Browse content similar to The Joy of Coast. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
This is Coast. | 0:00:08 | 0:00:10 | |
Seaside peaks are my idea of bliss. | 0:00:38 | 0:00:41 | |
Others find joy flat out on the water's edge, soaking up the rays. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:49 | |
It seems a timeless pastime... | 0:00:57 | 0:00:59 | |
..but, surprisingly, our love affair with sunbathing | 0:01:00 | 0:01:04 | |
is less than 100 years old. | 0:01:04 | 0:01:07 | |
To explore the birth of this new "bronze age", | 0:01:08 | 0:01:11 | |
we're heading to Plymouth. | 0:01:11 | 0:01:12 | |
As the sun cult blossomed, so did their temples of worship. | 0:01:16 | 0:01:20 | |
Tessa's plunging into the joys of the lido. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:28 | |
In the 1930s, a new fashion was changing the complexion | 0:01:30 | 0:01:34 | |
of the nation's leisure. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:36 | |
After years of cowering in the shade, | 0:01:36 | 0:01:39 | |
Britons became fans of the tan. | 0:01:39 | 0:01:41 | |
Lidos became a feature of Britain's seaside scenery. | 0:01:43 | 0:01:47 | |
In the sun AND in the swim - perfect! | 0:01:47 | 0:01:50 | |
In 1929, the Met Office published its first sunshine records. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:57 | |
Eastbourne was a chart topper, | 0:01:59 | 0:02:01 | |
with a singeing 2,081 hours of sunshine over the year. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:06 | |
How could they be so precise? | 0:02:07 | 0:02:09 | |
Meteorologist Sarah Cruddas is here to reveal the secret. | 0:02:11 | 0:02:15 | |
It's actually what's known as a Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder | 0:02:18 | 0:02:22 | |
and it's actually a very, very simple but very effective way | 0:02:22 | 0:02:25 | |
of measuring sunlight. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:26 | |
Just imagine it like a magnifying glass with a beam of light | 0:02:26 | 0:02:29 | |
coming from the sun. This globe then concentrates the beam of light | 0:02:29 | 0:02:32 | |
onto this specially treated card behind. | 0:02:32 | 0:02:35 | |
As the sun tracks across the sky, | 0:02:35 | 0:02:37 | |
its magnified rays burn a line across the card. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:41 | |
By the end of the day, you would actually get a mark | 0:02:41 | 0:02:44 | |
which would show us when it's been sunny. | 0:02:44 | 0:02:46 | |
That's that line there, so it's charred through. | 0:02:46 | 0:02:48 | |
Then a bit cloudy, so it hasn't charred it. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:50 | |
And then sunshine. And you can tell, on that day, it was slightly cloudier in the afternoon. | 0:02:50 | 0:02:54 | |
This is still the most common way of measuring the amount of sunlight. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:57 | |
For the resorts topping the sunlight charts, times were good. | 0:02:58 | 0:03:02 | |
# Hip-hooray, hip-hooray! | 0:03:02 | 0:03:04 | |
# The sun has got his hat on | 0:03:04 | 0:03:07 | |
# Hip-hip-hip-hooray | 0:03:07 | 0:03:09 | |
# The sun has got his hat on and he's coming out... # | 0:03:09 | 0:03:12 | |
But what about sunburn? | 0:03:12 | 0:03:14 | |
Many fell under the sunbathing spell | 0:03:15 | 0:03:18 | |
but with skin as pale as mine, it could be a painful pastime. | 0:03:18 | 0:03:22 | |
In the 1930s, sun creams were rare. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:29 | |
But the war was about to change that. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:32 | |
I wouldn't much fancy smearing this all over my body, | 0:03:35 | 0:03:37 | |
and yet it was a substance much like this that was used in the 1940s | 0:03:37 | 0:03:41 | |
by the American army in the South Pacific. | 0:03:41 | 0:03:44 | |
It was called red vet pet. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:46 | |
The key ingredient is red petroleum jelly. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:53 | |
They didn't know exactly how, | 0:03:53 | 0:03:55 | |
but that's what protected against the harmful ultraviolet rays. | 0:03:55 | 0:03:59 | |
Post war, scientists started to experiment with new sun lotions. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:06 | |
Chemist Andrew Shaw knows how they progressed beyond simple sunblock. | 0:04:08 | 0:04:13 | |
Not that we'll need it today! | 0:04:13 | 0:04:15 | |
A simple block might be something like zinc oxide, | 0:04:17 | 0:04:20 | |
which is this white powder here. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:22 | |
And simply mix it into an oil base. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:25 | |
-Right. -And it will form a nice little emulsion. | 0:04:25 | 0:04:27 | |
It will eventually go white to prevent the sun from coming in. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:30 | |
Imagine that was the surface of your skin. | 0:04:30 | 0:04:32 | |
The light's coming in from above... | 0:04:32 | 0:04:33 | |
-Bouncing off the water. -I want to float something on the surface of | 0:04:33 | 0:04:36 | |
your skin that's going to block it. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:37 | |
The light's not getting through that. It's a simple block. | 0:04:37 | 0:04:40 | |
But since then, sun creams | 0:04:40 | 0:04:41 | |
have become more sophisticated, haven't they? | 0:04:41 | 0:04:43 | |
Yeah, the chemists have discovered | 0:04:43 | 0:04:45 | |
that molecules with small rings in them are very good at absorbing | 0:04:45 | 0:04:47 | |
just the ultraviolet that's dangerous to you. | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
To increase the sun protection factor, or SPF, | 0:04:51 | 0:04:55 | |
you can add more ring molecules to a sun cream. | 0:04:55 | 0:04:58 | |
A way to tune your tan. | 0:04:58 | 0:05:01 | |
Andrew has some magic beads to show the SPF in action. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:06 | |
In here I've got some beads that are photoactive and when I open up, | 0:05:06 | 0:05:10 | |
they're going to change colour because of the presence of the UV light. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:13 | |
'Even on the cloudiest of days, the UV still gets through.' | 0:05:13 | 0:05:17 | |
-Oh, they did straightaway. -Look at that. -Look at that. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
It's quite clever. So if I take some of those beads and coat them with | 0:05:20 | 0:05:22 | |
different SPF factor sunscreens, | 0:05:22 | 0:05:24 | |
they're going to change colour at different times. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:27 | |
Under here we've got 10, 20, 30 and 50. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:30 | |
Here's the 10. It's beginning to change colour. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:32 | |
The 20 and 30 more slowly and the one you might put on your children, | 0:05:32 | 0:05:35 | |
the factor 50, is changing colour really slowly indeed | 0:05:35 | 0:05:38 | |
and, in fact, hardly at all. | 0:05:38 | 0:05:39 | |
And probably, for somebody as fair as me, I would go for that. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:41 | |
-I would, yes. -You would? You do, too, don't you? -I do. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:44 | |
You're a bit peaky! | 0:05:44 | 0:05:46 | |
I'll never be a convert to the sun-worship cult - | 0:05:50 | 0:05:53 | |
probably a good thing, given the great British weather. | 0:05:53 | 0:05:56 | |
But of course, the colder it is on the outside... | 0:05:56 | 0:06:00 | |
..the warmer the water feels. | 0:06:01 | 0:06:02 | |
The Atlantic surf brings thrill-seekers rolling in. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:14 | |
Riding the crest, wind in their sails, it's full-on fun. | 0:06:21 | 0:06:26 | |
But if you prefer a slower pace of life... | 0:06:30 | 0:06:32 | |
..seek out the shelter of Polperro... | 0:06:33 | 0:06:36 | |
..a quiet Cornish village ideal for unwinding. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:42 | |
While some stroll by the sea, others sit and knit. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:48 | |
Ruth is relaxing by trying to maintain her tension. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:55 | |
I've been working on this traditional fisherman's jumper | 0:06:56 | 0:06:59 | |
for... Well, on and off for months now. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:01 | |
And I've had to get to grips with a whole range of new techniques | 0:07:02 | 0:07:07 | |
and fiddly difficult bits. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:09 | |
The Cornish coast, to this day, still echoes with the click-clack | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
of knitting needles, so I've come along to pick up a few tips | 0:07:12 | 0:07:16 | |
and to learn something more about how this fantastic, fun pastime | 0:07:16 | 0:07:21 | |
grew out of hard graft. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:22 | |
Fishermen throughout the UK were always recognisable | 0:07:26 | 0:07:29 | |
by their hand-knitted jumpers. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:31 | |
And in the 19th and early 20th centuries, | 0:07:31 | 0:07:34 | |
making them was, for some, the only way to put bread upon the table. | 0:07:34 | 0:07:39 | |
I'm casting off with Mary Wright, | 0:07:43 | 0:07:45 | |
who wrote a book on Edwardian knitters. | 0:07:45 | 0:07:48 | |
Mary knows the work that went into creating these coastal classics. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:52 | |
They're amazing things, aren't they? | 0:07:53 | 0:07:55 | |
I mean, they are not just any old jumper, these. | 0:07:55 | 0:07:57 | |
-No, no. -They're quite special. -Don't call them a jumper. | 0:07:57 | 0:08:00 | |
-What am I supposed to call them? -Jersey. -A jersey. | 0:08:00 | 0:08:03 | |
-Or guernsey. -Or guernsey. -Or knit frock. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:04 | |
Or knit frock - I like that word. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:06 | |
-Knit frock. -Knit frock is the term used in Polperro. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:09 | |
-Don't say jumper. -Never say jumper, but I can say gansey? | 0:08:09 | 0:08:13 | |
You can. And you can say jersey. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:14 | |
-I can say jersey. -Yes. -And if I'm in Polperro, I can say... -BOTH: Knit frock. | 0:08:14 | 0:08:18 | |
THEY CHUCKLE | 0:08:18 | 0:08:20 | |
This little village has its own knitting vocabulary. | 0:08:20 | 0:08:24 | |
These streets were once awash with women working on their knit frocks. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:29 | |
Women enjoyed being outside. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:34 | |
The light was better, the social life was better. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:37 | |
They could see people and people who live in the villages say that you | 0:08:37 | 0:08:41 | |
could hear the clack of the needles before you turned the corner. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:44 | |
Ladies weren't just making ganseys for the family - | 0:08:45 | 0:08:49 | |
there was money to be made selling them to merchants. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
Polperro became a knit frock factory. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:55 | |
Polperro was the centre of contract knitting in the 19th century. | 0:08:56 | 0:09:00 | |
-And in the 20th century. -Right. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:02 | |
So where did the ganseys that were knitted in Polperro end up? | 0:09:02 | 0:09:06 | |
They could be packed up and dispatched to anywhere in the country. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:10 | |
Polperro's knitting was strung out all around the coast. | 0:09:12 | 0:09:16 | |
Worn for centuries by seafarers - and some still swear by it today. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:24 | |
I'm meeting Barry Mundy, a fifth-generation fisherman. | 0:09:25 | 0:09:29 | |
-Super. -This is such a beautiful harbour, isn't it? -Oh, yeah. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:36 | |
-It's a lovely day out there again. -It's beautiful! | 0:09:38 | 0:09:41 | |
I see you're wearing a gansey. Was that just put on for us today? | 0:09:43 | 0:09:46 | |
No, no, I wear that every day. | 0:09:46 | 0:09:48 | |
-Really? -Yes, it's well over 30 years old. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:51 | |
-Really? -Yes, yes. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:52 | |
-It keeps you warm. -Yeah. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:54 | |
It's got that oily texture to it so it's showerproof. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:57 | |
-So the water just sort of stands on the surface... -That's right. | 0:09:57 | 0:09:59 | |
-..rather than soaking in. -Yes, that's right. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:02 | |
It's more than workwear. | 0:10:03 | 0:10:05 | |
Fishermen have a proud attachment to their ganseys. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:08 | |
When I was fishing first, you would have worn it to funerals | 0:10:09 | 0:10:13 | |
and, sort of, special occasions. | 0:10:13 | 0:10:16 | |
It was really the... | 0:10:16 | 0:10:18 | |
Well, something like the uniform of a fisherman, really, I suppose. | 0:10:18 | 0:10:23 | |
Knitting and fishing have long been intertwined, | 0:10:24 | 0:10:27 | |
sharing words such as casting off and fisherman's rib. | 0:10:27 | 0:10:31 | |
And some believe the dextrous hands of fishermen, | 0:10:31 | 0:10:34 | |
used to repairing fishing nets, are perfect for knitting. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:38 | |
Let's put Barry and that theory to the test. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:42 | |
-So, as a man who has worn a gansey for 30 years... -Yes. | 0:10:44 | 0:10:47 | |
-..can you make one? -Erm... | 0:10:47 | 0:10:50 | |
I think I'd struggle, I think. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:53 | |
-This is my beginner's knitting pack. -Yeah. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:55 | |
So we're going to go through the back of that loop towards there. | 0:10:55 | 0:10:59 | |
-Yep. -Then around the needle. | 0:10:59 | 0:11:02 | |
Yes. | 0:11:02 | 0:11:03 | |
-Then through... -OK. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:08 | |
-..and slip it off. -Well, let's have a go, let's have a go. | 0:11:08 | 0:11:10 | |
Right, it's through there... | 0:11:11 | 0:11:14 | |
-That's the one. -And... | 0:11:14 | 0:11:16 | |
BOTH: Around there. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:18 | |
-And... -By George... | 0:11:18 | 0:11:20 | |
Oh, you took an extra stitch - you just made it bigger. | 0:11:20 | 0:11:23 | |
-You've got a double now. -Oh! | 0:11:23 | 0:11:25 | |
I think I am better at the old net mending, somehow. | 0:11:25 | 0:11:27 | |
You'll get the hang of it. You're not bad. | 0:11:27 | 0:11:29 | |
-And it is men's work, this is. -Right. | 0:11:29 | 0:11:31 | |
Knitting used to be one of those things that everybody did - | 0:11:31 | 0:11:34 | |
men and women both - in order to earn a living. | 0:11:34 | 0:11:37 | |
The trouble is, if I get too good at this, | 0:11:37 | 0:11:40 | |
my wife is going to want me to knit her a gansey. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:44 | |
100 years ago, knitting and fishing | 0:11:46 | 0:11:49 | |
were both part of the fabric of coastal life. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:53 | |
As the men worked at sea... | 0:11:53 | 0:11:55 | |
..the women waited. | 0:11:56 | 0:11:58 | |
But their hands were never idle. | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
This photograph shows a lady knitting | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
while watching for fishing boats to return. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:10 | |
And this is Polperro. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:11 | |
But she's doing her knitting. | 0:12:11 | 0:12:13 | |
-Some bloke lounging about behind her. -Of course. | 0:12:13 | 0:12:16 | |
And she's not only knitting but she's keeping an eye on... | 0:12:16 | 0:12:19 | |
-On what's out at sea. -..what's happening out at sea. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:22 | |
-That's a good position to watch. -Waiting for your man to come home. | 0:12:22 | 0:12:25 | |
-Right. -Mm. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:27 | |
What was once a chore is now done for fun. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:31 | |
Polperro's women still like to sit and stitch. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:35 | |
And there's a further twist in the knitting yarn... | 0:12:38 | 0:12:40 | |
Along the coast, a band of women have taken up their needles | 0:12:40 | 0:12:44 | |
with a new mission in mind - | 0:12:44 | 0:12:46 | |
to weave a little magic. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:48 | |
These are the Graffiti Grannies. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:53 | |
They work incognito - | 0:12:53 | 0:12:55 | |
keeping their identity under wraps is part of the fun. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:58 | |
We like to give whatever we knit away | 0:13:00 | 0:13:03 | |
to the public. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:04 | |
-Why are you all wearing masks? -Because we like to give it away | 0:13:04 | 0:13:07 | |
anonymously. We go out in the middle of the night and we put it | 0:13:07 | 0:13:11 | |
all around different towns and villages, | 0:13:11 | 0:13:15 | |
so that people can take it and enjoy it. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:19 | |
It's a huge amount of work, so why do you do it? | 0:13:19 | 0:13:23 | |
We enjoy seeing the pleasure that other people get out of it. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:27 | |
We like to put a smile on people's faces and that's what we do. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:30 | |
RUTH CHUCKLES | 0:13:30 | 0:13:32 | |
Following a century-old pattern, | 0:13:34 | 0:13:36 | |
the women of Cornwall still have this shore nicely stitched up. | 0:13:36 | 0:13:40 |