Saxmundham to Norwich

S11 E14: Michael Portillo continues his railway journey through eastern England from Canterbury to Skegness steered by his 1930s Bradshaw’s guidebook. Stopping at Saxmundham in Suffolk, Michael heads for Snape Maltings – a concert and arts venue, and learns how the music and life of one of Britain’s greatest composers was shaped by the sea and his Suffolk surroundings. Striking north, Michael’s next stop is the Norfolk seaside resort of Great Yarmouth where he visits a recently restored 1930s water garden which evokes the city of the Rialto and the gondolier. Heading inland, he arrives in the historic city of Norwich, which in the 1930s was the shoe making capital of Britain. He hears how a particular style of ladies shoe put Norwich on the front foot and he puts his heart and soul into slipper making at one of city’s oldest cordwainers. Michael completes his tour of Norwich with a visit to the magnificent Scandinavian inspired art-deco City Hall, unveiled at the time of his guidebook.