BBC2 has a new history series starting next week, Full Steam Ahead. It sounds as if quite
a bit of the first programme might feature Llechwedd Slate Quarry / Mine and Ffestiniog
Railway.
DOCUMENTARY: Full Steam Ahead
On: BBC 2 HD
Date: Thursday 21st July 2016 (starting in 9 days)
Time: 20:00 to 21:00 (1 hour long)
Series exploring the golden age of steam. Historians Ruth Goodman, Alex Langlands and
Peter Ginn explore how the introduction of steam railways in the early 19th century
changed Britain. In the middle of winter, the team arrive at the Ffestiniog Railway in
Snowdonia to find out how millions of tons of slate were moved down the mountain.
Underground, Alex experiences the brutal conditions faced by miners in Llechwedd quarry
who would have endured 12-hour shifts suspended from iron chains. At Foxfields Railway in
Staffordshire, built to transport coal to the nearby mainline, Ruth gets on the loco's
footplate as it is driven up the steepest railway in Britain. Coal was to change
everything in our day-to-day lives, right down to the way we cooked, the shape of our pots
and the role of women who had to deal with the tyranny of keeping clothes clean in this
dirty industrial world.
(Stereo, Widescreen, High Definition, Subtitles, Audio Described, Episode 1)
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Excerpt taken from DigiGuide - the world's best TV guide available from
http://www.getdigiguide.tv/?p=1&r=7346
Copyright (c) GipsyMedia Limited.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07lpm6c
Martin Briscoe
Fort William
martin(a)mbriscoe.me.uk