SEASON: 5
EPISODE: 13 - Wokingham to Bradford on Avon
SYNOPSIS
The next part of Michael Portillo's journey from Southampton to Wolverhampton begins in Wokingham, Berkshire, where the former politician finds out how demand from a growing number of rail commuters fuelled the development of the modern printing press. He then learns about a Tudor businessman who manufactured cloth in enormous volumes in Newbury, and ends this leg of his trip in Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire. Here, a local manufacturer describes how his Victorian forebears were the first in Britain to be licensed to vulcanise rubber.