes a race
Through the dales--
A challenging 118-mile ride
That includes seriously tough uphill sections.
Not all the byways of the north are quite so unforgiving.
Take penny lane for example,
Enshrined in song by four of England's most famous sons.
The early morning sun seems to bring this statue
Of john, paul, george and ringo to life.
Even now, almost half a century
Since they became global superstars,
The fab four are still heroes in their hometown.
From their early gigs at the cavern club
To the streets and parks of their childhood,
Liverpool inspired many of the beatles' most famous songs.
And fans still come in search of locations
Immortalized in the lyrics they wrote.
This is strawberry fields in the liverpool suburb of woolton
Where john lennon attended garden parties as a child.
The name would inspire one of his most personal songs.
The stop where a young paul mccartney caught the bus
To his friend john's house would become famous
As penny lane's "shelter in the middle of the roundabout."
Today, it's part of a magical mystery tour experience,
Taking fans around the various locations
Associated with the band.
And yes, there's even a yellow submarine.
During the summer months,
Dedicated fans can spend "a hard day's night"
In the psychedelic interior
Of this 1960s-themed floating hotel.
The peace monument of king's dock
Commemorates the life of john lennon
And his long-held dream of world peace.
Created by american artist lauren voiers,
It was unveiled on October the 9th, 2010,
On what would have been lennon's 70th birthday.
[ship horn blows]
On the estuary
Where the river mersey flows into the irish sea,
Liverpool was once known as England's gateway to the world.
From here, goods and people
Flowed to and from every part of the globe.
This trade made liverpool the richest city outside of london,
With buildings on a par
With anything the capital had to offer.
♪♪
By the late 19th century,
Britain's industrial revolution began losing steam,
And liverpool suffered a long decline.
But just like manchester,
The city has found ways to forge a new future from its past.
The warehouses of the royal albert dock
Were once vast storage sites for goods and raw materials.
Today, its shops, museums and galleries
Attract four million visitors every year.
The river mersey has always been the soul of liverpool,
But there are places in northern England
Where water has come to define the landscape
In even more inspiring ways.
This is kirkstone mountain pass in cumbria,
Gateway to the lake district national park,
A magical landscape of hills, lakes and woodlands
That for centuries has fired the imagination
Of writers and poets.
The 3,000-foot monolith of scafell pike
Is England's highest mountain.
Surrounding it are the great peaks of the southern fells...
An ancient landscape whose grandeur and majesty
Never fails to impress those who come here.
Radiating outward on all sides
And covering an area of 900 square miles
Are the lakelands that give this region its name.
The dark glacial lake of wast water
Is the deepest in britain,
258 feet at its lowest point.
Ullswater, nine miles long and nearly a mile wide,
Is the national park's second biggest lake,
And to many, the most beautiful in England.
To the south, the great ribbon lake of windermere
Is the largest in England.
11 miles long, it's a haven for pleasure cruisers
And sportspeople alike.
Since 1938, the mv swan has been a familiar sight on windermere,
Offering tourists a taste
Of what the aptly named poet william wordsworth
Once described as "a universe of fairest forms."
And this was his home, dove cottage.
The romantic poet lived most of his life in the lake district,
And it would inspire some of his greatest work.
Long before it was a national park,
He saw it as a natural resource
That everyone had the right to enjoy.
In 1889, when the mv raven was first launched
On ullswater lake, she was powered by steam.
Now, she runs on diesel,
But otherwise, little has changed
Since the day germany's last emperor stood on this very deck.
In 1912, kaiser wilhelm ii took a trip on the raven
During a visit to the lake district.
Two years later, his armies would invade neutral belgium,
Triggering the cataclysm of world war I.
♪♪
Shepherds have moved their flocks across the hills
Of the lake district for over 1,000 years.
And where there are sheep, there are sheepdogs.
[barking]
[whistling]
Alan bradley has farmed here for most of his life.
An expert sheepdog trainer, he communicates with jess,
His faithful border collie since puppyhood,
Using whistled commands.
[whistling]
Collies are gentle and intelligent by nature,
Making them ideal working dogs.
[whistling]
What was once a job is now also a national sport.
Alan and jess compete in events all over England.
Their success has resulted in a unique sideline business.
Alan now runs sheep herding classes on his farm
For stressed-out executives.
[whistling]
Of course, some prefer to unwind in different ways.
If you really want to leave the cares of the world behind,
There's nothing quite like open water
And the roar of a powerful engine.
For all the leisurely charm of its waterways,
The lake district has seen more than its fair share of speed...
And tragedy.
In February 1930,
Legendary racer sir harry seagrave
Crossed windermere in his boat, miss England ii .
Hitting 98.76 miles per hour,
He broke the world water speed record.
Midway through his third run, the boat capsized,
Killing seagrave's mechanic victor helliwell,
And ultimately, seagrave himself.
When it came to conquering the elements,
Not every pioneer would pay for it with their life.
In September 1784,
Oxford pastry chef and amateur aeronaut james saddler
Became the first englishman
To take flight in a hot air balloon.
He reached an altitude of 3,600 feet and traveled six miles
In a craft whose basic design hasn't changed much since.
As an aeronautical engineer,
Peter donkin has applied his skills
To everything from military jet fighters
To passenger planes.
But his real passion is for hot air balloons.
And when it comes to locations for a late evening flight,
The rolling hills and shining waterways of the lake district
Are hard to beat.
Peter has taken to the skies
Above ullswater and windermere many times.
There are no onboard computer systems to check,
No speed to maintain, no engines to monitor;
Just the pure exhilaration of flight and a unique perspective
On the stunning tableau laid out beneath his feet...
A vista that couldn't be more different
To the industrial heartlands of the north,
Where engineering would define a city and conquer the oceans.
♪♪
This is one of the greatest industrial centers
In all of England,
A city whose name was once synonymous with the fuel
That fed the forges of its own engineering powerhouse...
Newcastle upon tyne.
Like liverpool and manchester on the far side of the country,
This city played a pivotal role in the industrial revolution.
And it was all powered by coal.
At its height, 2,000 miners
Extracted 600,000 tons of coal a year
From this northumberland pit.
Woodhorn in ashington is a museum now,
Lovingly preserved as a monument to a bygone age
When men toiled in darkness
To mine the coal that made newcastle famous.
Closed in 1981, woodhorn remains the most authentic example
Of what the collieries of this area once looked like.
Taking pride of place is a statue of a miner with a lamp,
Commemorating the 13 men who died here
In an underground gas explosion in 1916.
With giant wind turbines now rising
From the surrounding landscape,
It's clear that time has moved on.
But the past will never be forgotten.
The industry that made newcastle famous around the world
Was shipbuilding.
Here, along the meandering bends of the river tyne
Are the last traces
Of what were once the world's largest shipyards.
At its peak,
The scale of tyneside's operation was immense,
With over a dozen shipbuilding companies.
The largest, called swann hunter ,
Employed thousands of workers.
From 1860, it produced more than 2,700 vessels,
Including rms mauritania , which once held the blue ribbon
For the fastest atlantic crossing.
These yards, which once rang with the deafening sound
Of heavy engineering, have been silent since 2008.
But even now their legacy lives on.
The tyneside town of wallsend
Once marked the eastern end of hadrian's wall.
But what really sets it apart, at least for music fans,
Is the fact
That an international superstar grew up here.
This red brick terraced house, now a fast food outlet,
Was once home to gordon sumner,
Better known to the world as sting.
He spent his childhood close to the swann hunter shipyard.
Sting's memories of the town
Would have a profound influence on his work.
The title track of the singer's 1991 album the soul cages
Are filled with references to newcastle.
It won the first ever grammy award for best rock song.
Later, newcastle would inspire
Sting's 2011 musical the last ship ,
Which tells the story of a community coming to terms
With the decline of the shipbuilding industry.
The newcastle of sting's formative years
Was a city sunk deep in economic depression.
Today, it's a place of hope and innovation,
A spirit mirrored
In the city's vibrant and challenging architecture.
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The unique steel facade of the sage building
Was designed to enhance the acoustics
Of this music venue's vast interior.
But the building also reaches out to the city around it,
Hosting classes for musicians of all ages
And operating a schools program
For the performers and composers of the future.
Another landmark of the modern city
Is the baltic center for contemporary art.
The former structure of an enormous flour mill
Is now one of England's most progressive performance centers.
Its 6,000 square feet of gallery space,
Workshops and artist studios have transformed
An industrial monolith
Into a creative hub for the 21st century.
Spanning the river tyne at gateshead,
The millennium bridge has six hydraulic rams
That rotate the entire structure through 40 degrees
From closed to open in just four and a half minutes.
Nicknamed the blinking eye bridge by locals,
The design is so energy efficient,
Each full rotation costs just five dollars.
On the hill of birtley near gateshead,
Five miles south of newcastle, stands what is arguably
The most famous statue in all of England:
The angel of the north.
65 feet tall, the height of a five-story building,
With a wingspan of 177 feet,
It was made from 150 tons of steel.
To suggest an embrace, the great figure leans forward
At an angle of three and a half degrees.
The angel is the work of artist anthony gormley
Who also chose its location on the site of a 200-year-old mine.
To gormley, it represents the area's transition
From heavy industry to the modern digital age.
But it also speaks of a people's hope for the future.
When he was asked, "why an angel?", gormley replied,
"because no one has seen one and we need to keep imagining them."
Completed in 1998, it has become one of the most beloved
And iconic landmarks in britain.
A symbol of strength and resilience,
Honoring the past
Even as it reaches out to embrace the future.
A fitting tribute to the spirit of northern England.
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