Throwback Thursday: Bradshaw's

Michael Portillo once claimed his greatest political success to be the saving of the Settle to Carlisle Railway. It is one recognised as being among the most scenic in the British Isles. The very same man, having left politics behind set off on a railway tour of Britain using George Bradshaw's guide: a book published to encourage Victorians to take to the tracks.

He doesn't venture to Essex in this edition, but following our recent visit to the Isle of white, he says of Ryde pier: 'long timber pier of 2,000 ft. (or two fifths of a mile), commanding a fine prospect and a healthy blow, for which the charge is 2d per head.