Tony takes a 40-mile walk through the glorious Peak District, along the Derwent Valley, where the world's industrial revolution was born. This is a journey that reveals how Britain transformed itself from a nation of farmers into the industrial powerhouse of the world. En route Tony visits sleepy Peaks village Cromford, where Richard Arkwright established the world's first ever factory, and examines the grip that Arkwright had on Cromford, including enforcing his own currency. Nearby is the building that would lay the foundations for today's skyscrapers. Tony also encounters a 900-year-old stately home that has been used to film three different Jane Eyres. Brian Blessed introduces Tony to the joys - and the huge significance - of the Cromford canal. Later Tony climbs to the heights of the Peaks, drawn by the chance to operate a huge steam winding engine that's been working in the same place since 1829. He ends his incredible journey through economic time in Derby; the railway town's secret crown jewel is the world's first engine roundhouse, built in 1839 and now restored to its former glory.
Tony's walk in this episode takes him back to 1940 when Dorset became the unlikely frontline in the war against Hitler. His five-day, 60-mile walk along the Jurassic coast reveals the county's hidden World War II story. Starting by the defences on Chesil Beach (still standing 70 years on), Tony's journey encompasses stunning scenery and amazing acts of ingenuity and bravery as he heads east towards Swanage and Studland Bay. He uncovers the strange part a world-famous swannery played in developing a secret weapon. He hears of the bravery of the man who won the Victoria Cross serving in Portland Harbour when it became one of the first places in Britain to be bombed by the Germans. He reveals the role Dorset had to play in protecting Britain from invasion, and in an emotional climax he meets one of the veterans who survived after landing on Omaha Beach on D Day.
Tony sets off on a 45 mile hike through the beautiful countryside of the Weald in Kent and the Downs of East Sussex to discover the area's rich and surprising Tudor heritage. At the impressively preserved Penshurst Place, author Philippa Gregory helps Tony relish the fate of the Grand Duke of Buckingham at the hands of the young Henry VIII. From there, he travels up what used to be secret paths to Hever Castle. Henry's saucy courting of the Boleyn girls at Hever comes as perhaps no surprise, but Tony travels on to find out how the monarch's reign brought not just fame and disaster to the women who caught his eye, but also wrought huge social, political, and industrial change to the country - and especially this area. Before finishing in the town of Lewes, where he relives one of the more brutal monastic dissolutions, Tony will have uncovered treason in Henry's court, discovered how the Weald's iron ore deposits made it the industrial heart of Tudor England and he'll have seen the ruthless extent of one man's ambition - Thomas Cromwell.
Tony takes on a tough four-day trek through the Kintail region of the west Scottish Highlands to discover the story of the Jacobite uprisings of the early 1700s. On three occasions, Highland armies, assisted by the French and the Spanish, attempted to overthrow the King and put a Stuart back on the throne. What made the Highlands such a breeding ground for revolution and how did the unique character of this landscape shape the character of the Highlanders? Tony's journey of discovery starts in Shiel Bridge, at the mouth of Glen Shiel, where he heads to the site of the earliest known dwellings here, the 'skyscrapers' of the Iron Age. On to the village of Glenelg with its fantastic views over the Sound of Sleat to Skye... and the hulking remains of a British barracks built 200 years ago by George I to pacify and terrify the locals. Via the town of Kyle of Lochalsh, Tony reaches the stunning Eilean Donan Castle. It has now been rebuilt, but it was destroyed after the invading Spanish troops landed here and were attacked by British warships. Finally, Tony heads up the awe-inspiring Glen Shiel to the site of the climactic battle where royalist troops faced off against the rebels.
Tony Robinson returns for a new three-part series of Walking Through History, embarking on more spectacular walks through some of Britain's most historic landscapes in search of the richest stories from our past. In this first episode, Tony heads off for a 45-mile walk across Wiltshire to tell the story of life and death in the last centuries of the Stone Age. His route over chalk downlands and Salisbury plain takes him through the greatest concentration of prehistoric sites in Europe.
It was 30 years after the Romans invaded Britain that they were ready to take on the challenge of conquering the Lake District. With the toughest landscape they had encountered in the country, peopled by a rebellious tribe, it was no small task. Two full legions - 11,000 armed men - marched north, led by two top generals. This extraordinary commitment was rewarded, and within a few years, the whole of Lakeland was under Roman control. Tony Robinson tackles the journey, but, as he discovers on this 50-mile walk from Penrith past Ullswater to Ambleside and on to the Irish Sea at Ravenglass, the Romans encountered beauty and danger in equal measure.
In the late 18th century there was a sure-fire way to earn a living along the Cornish coast: smuggling. The tiny secretive harbours, beaches and secluded coves were ideal for the infamous illicit imports: brandy for the parson, tobacco for the clerk... It's also great walking country, as Tony discovers in his four-day trek along the stunning coastline between Plymouth and Falmouth. And the facts are extraordinary. Half of the brandy drunk in the country in the 1780s had been smuggled in illicitly through Cornwall. The smuggling business was so huge that it threatened the national economy. Tony discovers why so many people were involved in the trade, and why everyone else turned a blind eye.
Tony Robinson embarks on another expedition through some of Britain's most historic landscapes. He begins with a towpath exploration of industrial engineering along the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Setting off from Liverpool, he takes a three-day walk inland to Wigan, ending at the town's iconic pier as he traces the story of the waterway's chaotic construction and its impact on the development of Lancashire.
Tony Robinson walks from Melrose in the Scottish Borders to Holy Island off the coast of Northumberland, exploring the history of Northumbria. Over five days, he goes on the trail of one of the ancient kingdom's greatest sons - Saint Cuthbert. Through the Tweed Valley and across the Cheviot Hills, it's a journey through a murky history laden with myth. However, by investigating the communities, power bases and landscape of seventh-century Northumbria, Tony aims to understand the pagan land in which Cuthbert spread his simple brand of Celtic Christianity.
Tony Robinson travels along the north Norfolk coast through one of the least developed spots in Britain, finding out how the area maintained its rural, remote identity despite the dynamic industrial changes of the Victorian age. From the arrival of Bertie, Prince of Wales at Sandringham House to the opening of Cromer Pier, Tony's four-day walk sees him learn about key periods in the county's history. He explores prime shooting estates, purpose-built seaside resorts, salt marshes and disused railway lines as he discovers how powerful landowners were able to control development and even shape the railways to suit their needs.
The dramatic moors and valleys of West Yorkshire were the home of, and inspiration for, the Brontes, the remarkable literary family that produced Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. Over four days, Tony Robinson heads out from the Victorian wool capital of Bradford, and treks in a giant loop around what is now known as Bronte Country. From the birth of Charlotte, Emily, Anne and their brother Branwell in the Bradford suburb of Thornton, Tony traces their childhoods to the much-romanticised Bronte hub of Haworth. But the shocking reality of 1820s life in the mill town was far removed both from the tourist town of today, and from the fantasy world dreamed up by the Bronte children at their father's parsonage home.
Tony Robinson visits the Cairngorms National Park to discover how Queen Victoria and Prince Albert helped shape Scottish traditions and imagery, such as tartan, bagpipes and caber-tossing. Starting in Pitlochry, he traverses the Killiecrankie Pass, where the Jacobites won the Battle of Killiecrankie, and ends his trek at Balmoral and the fantasy castle Albert built as his and Victoria's Highland escape.
Tony Robinson heads to the south-west corner of Wales and one of Britain's finest coastal paths to find out why Pembrokeshire feels so English, even though it's more than 100 miles from the border. With its numerous castles and a fine cathedral, there are sure signs the Normans stamped their mark over the area. Tony's four-day walk traces the story of their conquest of the county, which he discovers was very different from the knockout victory at Hastings, involving a long, fiercely fought struggle.
For five years, the Channel Islands were occupied by the Germans, the only part of the British Isles to be so. Tony tells of the story of the Occupation; its physical impact is still very visible and the experience still remembered. Tony Robinson takes a four-day walk through Guernsey and Jersey, finding out what life was like there for the five years of German occupation in World War II
Nowhere is fact and fiction so entwined than in the stories of King John, Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham. Yet out of this legendary time came Magna Carta, a foundations stone of modern democracy. On the 800th anniversary of the signing, Tony unravels the history from the myth. In Sherwood Forest and the Peak District, Tony Robinson explores the story of King John, the hapless monarch who stumbled from one crisis to another.
In 1685, a rebel army landed at the pretty Dorset port of Lyme Regis and swept up through Somerset, pausing at Taunton to declare its leader, Duke of Monmouth, the rightful king. Tony walks in their footsteps and relives their spirit. Tony Robinson hikes up from Dorset's Jurassic Coast to the Somerset Levels, in the footsteps of the dashing young Duke of Monmouth, who led a revolution against James II
