Great British Railway Journeys Catch up, Series 12: 5. Farnborough to Winchester on BBC 2

Great British Railway Journeys

Series 12: 5. Farnborough to Winchester

Michael is heading for Farnborough, Hampshire, famous today for its airshow and home to what was then the Royal Aircraft Establishment. Richard Gardner of the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust tells Michael about the boffins who worked here and the inventions they came up with, such as retractable landing gear and flight-pressurised suits. Michael discovers that research here was so secret that the airfield was not marked on the map, let alone mentioned in his Bradshaw’s guide.\n\nMichael continues west across Hampshire to Basingstoke to visit a glorious neo-Gothic stately home set in the North Wessex Downs. The magnificent Highclere Castle, seat of the Earls of Caernarvon, is perhaps best-known today as Downton Abbey. Michael meets the present Lady Carnarvon, wife of the eighth Earl, to find out more about her husband’s ancestor, a passionate Egyptologist who made a discovery that stunned the world: the tomb of Tutankhamun.\n\nIn the countryside around Highclere, Michael visits a chapel dedicated to the memory of Harry Willoughby Sandham, who died in 1919 as a result of his military service in Macedonia. 19 oil paintings by the artist Stanley Spencer fill this extraordinary and moving space. And in Ropley, there's a rendezvous with an old friend on the Mid Hants Railway, where Thomas the Tank engine is oozing steam on the Watercress Line.

Source: BBC 2

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