Berwick-upon-Tweed to Aberdeen Coast


Berwick-upon-Tweed to Aberdeen

Similar Content

Browse content similar to Berwick-upon-Tweed to Aberdeen. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

This time, we're on our way up the east coast

0:00:320:00:35

from Berwick to Aberdeen, via Edinburgh.

0:00:350:00:39

Our journey actually starts in England, where the River Tweed flows through Berwick into the North Sea.

0:00:470:00:54

In the 13th century this was a thriving east coast port.

0:00:540:00:58

Back then England and Scotland fought endlessly over Berwick.

0:00:580:01:03

You'd think that people here would be obsessed with war against the Scots.

0:01:030:01:07

MUSIC: "1812 Overture" by Tchaikovsky

0:01:070:01:08

# Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside... #

0:01:110:01:14

But in fact, the war that everyone talks about nowadays is the one between Berwick...and Russia?!

0:01:140:01:20

Now, I've dug into some unlikely historical goings-on

0:01:210:01:25

from time to time,

0:01:250:01:26

but a war between Berwick and Russia? I don't remember that.

0:01:260:01:29

What's that all about?

0:01:290:01:30

It all goes back to a piece of paper five centuries old.

0:01:350:01:39

I just happen to have here a copy of The Treaty of Perpetual Peace,

0:01:390:01:43

signed over 500 years ago in 1502.

0:01:430:01:46

It was a road map for peace between Scotland and England.

0:01:460:01:49

The ambitiously named Treaty of Perpetual Peace was doomed to fail

0:01:510:01:56

if the bitter arguments about Berwick couldn't be settled.

0:01:560:02:00

Both England and Scotland wanted Berwick...

0:02:010:02:04

so to end the squabbling, neither got it.

0:02:040:02:08

Berwick was made semi-independent, as if it were a separate state in its own right.

0:02:080:02:13

But how did Berwick's special status lead to war with the mighty Russian empire?

0:02:170:02:24

Fresh from the Russian weekend celebrations is Master of Ceremonies Chris Green.

0:02:240:02:29

I'm hoping he can help me figure it all out.

0:02:290:02:31

So what's the score, Chris?

0:02:330:02:34

What is it that the people of Berwick have against the Russians?

0:02:340:02:37

The story is we're still fighting the Crimean War.

0:02:370:02:40

The story goes that when Britain declared war

0:02:400:02:44

against Russia in 1854, Berwick was included in the declaration of war,

0:02:440:02:48

but when it came to the peace in 1856, Berwick was missed off

0:02:480:02:51

and so theoretically Berwick is still fighting the Russians.

0:02:510:02:55

And because Berwick has this bizarre

0:02:550:03:00

semi-independent status from the Treaty of Perpetual Peace,

0:03:000:03:04

it means that having declared war it would have to declare its own peace.

0:03:040:03:07

That's absolutely so, yes.

0:03:070:03:10

Now that sounds like the basis for a fantastic pub quiz question, but is it true?

0:03:100:03:15

Well, I have to say, it is a complete myth.

0:03:150:03:18

It was all sorted out in 1747 and every mention of England after that also includes Berwick-upon-Tweed.

0:03:180:03:24

That was long before we went to war with Russia in 1854.

0:03:240:03:27

But you've done well to keep the myth going as long as you have.

0:03:270:03:31

Yes, and we'd just like to keep it that way, if you don't mind.

0:03:310:03:34

-Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

-Absolutely.

0:03:340:03:37

We've reached the outskirts of Scotland's capital city.

0:03:570:04:01

Edinburgh Castle stands proud of canyon-like grey streets,

0:04:050:04:08

and, towering above it all, a volcanic plug of rock, Arthur's Seat.

0:04:080:04:14

It's up here that you see Edinburgh for what it really is -

0:04:160:04:20

a coastal city, with the docks that helped build it

0:04:200:04:23

only a stone's throw from the city centre.

0:04:230:04:26

The industrial heart of the city is here,

0:04:270:04:30

less than two miles from the Castle, in Edinburgh's twin town of Leith.

0:04:300:04:35

MUSIC: "Lust for Life" by Iggy Pop

0:04:350:04:37

This corner of the city has been known as a blackspot of drugs and deprivation.

0:04:400:04:45

Right now, it's having a bit of a makeover.

0:04:450:04:48

Expensive flats have sprung up beside the Royal Yacht Britannia.

0:04:480:04:53

But Edinburgh once relied on the commerce of these docklands,

0:04:530:04:58

and they helped change the history of the entire British Isles.

0:04:580:05:03

The birth of Edinburgh as Scotland's capital city largely depended on

0:05:040:05:08

the trade flowing through this port, and funnily enough the birth of

0:05:080:05:12

the United Kingdom of Great Britain,

0:05:120:05:14

the Act of Union between Scotland and England, also owed a lot to Leith.

0:05:140:05:19

Back when Scotland was a nation independent of England and Wales,

0:05:200:05:25

it envied the power and wealth of its neighbours.

0:05:250:05:28

To become a great European nation, Scotland needed its own colonies.

0:05:280:05:34

It's July 1698, and those five ships down there are setting sail from Leith to Panama.

0:05:340:05:41

The plan is to establish Scotland's first colony.

0:05:410:05:46

Over 300 years ago, the mission to South America was to be the start of the Scottish Empire.

0:05:460:05:52

For four months, they sailed a 6,000-mile route

0:05:550:05:59

across the Atlantic and Caribbean to the narrow Panama land bridge.

0:05:590:06:04

The colony promised a huge reward.

0:06:040:06:07

If Scotland could control this short cut to the Pacific, they'd outwit the English, Spanish and Dutch traders.

0:06:070:06:14

Unfortunately, the Scots were disastrously ill-prepared for the tropical rainforest.

0:06:170:06:22

The seeds of their failure had been sown back in Leith.

0:06:220:06:26

Here's a list of the things the would-be colonists packed on to their ships.

0:06:270:06:32

Neck ties, bonnets, thousands of wigs, woollen blankets...

0:06:320:06:37

Wigs and woollen blankets for the tropics?

0:06:370:06:40

Just one of the countless mistakes made on this ill-fated adventure.

0:06:400:06:44

Finally, word came back of the expedition.

0:06:470:06:51

And the word was...disaster!

0:06:510:06:54

Two years after the ships had set sail from Leith,

0:06:540:06:57

2,000 colonists were dead, their colony abandoned.

0:06:570:07:03

Investors lost nearly everything.

0:07:030:07:05

The failed expedition virtually bankrupted Scotland.

0:07:050:07:08

A financial disaster of such proportions

0:07:080:07:11

that it signalled the end of Scotland as an independent country.

0:07:110:07:15

The English Parliament offered to write off the vast debts.

0:07:190:07:23

An inducement for the Scottish elite to help clinch the greatest deal of

0:07:230:07:27

them all - the union of Scotland and England as one nation.

0:07:270:07:33

Despite widespread protests from ordinary people in Scotland,

0:07:350:07:39

in 1707 the parliaments of England and Scotland were united

0:07:390:07:43

and the United Kingdom of Great Britain was born.

0:07:430:07:46

So a handful of ships leaving this coast for foreign shores

0:07:490:07:54

actually ended up transforming the life of our own isles.

0:07:540:07:58

Big industry's left its mark all along this shoreline.

0:08:130:08:16

Hermione Cockburn explores the centuries-old love affair this coast has had with fossil fuels.

0:08:270:08:34

This is a strange alien landscape,

0:08:360:08:39

dominated by these really odd vast grey lagoons.

0:08:390:08:43

And this stuff...

0:08:430:08:45

..it's very like volcanic ash.

0:08:460:08:48

It's light and crumbly.

0:08:480:08:50

But there aren't any active volcanoes near here.

0:08:500:08:54

This is ash from burning coal - millions of tons of it -

0:08:540:08:57

built up layer upon layer, creating an entire artificial peninsula.

0:08:570:09:02

This peninsula is made of ash from the gigantic Longannet coal-fired power station.

0:09:060:09:13

Over the years, it's coal from this area that fed its furnaces.

0:09:130:09:18

Unlikely though it seems, the power station -

0:09:180:09:21

and the very birth of our coal mining industry -

0:09:210:09:25

is strongly connected to this picturesque little town nearby -

0:09:250:09:29

Culross.

0:09:300:09:32

The whitewashed houses, with their distinctive red roof pantiles,

0:09:320:09:37

give Culross a unique style.

0:09:370:09:40

The transformation started 400 years ago, thanks to fossil fuel.

0:09:400:09:45

The man behind it all was Sir George Bruce.

0:09:490:09:52

He was an extraordinary entrepreneur and he made a lot of money.

0:09:520:09:56

And this was his house.

0:09:560:09:58

Elizabethan businessman Sir George Bruce had his finger in many different pies.

0:10:090:10:14

But what really made his fortune was right on his own shore - coal.

0:10:140:10:21

We don't think of there being a coal industry in the Elizabethan era.

0:10:210:10:25

So how did Sir George Bruce come to pioneer coal mining 400 years ago?

0:10:250:10:32

Local archaeologist Douglas Speirs knows the story.

0:10:320:10:36

Doug, what prompted Sir George Bruce to get involved with coal?

0:10:360:10:39

Well, if we think back to the context of his times, the late 16th century,

0:10:390:10:44

there was one big problem on everybody's mind

0:10:440:10:46

-and that was the fuel crisis.

-So hang on a moment...

0:10:460:10:49

an energy crisis is something I think of as a modern-day issue!

0:10:490:10:53

Not something that affected people 400 years ago!

0:10:530:10:55

Absolutely. That's very true.

0:10:550:10:57

Essentially it was wood that powered the country.

0:10:570:11:00

Everything from domestic fires and so on to the fires of industry depended upon wood.

0:11:000:11:05

Quite simply, by the late 16th century, we'd almost completely exhausted our supplies of wood.

0:11:050:11:10

And if there was no wood left, then what was the nation to do for its fuel?

0:11:100:11:13

With most of the forests chopped down, people 400 years ago needed an energy revolution.

0:11:180:11:25

Until Sir George Bruce came along, coal mining was in its infancy.

0:11:250:11:29

Bruce's great leap forward was to follow coal seams deep underground by tunnelling along them.

0:11:290:11:37

But when he began digging at Culross,

0:11:370:11:40

he had no idea that the seam would lead him underwater!

0:11:400:11:44

He tunnelled beneath the sea bed - two centuries before the Industrial Revolution!

0:11:460:11:53

But what's even more incredible is what Bruce did once he'd tunnelled a third of a mile out.

0:11:530:12:00

Below us, in fact, if I take this ranging staff here...

0:12:000:12:05

just about two metres below us, you can feel that's solid stone.

0:12:050:12:09

That's the top of a mineshaft.

0:12:090:12:12

This was a second access point for a mine, which entered the ground just below the castle behind us,

0:12:120:12:19

-dived down following a seam of coal reaching to this extent almost 240 feet below us.

-Sounds incredible.

0:12:190:12:26

So he had a tunnel extending from a mineshaft on land,

0:12:260:12:29

tunnelling under the water, and then he sank a vertical shaft 240 feet?

0:12:290:12:34

That's exactly what he did here.

0:12:340:12:36

The offshore vertical shaft was a radical innovation.

0:12:370:12:42

It meant Bruce's coal miners could breathe fresh air.

0:12:420:12:46

What would have been here, what would it have been like 400 years ago?

0:12:460:12:50

If you imagine something of the nature almost of a chimney,

0:12:500:12:54

a gigantic great chimney, 50 feet in diameter,

0:12:540:12:57

coming out of the water here and going up perhaps 30 or more feet.

0:12:570:13:02

Straight up above us, this towering great chimney

0:13:020:13:05

with the coal coming directly up onto the platform.

0:13:050:13:08

Ships could come alongside, just as we are floating here in this boat,

0:13:080:13:11

and they could load the coal directly,

0:13:110:13:13

and sail off and take it off to the market places.

0:13:130:13:16

So it was really a bit like an offshore oil platform?

0:13:160:13:19

This is one of the greatest technological achievements of late-medieval Europe.

0:13:190:13:24

And that the project was even contemplated, let alone put into practice, is just mind-boggling.

0:13:240:13:29

The ships that took Culross's coal to the continent brought back

0:13:300:13:35

red roof pantiles from Holland as ballast for the journey home.

0:13:350:13:40

So Culross's unique look comes from its coal trade.

0:13:400:13:44

Thanks to Bruce's industry, for a while Culross was larger and wealthier than Glasgow.

0:13:440:13:51

And his coal technology helped launch the fuel that would dominate Britain for centuries.

0:13:510:13:57

A few miles along the estuary is Rosyth dockyard.

0:14:150:14:19

This is where nuclear submarines are held as they wait to be decommissioned.

0:14:190:14:24

During the two world wars, it was one of Britain's key naval bases, and a tempting target for attack.

0:14:240:14:32

The small islands guarding the inner Firth of Forth

0:14:330:14:36

were a first line of defence.

0:14:360:14:38

A major threat was German submarines, U-boats, gliding unseen up the Firth.

0:14:450:14:51

The battle to detect and deter German U-boats

0:14:540:14:57

led to some extraordinary innovations on this coast.

0:14:570:15:01

Take a closer look at that island over there.

0:15:010:15:03

From one angle, Inchmickery island looks harmless enough.

0:15:070:15:11

But 60 years ago, a U-boat attacking at twilight

0:15:110:15:14

might have confused the island's profile

0:15:140:15:17

for a battleship, and turned tail.

0:15:170:15:19

Local legend says the island's fortifications

0:15:200:15:23

were deliberately built like a battleship's superstructure to scare away the enemy.

0:15:230:15:29

But when it came to schemes for foiling the U-boats, truth is stranger than legend.

0:15:290:15:34

The First World War gave rise to some bizarre plans for detecting German U-boats.

0:15:340:15:40

But perhaps the most outlandish began development here in Scotland - not by the Royal Navy,

0:15:400:15:45

but by a member of the public. And now, 90 years on, we're going to give it another go.

0:15:450:15:51

With some help from model-maker John Riddell and history buff Diana Maxwell,

0:15:530:15:58

we're going to re-create the 90-year-old scientific trials of one Thomas Mills,

0:15:580:16:04

inventor, and would-be scourge of the early U-boats.

0:16:040:16:08

Now, I've got the secret ingredient for hunting submarines.

0:16:090:16:14

I see you've got the model.

0:16:140:16:16

No wonder they're so hard to find if that's all the size they are!

0:16:160:16:19

How much of a problem were the U-boats?

0:16:190:16:22

Well, it was an absolutely enormous threat in the First World War,

0:16:220:16:25

because they were locating and sinking

0:16:250:16:29

one out of four of the merchant fleet

0:16:290:16:31

that were supplying Britain with food, and it could have been that Britain would have starved.

0:16:310:16:36

At the height of the First World War,

0:16:380:16:41

German U-boats were inflicting

0:16:410:16:43

terrible losses on our merchant shipping.

0:16:430:16:45

With no method of detecting the subs, they seemed unstoppable.

0:16:510:16:55

Food imports dwindled.

0:16:560:16:57

The U-boats' stranglehold threatened to cost Britain the war.

0:16:590:17:04

The Government were so desperate, they invited suggestions

0:17:040:17:07

from the public on how to spot and sink the U-boats.

0:17:070:17:12

Millionaire businessman Thomas Mills threw his hat, and his money, into the ring.

0:17:120:17:17

For the first part of his ingenious plan, he set about towing model U-boats around the coast.

0:17:180:17:24

The wartime technique for detecting U-boats was fantastically simple.

0:17:250:17:29

It really was amazing.

0:17:290:17:31

Our version of the experiment relies on a rather special secret ingredient...

0:17:310:17:36

..the humble sardine.

0:17:400:17:42

The experiment begins by stuffing the sardines into our model U-boat.

0:17:420:17:47

Eugh, just bits of it going everywhere!

0:17:480:17:51

Yeah, war's a filthy business, Diana!

0:17:510:17:53

The idea is that if you were to trail a model like this full of bait up and down the coast often enough,

0:17:540:18:01

the gulls in the area would come to associate the sight of a periscope

0:18:010:18:05

with the chance of food.

0:18:050:18:06

U-boats were hard to detect, because only their periscopes showed above water.

0:18:070:18:13

With his model U-boats, Mills hoped, over many runs,

0:18:130:18:15

to teach gulls that the sight of a periscope meant the promise of food.

0:18:150:18:20

So, gulls would see a periscope, think it's time for lunch,

0:18:210:18:25

and flock around it - just like they do with fishing boats -

0:18:250:18:29

and, hey presto, they'd give away the U-boat's position.

0:18:290:18:33

For his scheme to work, you need gulls.

0:18:440:18:47

We're waiting for them to start flocking around our model stuffed with sardines.

0:18:480:18:54

But we've hit a rather serious snag - no birds!

0:18:540:18:58

MUSIC: "Air on the G String" by JS Bach, from Hamlet commercials

0:18:580:19:02

I'm beginning to get a sense of why the Ministry of Defence didn't take this one particularly seriously...

0:19:020:19:08

Just how blatant an invitation do these critters need?

0:19:110:19:15

There's not a gull for a hundred miles.

0:19:160:19:19

Well...not entirely true.

0:19:190:19:21

There's one.

0:19:210:19:23

There's more where that came from, you miserable little swine! Tell your friends.

0:19:230:19:27

It seems all we've established is that gulls don't like blustery winter weather -

0:19:280:19:34

a fundamental flaw if you're trying to train them to spot periscopes.

0:19:340:19:38

Right, Diana - plan B.

0:19:400:19:43

-We'll have to attract them. Throw in everything you've got.

-Fish-wise?

-Yeah.

0:19:430:19:47

Look, there's a SEAL on the case.

0:19:480:19:50

DIANA LAUGHS

0:19:500:19:52

The whole thing could take a different turn.

0:19:530:19:56

I think we'd have to concede, Diana, that that experiment returned a negative result.

0:19:580:20:04

Good fun, anyway!

0:20:040:20:05

As for the inventor, Thomas Mills, he was refused Navy support for his experiments,

0:20:090:20:14

but went on believing that his gulls method would defeat the U-boat.

0:20:140:20:19

His conviction might seem a little ridiculous now, but it's a sign of just how desperate Britain was.

0:20:190:20:26

As Mills was teaching gulls to look for U-boats, sailors were being taught to LISTEN for them.

0:20:310:20:38

At the Naval Research base in nearby Aberdour, underwater microphones were developed during the First World War.

0:20:400:20:46

Thousands of operators were trained to recognise the engine noise

0:20:470:20:51

of approaching U-boats - technology that paved the way for sonar.

0:20:510:20:56

In the end, it was safety in numbers that protected our shipping from the U-boats.

0:20:560:21:01

Travelling in convoys meant that ships

0:21:010:21:04

could be more easily defended by armed escorts...

0:21:040:21:08

gulls or no gulls.

0:21:080:21:10

The Firth of Tay marks our turning point around the corner of Fife.

0:21:190:21:23

The Tay's the mightiest river in Britain,

0:21:240:21:27

spewing as much water into the sea as the Thames and Severn put together.

0:21:270:21:31

Building bridges across this formidable barrier was a huge challenge to 19th-century engineers.

0:21:370:21:42

The train line crosses over a bridge with a sturdy Victorian feel.

0:21:480:21:52

But look closely beside the base of the pillars, and you'll see a line of curious brick platforms...

0:21:530:21:59

..evidence there was once another bridge...

0:22:010:22:05

..a state-of-the-art engineering marvel, once the world's longest railway bridge.

0:22:070:22:13

But on the night of December 28th, 1879, it collapsed as a train was crossing.

0:22:200:22:26

75 people died. There were no survivors.

0:22:260:22:30

Shoddy construction, poor maintenance and bad ironwork

0:22:310:22:35

have been blamed for the Tay Bridge disaster,

0:22:350:22:37

which still ranks as one of Britain's worst rail tragedies.

0:22:370:22:42

Nearly 130 years later,

0:22:430:22:46

the brick foundations of the old pillars remain as an eerie memorial.

0:22:460:22:51

The fishing town of Arbroath gives its name to a famous hot-smoked haddock, the Arbroath smokie.

0:22:570:23:04

But it's actually in Auchmithie,

0:23:060:23:08

a little village nearby, that smokies were invented.

0:23:080:23:12

Champagne, Gorgonzola, and the Arbroath smokie -

0:23:150:23:20

all in the premier league of delicacies.

0:23:200:23:23

The Arbroath smokie joined the elite club

0:23:230:23:25

when it won the sought-after Protected Geographical Indication

0:23:250:23:29

under European law.

0:23:290:23:31

The EU says, if it ain't made within five miles of Arbroath,

0:23:310:23:34

it ain't a genuine smokie.

0:23:340:23:36

The man who fought for the European law and won is Robert Spink.

0:23:380:23:42

His son Iain smokes smokies the way that makes them worthy of the name.

0:23:420:23:48

Right then, what stage are we at?

0:23:490:23:51

The fire's lit now.

0:23:510:23:53

We're ready to go to put the fish on... OK?

0:23:530:23:55

The traditional method uses a combination of hardwood smoke and dense steam

0:23:570:24:02

to cook the haddock for just the right length of time.

0:24:020:24:05

Why did you go the lengths of getting the might of European law behind the smokie?

0:24:070:24:14

I discovered that Arbroath smokies were being made all over the place,

0:24:140:24:18

out as far... From Cornwall as far north as Aberdeen, you know.

0:24:180:24:22

If people's first experience of the smokie

0:24:220:24:25

is what they've found in a supermarket in Manchester - a poor imitation -

0:24:250:24:29

they'll say, "If that's a smokie, you can keep it." I said, I'm going to do something about that.

0:24:290:24:33

-You really care about this, don't you?

-I'm passionate about it.

0:24:330:24:37

It's something I've been involved in all my life.

0:24:370:24:39

I see the smokie as going far beyond just a fish product -

0:24:390:24:43

it's something which is important to the area and gives identity to the area.

0:24:430:24:48

Identity is very important to any area -

0:24:480:24:50

if I buy a Melton Mowbray pork pie,

0:24:500:24:52

I want it to have been made in Melton Mowbray.

0:24:520:24:54

I know what it tastes like, and it's lovely -

0:24:540:24:57

and that's how I want people to think of a smokie, in the same way.

0:24:570:25:00

Is that us, then?

0:25:040:25:06

-That's them ready. Looking good.

-That's been about 40 minutes?

0:25:060:25:11

Yep, more or less 40 minutes cooking there. Would you care to try one?

0:25:110:25:15

-If your hands are flameproof!

-Absolutely.

0:25:150:25:18

-Once they're hot like this, they're quite easy to bone.

-Look at that!

0:25:180:25:22

-Look at the white flesh!

-Absolutely.

0:25:220:25:24

That's how you know a good fresh smokie. It's pure white inside.

0:25:240:25:28

I've had smokies before, but that is a particularly good example.

0:25:320:25:35

They're quite different fresh from the fire.

0:25:350:25:38

To me, that's as good as fish gets.

0:25:380:25:40

Mile after mile of coastal cliffs.

0:25:520:25:55

We're on the home straight, the northeast edge of Scotland.

0:25:550:25:59

The dramatic rock formation at Dunnottar was adapted to build a mighty castle.

0:26:010:26:06

A fort is thought to have existed here for well over a thousand years.

0:26:060:26:10

After this vast stretch of wild coastline, we've arrived at a great coastal city - Aberdeen.

0:26:150:26:21

The sheer number of ships coming and going make this one of the busiest ports in Britain.

0:26:280:26:32

Day and night, these ships service oil and gas installations

0:26:370:26:40

hundreds of miles out in the North Sea.

0:26:400:26:44

Not every bit of the coast is picture-postcard pretty.

0:26:470:26:51

Some of it's been put to hard work - and nowhere more so than here at Aberdeen.

0:26:510:26:56

But this is another part of the story, and it's vital to the nation.

0:26:560:27:00

The UK's North Sea oil and gas industry generates around £10 billion a year in tax revenues.

0:27:100:27:17

Oil has transformed Aberdeen from fishing port to the Dallas of the North.

0:27:190:27:24

It might not look like it now, but North Sea oil production is in decline.

0:27:250:27:30

In 50 years' time, all of this might look very different.

0:27:300:27:34

Who knows? Maybe Aberdeen will go the same way as Berwick-upon-Tweed, where I started this journey -

0:27:340:27:40

a port once vital to the economies of Scotland and England,

0:27:400:27:44

now trading on tourism.

0:27:440:27:46

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:28:030:28:05

E-mail [email protected]

0:28:050:28:07

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS