0:00:23 > 0:00:25It's good to be back.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30We love to be beside the sea.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34It's where we're free to express ourselves,
0:00:34 > 0:00:39and it's shaped our lives through thousands of years of trade,
0:00:39 > 0:00:41migration and war.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43Amen.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46But it's the mix of people in Britain
0:00:46 > 0:00:48that really connects us to the wider world.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54And in this new series, we're going further than ever before
0:00:54 > 0:00:56in search of those connections.
0:00:56 > 0:01:01'You'll feel a fair sensation of G.' Wow, yes!
0:01:01 > 0:01:03I'm definitely feeling G!
0:01:03 > 0:01:07We'll discover brand new stories close to home,
0:01:07 > 0:01:12and also journey beyond the edge of our islands to meet the neighbours.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15Far, far north to the coast of Norway...
0:01:17 > 0:01:19..and south to Normandy...
0:01:22 > 0:01:24..and out into the deep Atlantic
0:01:24 > 0:01:26to the Faroe Islands.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31Viking traders,
0:01:31 > 0:01:33Norman invaders,
0:01:33 > 0:01:38we share a common bond coast to coast,
0:01:38 > 0:01:43all part of the ever expanding story of our shores.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48It's a brand new adventure, but with some familiar faces.
0:01:49 > 0:01:56This time, Nick Crane explores lost worlds on England's largest island.
0:01:56 > 0:02:02Alice Roberts takes to the air, six inches into the air.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04There's quite big waves out here.
0:02:04 > 0:02:09Archaeologist Mark Horton searches for a Victorian railway
0:02:09 > 0:02:10that ran underwater.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12Ian, this is completely mad!
0:02:12 > 0:02:17And launching another expedition to uncover our coastal wildlife
0:02:17 > 0:02:20is naturalist Miranda Krestovnikoff.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25Me, I find new direction in life as a director
0:02:27 > 0:02:32re-living the glory days of Britain's own Hollywood on Sea.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35This is our Coast and beyond.
0:03:01 > 0:03:03For the first leg of our new adventure,
0:03:03 > 0:03:07we're heading for The Needles on the Isle of Wight,
0:03:07 > 0:03:10on a 200-mile journey along the South Coast.
0:03:10 > 0:03:15Our starting point is Whitstable, famous for its oysters.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20There's been a festival of one kind or another to celebrate
0:03:20 > 0:03:24the local catch ever since the Romans first invited themselves over
0:03:24 > 0:03:26around 2,000 years ago.
0:03:27 > 0:03:33'That's 2,000 years of coming down the sea for pleasure,
0:03:33 > 0:03:35'for nourishment...'
0:03:35 > 0:03:39Oh, my goodness! It's Moby Dick in here. OK, down the hatch.
0:03:41 > 0:03:43'..To build stuff.'
0:03:43 > 0:03:46Right, you show me what to do.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48Hereabouts the children don't make sandcastles,
0:03:48 > 0:03:52they build something called a grotter,
0:03:52 > 0:03:55tottering towers made from oyster shells.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00No-one's quite sure how it started, but the construction
0:04:00 > 0:04:05usually coincides with the ancient feast day of St James in July.
0:04:07 > 0:04:12At the end of it, these miniature shrines are offered up to the sea
0:04:12 > 0:04:13to be washed away by the tide.
0:04:15 > 0:04:21We do seem to have a tradition of building strange stuff on the coast.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31We're six miles offshore, north of Whitstable.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36Aren't these fantastic? From this angle they almost look
0:04:36 > 0:04:39as if they're moving, there's a hint of every robot monster
0:04:39 > 0:04:42that you ever saw in a sci-film, but more than anything
0:04:42 > 0:04:45to me, they look like the Martians in the War of the Worlds.
0:04:46 > 0:04:51This group of odd looking towers is the Red Sands Sea Fort.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56Built in 1943, it was a late addition to London's air defences,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59the vision of engineer Guy Maunsell.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06As building offshore in wartime was dangerous,
0:05:06 > 0:05:10Maunsell had to pioneer a new technique of construction.
0:05:10 > 0:05:15Each of the 750-ton towers was assembled on land,
0:05:15 > 0:05:20then floated out on pontoons and dropped onto the seabed.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23When in place, the individual towers of the fort
0:05:23 > 0:05:26were linked by aerial walkways.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31The fort housed up to 265 men,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34stationed here for a month at a time.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37This is a very strange place.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40On the one hand, it's all this rusted metal and rivets,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43it feels like the rusting hulk of an old battleship,
0:05:43 > 0:05:47but then you come in here, and there's beds,
0:05:47 > 0:05:52because since the war it's used intermittently as a radio station.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56It just adds to the sense of it being, I don't know,
0:05:56 > 0:06:00vaguely haunted out here, strange place.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07This was one of three forts built in the Thames Estuary.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11They were the result of hard lessons learnt early in the war
0:06:11 > 0:06:14when German bombers had used the Thames
0:06:14 > 0:06:16as a route to navigate to the capital.
0:06:19 > 0:06:24From the top of the towers anti-aircraft guns had a clear shot
0:06:24 > 0:06:26at planes trying to get to London.
0:06:26 > 0:06:31They destroyed 22 of them as well as 30 flying bombs.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35For Maunsell, it was an engineering triumph.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40Every now and again you can feel the whole thing move,
0:06:40 > 0:06:45and that's because, 750 tons or not, the strength of the fort
0:06:45 > 0:06:48comes from the fact that the legs can move, they can settle
0:06:48 > 0:06:50into the constantly shifting sand,
0:06:50 > 0:06:55and it can roll with the waves and the wind much like a tree does.
0:06:55 > 0:07:00They say that even if one of the legs was blown out,
0:07:00 > 0:07:03the individual tower would still remain standing.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06I don't really fancy trying that myself.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14Maunsell's sea fort design was to serve Britain
0:07:14 > 0:07:17one more time after the war.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24In 1955, the very first offshore drilling platform in the North Sea
0:07:24 > 0:07:27was adapted from his tower design,
0:07:27 > 0:07:31a clear inspiration for the oil rush ten years later.
0:07:41 > 0:07:46But whatever plans we have for building on the coast,
0:07:46 > 0:07:49it seems the coast has ideas of its own.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55800 years ago there was a major seaport here,
0:07:55 > 0:07:58now it's not even on the coast.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04Sandwich, although still a port in name, is two miles inland.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07Here, the coast has rebuilt itself.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13In the 13th century it looked out over the mouth of a sea channel,
0:08:13 > 0:08:15a shortcut from London to France.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21But centuries of silting up have reclaimed the land,
0:08:21 > 0:08:23and re-drawn the map.
0:08:25 > 0:08:30Whilst Sandwich may have taken a back seat,
0:08:30 > 0:08:34along the coast another port with an ancient pedigree
0:08:34 > 0:08:37is still very much on the front line.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51There's a ceaseless movement
0:08:51 > 0:08:55of people and goods at the heart of Dover.
0:08:58 > 0:09:0114 million people each year catch the ferry to France.
0:09:07 > 0:09:08As sea journeys go,
0:09:08 > 0:09:13the 20 miles or so to Calais is hardly an ocean cruise,
0:09:13 > 0:09:16more functional than fashionable,
0:09:16 > 0:09:21but Alice Roberts is finding out when a Channel crossing
0:09:21 > 0:09:23was THE glamour ticket.
0:09:24 > 0:09:30In 1974, local girl Angie Westacott applied for a new job.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34It was to be the start of a 20-year-long love affair
0:09:34 > 0:09:36with the hovercraft.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40I never ever got tired of seeing that, and to this day
0:09:40 > 0:09:43if it came up I'd still be looking at it and thinking,
0:09:43 > 0:09:46"Oh, wow, that's fantastic, absolutely amazing."
0:09:46 > 0:09:48So you got the job? Got the job, yes,
0:09:48 > 0:09:52and after a couple of days got used to the movement and the motion
0:09:52 > 0:09:54and absolutely loved it, and a lot of us did.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59It was the futuristic way to cross the Channel.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02This was the age of Concorde,
0:10:02 > 0:10:06the moon landings and giant passenger hovercraft.
0:10:06 > 0:10:11"With it's payload of 90 tonnes, it can carry 416 passengers
0:10:11 > 0:10:15"and 60 vehicles in airline-style comfort,
0:10:15 > 0:10:18"at a cruising speed of 65 knots."
0:10:18 > 0:10:22They flew for 30 years before being wound up
0:10:22 > 0:10:26and the hover port at Dover abandoned.
0:10:26 > 0:10:28So what happened?
0:10:28 > 0:10:32Didn't the passenger experience live up to the glamorous image?
0:10:32 > 0:10:36There's only one way to find out for sure,
0:10:36 > 0:10:40and that's to cross the Channel in a hovercraft ourselves,
0:10:40 > 0:10:44with Angie and some of her former crew-mates as our guides.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48But in order to get to grips with the highs and lows
0:10:48 > 0:10:50of hovercraft history,
0:10:50 > 0:10:53I'm going to have to go right back to the beginning
0:10:53 > 0:10:54to where it all took off.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58The passenger hovercraft was British through and through,
0:10:58 > 0:11:02the brainchild of Christopher Cockerill, engineer and boat builder.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06He started experimenting in the early 1950s,
0:11:06 > 0:11:10and actually worked out the physics in his kitchen.
0:11:10 > 0:11:15Hovercraft historian Warwick Jacobs is going to show me how.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18Warwick, these are the things Cockerill was playing around with.
0:11:18 > 0:11:20Yes, just household objects,
0:11:20 > 0:11:24pair of kitchen scales, coffee tins and an ordinary air blower.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26A hairdryer in fact.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30Let's see what that can lift with just a jet of air onto the scales.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33OK. Try it with one ounce first. So on this flat side.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37Yep, try it on the flat side, cos less air is going to escape.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40And that will easily lift one ounce.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43No problem. Let's see if it will lift the two.
0:11:43 > 0:11:48No, so what we're going to do now is to create, as Cockerill did,
0:11:48 > 0:11:53what we've got here is two tins, one tin inside the other tin,
0:11:53 > 0:11:56and the jet of air comes down between the two tins
0:11:56 > 0:12:00forming a curtain or jet of air, which stops this inner air escaping.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03That's much more effective than just having a single jet of air
0:12:03 > 0:12:06turning it into a ring. Exactly, the same amount of air
0:12:06 > 0:12:08doing twice as much work. Go back to one,
0:12:08 > 0:12:10and we'll see it should do that easily.
0:12:10 > 0:12:12No problem at all.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15Try it with the two.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18Easy. Yeah. Let's see if it'll do the three.
0:12:19 > 0:12:24Yes, and I'm still not touching the plate, moving around on it.
0:12:24 > 0:12:25Will it do the four?
0:12:25 > 0:12:27And if lifts four ounces.
0:12:27 > 0:12:28If you scale that up,
0:12:28 > 0:12:31the bigger it gets, the more efficient, and it works better.
0:12:31 > 0:12:36So it's a curtain of compressed air pushing down
0:12:36 > 0:12:38that gives the hovercraft its lift.
0:12:40 > 0:12:45The first successful cross-channel flight was in 1959,
0:12:45 > 0:12:48Christopher Cockerill hanging on for dear life on
0:12:48 > 0:12:51the front of his prototype to keep it weighed down.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55So how do you control what is effectively
0:12:55 > 0:12:57a big floating hairdryer?
0:13:00 > 0:13:02Time for a flying lesson.
0:13:09 > 0:13:11Whay!
0:13:12 > 0:13:14Wow, I'm just...
0:13:16 > 0:13:20I'm travelling on a frictionless cushion of air,
0:13:20 > 0:13:23but my instructor Russ tells me I'm not properly hovering yet.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26What you're doing is just blowing a big hole in the water
0:13:26 > 0:13:29and because you keep losing confidence, slowing down
0:13:29 > 0:13:33and turning too tight, you're falling into that hole in the water.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35Right, OK. You've got to keep moving,
0:13:35 > 0:13:39you've got to keep your turns gentle and keep you speed up.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41Wow, there's some quite big waves out here.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46I'm hanging on for dear life here.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49Those early pilots learning to drive these things
0:13:49 > 0:13:52really had their job cut out for them.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59Can I have another go, Russ? I don't see why not.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07Once mastered, I can see it was a lot of fun for the early pilots,
0:14:07 > 0:14:10and when the commercial service started in 1968,
0:14:10 > 0:14:12the public loved it too.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17What went wrong then? Was there something about the ride
0:14:17 > 0:14:20that made the thrill fade?
0:14:22 > 0:14:27To find out, we need some passengers. I've brought Warwick and my dad.
0:14:27 > 0:14:32He's an engineer, and he also rode on the hover service in the '70s.
0:14:32 > 0:14:37We're going to fly the old route to Calais in this 12-seater hovercraft,
0:14:37 > 0:14:40with former crew members Angie, Vanessa and Brian.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50Really strange, I've never been in a hovercraft before.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53It's really quite bizarre. It is like flying.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57What was the quickest you did a crossing to Calais in, Brian?
0:14:57 > 0:15:0025 minutes.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04Angie, you were handling drinks out to people. We were, yes,
0:15:04 > 0:15:08and in fact it was so quick that we didn't have time
0:15:08 > 0:15:10to serve all the passengers,
0:15:10 > 0:15:15so we'd phone the flight-deck and say, "Can you slow down?"
0:15:15 > 0:15:20Dad, I thought I'd find you up here with the pilot. Yes, of course.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24From what I can see you're skidding all the time, isn't that right, Rob?
0:15:24 > 0:15:28Like on ice, we're chasing a bar of soap around the bathtub,
0:15:28 > 0:15:30a bit like that, trying to grab this bar of soap
0:15:30 > 0:15:32and you can't quite grab hold of it.
0:15:34 > 0:15:39In its heyday, no other crossing could match the hovercraft for speed.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44The big craft could take on three-metre high waves,
0:15:44 > 0:15:47but it wasn't always a comfortable ride.
0:15:47 > 0:15:52Stylish maybe, smooth, that was another matter.
0:15:56 > 0:15:5930 bone-rattling minutes in,
0:15:59 > 0:16:04we're experiencing the ups and downs first-hand.
0:16:04 > 0:16:09Our pilot Rob has just decided to turn around and go back to Dover.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13We made it halfway across the Channel, but the swell got too big,
0:16:13 > 0:16:16just over a metre, so we're now heading back.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19White cliffs of Dover.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23But it wasn't the occasional rocky ride that brought about
0:16:23 > 0:16:27the end of the Dover service. Even when the Channel Tunnel opened
0:16:27 > 0:16:30passengers were still queuing to catch the hovercraft.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33Warwick, it seems like such a fantastic form of transport,
0:16:33 > 0:16:36so why on earth did it wind down?
0:16:36 > 0:16:39It was the ending of duty-free which finished the hovercraft.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43They could beat the tunnel, no problem, they were still faster
0:16:43 > 0:16:47right to the very end, but duty-free supplemented the hovercraft service.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51In fact, duty-free sales didn't just supplement the service,
0:16:51 > 0:16:53they became its main source of income.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58With spiralling fuel costs and no chance
0:16:58 > 0:17:03of replacing the ageing hovercraft, they were grounded in October 2000.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08After all those years of working on the hovercraft,
0:17:08 > 0:17:12it must have been sad to see them finally stop. It was. End of an era.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16It's still sad, actually. Coming on this today is just fantastic
0:17:16 > 0:17:18because it just brings it back even more.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23The hovercraft's inventor, Christopher Cockerill, predicted that
0:17:23 > 0:17:29we would travel across the Atlantic in huge nuclear-powered hovercraft.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33In the end, it was a dream that stalled in the Channel.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50When we've such a spectacular coastline,
0:17:50 > 0:17:52it seems a shame to leave it behind.
0:17:54 > 0:18:00For some, the Channel isn't a way out, it's a way round.
0:18:00 > 0:18:07These are outdoor swimmers, a hardy breed, experienced in the water.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11I'm Kate Rew, and I'm an outdoor swimmer.
0:18:11 > 0:18:12There is nowhere more exhilarating than the sea.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16Whatever mood I'm in, whatever kind of day I've had,
0:18:16 > 0:18:20however many spreadsheets, worries, or just tedious traffic jams,
0:18:20 > 0:18:22if you go for a swim, your day is made.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27I always make a point of talking to locals before I get in,
0:18:27 > 0:18:29and if I'm doing a sea swim
0:18:29 > 0:18:32I generally tell the coastguard where I'm going,
0:18:32 > 0:18:35because they're unused to the idea that anybody might swim
0:18:35 > 0:18:37along the length of coast. They'll try and rescue you
0:18:37 > 0:18:39unless you forewarn them.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41You just go along a length of coastline
0:18:41 > 0:18:45and you get to see everything from a very different perspective.
0:18:45 > 0:18:47Swimming at the bottom of the cliffs
0:18:47 > 0:18:51is just a wonderful experience because they look so majestic
0:18:51 > 0:18:56when you're bobbing along beneath them, 300ft of pure chalk above.
0:18:58 > 0:19:00Most outdoor swimmers around here
0:19:00 > 0:19:04would be heading off across the Channel, which I find remarkable,
0:19:04 > 0:19:08because like most people I share this universal fear of deep water.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11I get a feeling as I get further and further from the shore
0:19:11 > 0:19:13that something awful might be under the water.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16So, for me, I'm going to do two miles along the coastline
0:19:16 > 0:19:18and stay quite close to shore.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26I love the fact that it makes you fit, that it gets you outdoors,
0:19:26 > 0:19:30but I mostly like its psychological effects,
0:19:30 > 0:19:33that whatever mood you're in, by the time you get out,
0:19:33 > 0:19:35you feel you've had a really good day.
0:19:46 > 0:19:4825 five miles on from Dover,
0:19:48 > 0:19:53and the chalk cliffs have temporarily run their course,
0:19:53 > 0:19:56although their presence is still felt at Romney.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02Ten centuries ago, this was a sandy bay,
0:20:02 > 0:20:07but flint pebbles washed out of the nearby chalk formed a huge barrier,
0:20:07 > 0:20:12drying out the land behind and creating the Romney Marshes.
0:20:17 > 0:20:23Across the sparse terrain, a strange chorus rings out.
0:20:23 > 0:20:24CHIRRUPING AND CROAKING
0:20:29 > 0:20:32Like so many of us on these islands,
0:20:32 > 0:20:36these noisy little frogs can trace their ancestors to foreign shores.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42The local story says they were brought to Romney in the 1930s
0:20:42 > 0:20:45by a Mrs Percy Smith.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48She'd acquired them in France, intending to eat them.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52Unfortunately for Mrs Smith,
0:20:52 > 0:20:55they weren't the edible variety of frog.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58In fact, they weren't even French.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04They're actually Hungarian marsh frogs, not very tasty,
0:21:04 > 0:21:07but right at home in the wetlands of Romney.
0:21:08 > 0:21:13When Mrs Smith thoughtfully released them into her garden pond,
0:21:13 > 0:21:15they wasted no time escaping,
0:21:15 > 0:21:18and they've been making themselves heard ever since.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29Despite being Europe's busiest seaway,
0:21:29 > 0:21:30the Channel is rich in wildlife,
0:21:30 > 0:21:33and people take every opportunity to land a catch...
0:21:36 > 0:21:41..although sometimes it can be a frustrating business.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47The cliffs make it impossible to launch fishing boats.
0:21:47 > 0:21:53Even when there is a gap, nature doesn't make things easy.
0:22:01 > 0:22:07In Hastings, the efforts to build a harbour have either been washed away
0:22:07 > 0:22:09or run out of money,
0:22:09 > 0:22:13so the fishermen were forced to think again.
0:22:13 > 0:22:18Miranda Krestovnikoff wants to discover their ingenious solutions.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24When you don't have a harbour to launch your boat from,
0:22:24 > 0:22:27there's only one place you can go, the beach.
0:22:31 > 0:22:37Hastings is home to Europe's largest beach-launched fishing fleet.
0:22:37 > 0:22:39They've had to modify their boats,
0:22:39 > 0:22:43but for centuries they've also adapted their fishing techniques
0:22:43 > 0:22:46to suit the seasons and the different catches they bring.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51In winter, it's cuttlefish,
0:22:51 > 0:22:54a creature I've had a few encounters with myself off Selsey Bill.
0:22:57 > 0:22:59It's very big, couple of feet long.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02They're a popular dish in Italy and Spain,
0:23:02 > 0:23:05and for Paul Joy, who reckons his family have been in Hastings
0:23:05 > 0:23:10since William the Conqueror, it's a relatively new catch.
0:23:10 > 0:23:15These are cuttlefish pots, and we've worked with these generally
0:23:15 > 0:23:17for the last 15-16 years. How does it work, then?
0:23:17 > 0:23:20Well, you put a female cuttlefish in,
0:23:20 > 0:23:24then the males and females go through and they congregate.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27Next morning you pick it up, pour the cuttlefish out
0:23:27 > 0:23:30and put a fresh female back in, and so on the next day.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32What I find ironic about cuttlefish nets
0:23:32 > 0:23:35is that cuttlefish really like to lay their eggs here,
0:23:35 > 0:23:38and it seems a shame that those eggs are wasted.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42No, they're not wasted, we get them back in the sea as soon as possible
0:23:42 > 0:23:44for our next generation. Great stuff.
0:23:44 > 0:23:51Equal care and stealth is required for the summer catch, Dover sole.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55These flatfish live on the seabed, burying themselves for protection,
0:23:55 > 0:23:57and so require a very specific kind of net.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01This is one of your trammel nets then. Yes, this is a trammel net.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05How does it work? Effectively, visualise a tennis net
0:24:05 > 0:24:08sitting on the bottom of the sea and the lines are tied.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11It only stands about four foot high at most in the slack water,
0:24:11 > 0:24:13and when the tide is running, it's very low.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17The fish comes swimming along near the bottom. It hits,
0:24:17 > 0:24:20goes through the larger outer mesh, hits the inner mesh,
0:24:20 > 0:24:24then forms a pocket behind the fish, like a system of traps.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27Where does this net originate from?
0:24:27 > 0:24:29We believe it originated from France,
0:24:29 > 0:24:32but it could have come from the Mediterranean
0:24:32 > 0:24:35where they've used this type of net, but much smaller mesh,
0:24:35 > 0:24:38for many generations. So it's a very ancient tradition.
0:24:38 > 0:24:40Trammel nets are an ancient fishery.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44Flatfish are most active when it's dark,
0:24:44 > 0:24:47so the trammel nets have to be left out overnight.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53It's the crack of dawn, and it's a real struggle
0:24:53 > 0:24:56just getting the boats down the beach into the water
0:24:56 > 0:24:58so they can go and catch fish.
0:25:01 > 0:25:06We're off to check the nets for Dover Sole, and it takes a while.
0:25:06 > 0:25:11Each boat is painstakingly launched using ropes, winches and bulldozers.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16Most of the craft are less than 10 metres long.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19Any larger and they couldn't get off the beach.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27And we're off, it's an absolutely beautiful morning.
0:25:27 > 0:25:30We've got about 2.5 miles to sail out to sea to check the nets
0:25:30 > 0:25:34and see if all that hard work's really going to pay off.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46For Graham and his crew, the first haul is always an anxious moment.
0:25:49 > 0:25:53There are no guarantees with this method of fishing,
0:25:53 > 0:25:56even with their years of experience.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59It looks as if they've hardly caught anything.
0:25:59 > 0:26:01In fact, with their trammel nets,
0:26:01 > 0:26:05they've managed to target exactly what they were after, flatfish.
0:26:05 > 0:26:10This is average for this time of the year, not bad, just average.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14I'm amazed at how selective the nets are here,
0:26:14 > 0:26:16very little's coming up that's not a flatfish.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18No, these are a selective way of fishing.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21What's the smallest size you're allowed to take?
0:26:21 > 0:26:23Cos there's a measurement, isn't there?
0:26:23 > 0:26:269.5 inches. 9.5 inches. Just under three years old.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30So you're not catching fish so young they haven't bred yet? Yes.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33Understanding the behaviour of the fish and their lifecycle,
0:26:33 > 0:26:36how important is that when you're fishing? Very important.
0:26:36 > 0:26:41We've had scientists onboard doing surveys with us, and they said
0:26:41 > 0:26:45it is the most eco-friendly way of fishing that can be devised.
0:26:45 > 0:26:51Working with the rhythms of nature in small boats with specialist nets
0:26:51 > 0:26:55doesn't bring in huge a catch, but it has brought other benefits.
0:26:59 > 0:27:05Fish stocks here have remained healthy, in some cases increasing,
0:27:05 > 0:27:08which means the ancient beach fleet of Hastings
0:27:08 > 0:27:10could be here for the long haul.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20NEIL OLIVER: A stone's throw from the shingle beach
0:27:20 > 0:27:22is a miniature Battle of Hastings.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27There are golf courses all along this coast.
0:27:27 > 0:27:32Even the smallest ones attract players from foreign shores.
0:27:32 > 0:27:36It may seem crazy to us, but it's a serious business for them.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41My name is Jouni Valkjarvi,
0:27:41 > 0:27:43I come from Finland.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47I came over here to Britain to play miniature golf.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51I'm here in Hastings to prepare for the British Open.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01Now that I've warmed up at the crazy golf course,
0:28:01 > 0:28:05I'm going to try out this adventure golf course.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10Adventure golf is more about the surroundings than the course itself,
0:28:10 > 0:28:13with waterfalls and stuff like this.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17When I approach a new hole I haven't played before,
0:28:17 > 0:28:23I take many practice shots, I make a note of where I placed the ball,
0:28:23 > 0:28:27where I tried to aim to find the best line.
0:28:27 > 0:28:28Oh, dear!
0:28:28 > 0:28:32We do have a lot of different balls we are allowed to use.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36Those balls have different properties
0:28:36 > 0:28:39in jump, weight and hardness.
0:28:39 > 0:28:43If I think I need to play a rebound shot, or go straight to the hole,
0:28:43 > 0:28:47I choose the right ball for that particular hole.
0:28:48 > 0:28:52I've been coming to England for this tournament...this is my fourth time.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56I hope to win. It won't be easy,
0:28:56 > 0:29:01but I just hope I'm happy with my own game.
0:29:05 > 0:29:10NEIL OLIVER: And if you're wondering, Jouni finished the British Open
0:29:10 > 0:29:14in a creditable third place, beaten by two Swedish players.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20Hastings has seen an ebb and flow of people
0:29:20 > 0:29:23as much as any place on this coast.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26But when the Normans arrived in their longboats,
0:29:26 > 0:29:29it's generally acknowledged that they didn't land in Hastings.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36Pevensey, 10 miles west, was ground zero in 1066.
0:29:49 > 0:29:53From Beachy Head to Brighton, the chalk cliffs form a barrier
0:29:53 > 0:29:54with only a few natural breaks.
0:29:58 > 0:30:02One chink in this coastal armour is at Rottingdean.
0:30:06 > 0:30:11It's been an obvious temptation to invaders and marauders for centuries,
0:30:11 > 0:30:16but Mark Horton has been drawn here by Rottingdean's hidden treasures.
0:30:17 > 0:30:22For me one of the best things about the coast
0:30:22 > 0:30:27is the way low tide reveals lost secrets of the sea.
0:30:27 > 0:30:32I'm looking for clues to a mad piece of Victorian engineering.
0:30:34 > 0:30:38An electric railway that ran under the sea.
0:30:39 > 0:30:44It was built by engineer Magnus Volk in 1896.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47He wanted to create an electric railway
0:30:47 > 0:30:51that could run along the beach, even at high tide.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56Quite how he did it
0:30:56 > 0:31:00would only become clear to me once the tide has gone out.
0:31:01 > 0:31:05So I've time to look into why he would want to build it here
0:31:05 > 0:31:08in the first place.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11Volk, the son of a German emigre,
0:31:11 > 0:31:15wasn't the first person with foreign connections
0:31:15 > 0:31:17to influence the town.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23By the Saxon pond, next to a Norman church,
0:31:23 > 0:31:26the connections go even further.
0:31:27 > 0:31:32Sue, Glenda and Catherine from the local Preservation Society
0:31:32 > 0:31:34want me to see the former home
0:31:34 > 0:31:38of a celebrated son of the British Empire
0:31:38 > 0:31:42who put Rottingdean in the public eye.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45I feel like a rubbernecking tourist!
0:31:45 > 0:31:47So who's house is that? Rudyard Kipling's.
0:31:47 > 0:31:50Do they really bring ladders to look inside? No, no.
0:31:50 > 0:31:53One of the local pubs ran a double-decker horse-drawn omnibus
0:31:53 > 0:31:57for the tourists, and they came round,
0:31:57 > 0:32:00parked outside the wall, the tourists rushed to the top deck
0:32:00 > 0:32:03and looked over the wall at Kipling, and this is where he was standing.
0:32:03 > 0:32:09Kipling arrived in 1897, already a household name.
0:32:09 > 0:32:13His most famous work, The Jungle Book,
0:32:13 > 0:32:15had been published three years before.
0:32:15 > 0:32:20And did Kipling living here, did it make a more famous place?
0:32:20 > 0:32:23Absolutely, he brought all his famous friends, artistic friends,
0:32:23 > 0:32:25and suddenly tourism started,
0:32:25 > 0:32:28people wanted to see them, so they flocked here.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32Rottingdean, popular with day-trippers,
0:32:32 > 0:32:38now had celebrity status, a boon for Volk and his electric railway.
0:32:45 > 0:32:50And now, exposed by the tide, is what I've come to see.
0:32:52 > 0:32:57Ian Gledhill has written a history of Volk's eccentric railway.
0:32:57 > 0:32:58Ian, this is completely mad!
0:32:58 > 0:33:02It is unbelievable that there should be a railway along the beach.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05The track ran on these concrete blocks, this is one set of tracks
0:33:05 > 0:33:08and there was another set further over.
0:33:08 > 0:33:09Hang on.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14You can see its line running along here. Yes, four rails,
0:33:14 > 0:33:17two rails on here, and two over there, 18 feet between the two,
0:33:17 > 0:33:20it had the widest track gauge of any railway ever built.
0:33:20 > 0:33:24It stretched for three miles towards Brighton.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27The track was underwater at high tide,
0:33:27 > 0:33:29so what sort of train could run on it?
0:33:29 > 0:33:34This is a model made by Magnus Volk in 1893.
0:33:34 > 0:33:37The final one looked somewhat different from that,
0:33:37 > 0:33:39but that was his first idea of it.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43Isn't that wonderful? It must have been an extraordinary sight.
0:33:43 > 0:33:46It was absolutely enormous.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49It stood on legs 24ft high, the deck was 50ft long,
0:33:49 > 0:33:53on the top was a cabin that could carry 30 passengers in comfort
0:33:53 > 0:33:56with stained-glass windows, chandeliers.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59Can I just ask the simple question?
0:33:59 > 0:34:01It operated by electricity. Yes.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04It's going underwater. How did it work?
0:34:04 > 0:34:08Well, there was an overhead wire mounted on posts alongside the track,
0:34:08 > 0:34:12the current came through the motor and the return was through the rail,
0:34:12 > 0:34:16so that meant at high tide, it was through the sea itself,
0:34:16 > 0:34:18but there wasn't a Health Safety Executive in those days.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22I don't know what they'd have said if he'd proposed it now.
0:34:22 > 0:34:29And this is the only footage of Volk's creation, the Daddy Longlegs,
0:34:29 > 0:34:33as it came to be known, at high tide.
0:34:34 > 0:34:39But the Daddy Longlegs was created as an extension
0:34:39 > 0:34:44to a railway Volk was already operating in Brighton.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48This is him on the footplate on its opening day.
0:34:49 > 0:34:51Over 125 years later,
0:34:51 > 0:34:56it's still running along the seafront in Brighton.
0:34:58 > 0:35:00I'm curious to know about Volk the man.
0:35:02 > 0:35:07His granddaughter, Jill Cross, remembers him from the 1920s.
0:35:08 > 0:35:10He was a very inventive person.
0:35:10 > 0:35:16His house was the first one in Brighton to be lit with electricity.
0:35:16 > 0:35:21Also he was an honorary radiographer
0:35:21 > 0:35:23at the Children's Hospital.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27As a teenager, Jill used to visit her grandfather
0:35:27 > 0:35:31at his workshop, which is still being used by the railway today.
0:35:31 > 0:35:33Such a small door.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36Well, he wasn't very big himself.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40About 80 years since I came here last.
0:35:43 > 0:35:45What was this space used for?
0:35:45 > 0:35:48They had the dynamos here
0:35:48 > 0:35:50to power the electric railway.
0:35:53 > 0:35:53Nearly there.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57So, Jill, do you almost expect to see your grandfather there?
0:35:57 > 0:36:02Yes, sitting at his desk, and keeping an eye on things out there,
0:36:02 > 0:36:05watching the trains go up and down.
0:36:05 > 0:36:06That's wonderful.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09You can see why he chose this spot for his office.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11Oh, yes, to see what's going on.
0:36:11 > 0:36:12That's good.
0:36:12 > 0:36:19So Volk's original railway is still here, but what happened to his Daddy Longlegs?
0:36:19 > 0:36:23MAN: There was the most appalling storm in 1896.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26Daddy Longlegs fell over and was totally destroyed,
0:36:26 > 0:36:29and it had only run for six days.
0:36:29 > 0:36:32Imagine the frustration Magnus Volk must have felt!
0:36:32 > 0:36:36But he re-built it, and it ran for another four years after that.
0:36:36 > 0:36:38That must have cost investors a huge sum of money?
0:36:38 > 0:36:42It was probably half a million pounds in modern terms to re-build it,
0:36:42 > 0:36:47and it never made money after that which was one of the reasons why it didn't last.
0:36:49 > 0:36:54In the end, Volk had to abandon the Daddy Longlegs
0:36:54 > 0:36:58because he couldn't afford to move the tracks to make way
0:36:58 > 0:37:00for new coastal defences.
0:37:01 > 0:37:07His electrifying attempts to conquer the waves were claimed by the sea.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19NEIL OLIVER: There's been a steady flow of people with new ideas along this coast.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25Brighton, officially the city of Brighton and Hove,
0:37:25 > 0:37:30was in the 1820's the main terminal for ferry travel to France.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37Before the railways it was the quickest route from London to Paris,
0:37:37 > 0:37:43which may explain its earlier attraction to a bohemian crowd of artists and free-thinkers.
0:37:45 > 0:37:52At the turn of the 20th century, they were joined by another group, pioneers in a brand new field.
0:37:52 > 0:37:57They invented something so fundamental that we use it all the time while making Coast.
0:37:57 > 0:37:59In fact, we used it just now,
0:37:59 > 0:38:00and now,
0:38:00 > 0:38:02and now.
0:38:07 > 0:38:11These pioneers were Britain's early film-makers
0:38:11 > 0:38:17and they helped create the modern movie, because they invented, among other things, the close-up.
0:38:20 > 0:38:26In the late 1890's, when Hollywood was little more than a citrus grove on the West Coast of America,
0:38:26 > 0:38:30the South Coast of England was a hotbed of movie making.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36Long hours of summer daylight made it ideal,
0:38:36 > 0:38:40but the very first films were pretty static by modern standards.
0:38:42 > 0:38:48Simple records of daily life, these early films were known as "animated photographs".
0:38:48 > 0:38:53They captured events as they unfolded in one continuous un-edited shot.
0:38:56 > 0:39:02But George Albert Smith, a Brighton showman turned film-maker, had some new ideas.
0:39:02 > 0:39:09Frustrated by these single-shot films, he was about to transform this infant medium.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15Film historian Frank Gray is showing me how.
0:39:15 > 0:39:19What Smith did was to begin to imagine you could build a film sequence.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23Instead of conceiving of a single shot like the frame, you could move
0:39:23 > 0:39:28from that and you could look at what I'm seeing now of you,
0:39:28 > 0:39:32how you're looking at me, and also too the sense in which the sea,
0:39:32 > 0:39:36the sky, the shingle and then the kind of wider space in which we're in.
0:39:36 > 0:39:43'Just as we move OUR camera to get different shots, Smith did the same thing,
0:39:43 > 0:39:46'except he was the first to think of it.'
0:39:46 > 0:39:51And in this early film he shows another first, the close-up.
0:39:53 > 0:39:56So does this approach enable the director to trick the audience?
0:39:56 > 0:39:59All the time, film's always about trickery.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03You're working with a set of shots which create an illusion of a
0:40:03 > 0:40:08continuity of time and space, and I think that's why we love the medium.
0:40:08 > 0:40:10THUNDER RUMBLES
0:40:10 > 0:40:15Strange to think THIS is where the modern movie was created, around 1900.
0:40:17 > 0:40:19It can't have been without its problems.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21Moving the big hand-cranked cameras.
0:40:23 > 0:40:28Working with actors instead of just recording life as it happened.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31To understand the challenges they faced, we're going to try making
0:40:31 > 0:40:37a movie using only the equipment available to those early film-makers.
0:40:38 > 0:40:42Our drama will re-create this production from 1920, an adaptation
0:40:42 > 0:40:50of Thomas Hardy's The Mayor Of Casterbridge, made by the ambitions sounding Progress Film Company.
0:40:50 > 0:40:54They were based in Shoreham, a few miles up the coast from Brighton.
0:40:54 > 0:40:58We're also using one of their original locations, an old fort.
0:41:00 > 0:41:03Shoreham was a rather heady place in the 1920s.
0:41:03 > 0:41:07Glamorous London actors spent their summers here,
0:41:07 > 0:41:11a ready-made cast of luvvies for the Progress Film Company.
0:41:14 > 0:41:17'But what was it like to make films here?
0:41:17 > 0:41:22'Gillian Gregg's grandfather actually ran the Progress Studios and her mum was a child star.'
0:41:22 > 0:41:26This is my mum. And what age is she there?
0:41:26 > 0:41:29Only 16, she acted under the name of Mavis Claire.
0:41:29 > 0:41:34And it's The Mayor Of Casterbridge, so this is a still taken during the film.
0:41:34 > 0:41:37So if this scene here is being shot in a studio,
0:41:37 > 0:41:40where were those buildings in relation to where we are?
0:41:40 > 0:41:44Well, the best evidence I have of that is in this other album.
0:41:44 > 0:41:50This was the glasshouse where they did a lot of the filming because of all the natural light.
0:41:50 > 0:41:54The glasshouse was just down there on the shingle,
0:41:54 > 0:41:58and the studio rest and the bungalows were all along the shingle along here.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01So there was a Hollywood by the sea.
0:42:01 > 0:42:04Yes, I think it was. What did your mum talk about when you got her onto the subject?
0:42:04 > 0:42:08She talked a little bit about The Mayor Of Casterbridge, and they
0:42:08 > 0:42:12went over to Dorchester to meet Thomas Hardy who watched the set.
0:42:12 > 0:42:14Really?! Thomas Hardy?
0:42:14 > 0:42:16Yes, Thomas Hardy. Fantastic.
0:42:16 > 0:42:20I wonder how he felt seeing his book being adapted.
0:42:20 > 0:42:25I think he was pretty pleased with it, and about my mum he said, "Mavis Claire, she is my Elizabeth."
0:42:25 > 0:42:28Really, so he named-checked her personally.
0:42:28 > 0:42:30Yes.
0:42:31 > 0:42:35Most of the Progress Company's features have been lost, but luckily
0:42:35 > 0:42:38The Mayor Of Casterbridge has survived.
0:42:39 > 0:42:44And as an added bonus, I've got Gillian's mum's copy
0:42:44 > 0:42:48of the original script, complete with director's notes, look at that!
0:42:48 > 0:42:53Thomas Hardy handled this script, and now I've got it.
0:42:55 > 0:43:00But for our film-making experiment, the first thing I need to get to grips with is the camera.
0:43:00 > 0:43:03This looks more like a bit of furniture than a camera, John.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05Yes, this goes back to the 1920s.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08Early cinema enthusiast John Adderley is going to help me.
0:43:08 > 0:43:14It's the gauge that Edison patented. For lining up, what you do is you pull it around to that position
0:43:14 > 0:43:20and you can see there's a viewing system, and you can actually look through the lens.
0:43:20 > 0:43:21And it's upside down.
0:43:21 > 0:43:26Yes, yes. And you can see that's all the gubbins in here.
0:43:28 > 0:43:30So gorgeous, though, look at it.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35We've assembled our cast of local actors,
0:43:35 > 0:43:39but there'll be no relaxing in the Winnebago for them.
0:43:39 > 0:43:45Just as in 1920 we've no electric lights, so we must make most of the daylight.
0:43:45 > 0:43:48All we need now is a director.
0:43:48 > 0:43:50That would be me.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54OK, everyone, silence please.
0:43:54 > 0:43:56We're going to do a scene now.
0:43:56 > 0:43:58First positions, please.
0:43:58 > 0:44:00Mr Henchard, sitting down, thank you.
0:44:01 > 0:44:02That's good, keep going.
0:44:02 > 0:44:08'I have to get the cranking just right, a constant 16 frames a second,
0:44:08 > 0:44:11'otherwise the action will appear jerky, unlike the original.'
0:44:14 > 0:44:17We're burning daylight here you know.
0:44:19 > 0:44:20And, action!
0:44:22 > 0:44:27And if you're wondering about the bizarre make-up, so am I.
0:44:27 > 0:44:33The film was autochromatic, it wasn't sensitive to reds, it's more sensitive to blue, so blue comes out
0:44:33 > 0:44:39quite light, and red goes absolutely black, so that's why we put the blue on the lips, and around the eyes.
0:44:39 > 0:44:43So, in an autochromatic film, they were look a good deal more lifelike and realistic
0:44:43 > 0:44:45than they do to naked eye?
0:44:45 > 0:44:47Yes, yes, hopefully.
0:44:47 > 0:44:48We're moving the camera.
0:44:49 > 0:44:51Haven't got all day.
0:44:51 > 0:44:57'It's time to put George Smiths' ideas into action, and get a new angle on the scene.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00'It's an involved process setting up a new shot.
0:45:00 > 0:45:05'I can see why mainly early film-makers didn't move the camera at all.'
0:45:07 > 0:45:10A bit faster. And, action!
0:45:10 > 0:45:14'But on the plus side, as this is a silent movie, I don't have to be.'
0:45:14 > 0:45:17Susie, step into the gap...
0:45:17 > 0:45:19And cut!
0:45:19 > 0:45:22That was good, yeah, yeah, cos you let it...
0:45:22 > 0:45:24That's the first time you've said that.
0:45:24 > 0:45:28SIGHS: There we go, wrapped my first movie, great fun.
0:45:28 > 0:45:34The most satisfying part was that it was hand-cranked, you got a real sense of the moment being recorded.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37It's definitely the future for me.
0:45:38 > 0:45:42We've rushed the film to the labs for developing, and at the end of
0:45:42 > 0:45:47the day, like the early pioneers, we nervously check our rushes.
0:45:48 > 0:45:52Only the whole of Brighton seems to have been invited along.
0:45:58 > 0:46:00Look at that close-up, look!
0:46:07 > 0:46:12The cranking seems to have worked as the action is smooth, the light is good too,
0:46:12 > 0:46:17and that autochromatic film has made the blue make-up look almost natural.
0:46:20 > 0:46:21ALL: Ah!
0:46:21 > 0:46:2680 years on from the original, it's still a crowd puller.
0:46:52 > 0:46:54Selsey Bill.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58Its shallows and riptides have made it treacherous for shipping for centuries.
0:46:58 > 0:47:04As a result, much of the history of this headland lies at the bottom of the sea.
0:47:07 > 0:47:12But these divers from Southsea Sub-Aqua Club aren't hunting for shipwrecks...
0:47:14 > 0:47:17..they're in search of shells,
0:47:17 > 0:47:19World War II shells.
0:47:21 > 0:47:26And the tanks that never got to fire them.
0:47:26 > 0:47:31There are two tanks and two bulldozers from D-Day,
0:47:31 > 0:47:34they didn't actually make it across to the Normandy Beaches, and
0:47:34 > 0:47:38we're trying to find out the types of tanks they are,
0:47:38 > 0:47:41and also how they ended up lying on the seabed.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48There are around 20 officially protected wreck sites along this stretch of coast.
0:47:48 > 0:47:52Much of the initial measuring and recording is done by amateur divers.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57Most recreational divers, they go down to dive
0:47:57 > 0:47:58to just have a pleasant time,
0:47:58 > 0:48:01to enjoy themselves, and hopefully come back safe and sound.
0:48:01 > 0:48:04These divers have actually challenged themselves
0:48:04 > 0:48:07to do a job of work, and they're doing it really well.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12And finally they find those shells.
0:48:12 > 0:48:19Intended for D-Day, they've been at the bottom of the sea for more than 60 years.
0:48:19 > 0:48:26Just coming up should be the metal round plates which says that they're Centaurs.
0:48:26 > 0:48:29There it is, there you go, definitely.
0:48:29 > 0:48:31So there's your identification.
0:48:31 > 0:48:37These Centaur tanks are pinpointed, recorded, and put on the map of the British coastline,
0:48:37 > 0:48:41to become part of our maritime history.
0:48:48 > 0:48:50Approaching Portsmouth,
0:48:50 > 0:48:56looking out over the Solent, a reminder of the start of our journey,
0:48:56 > 0:48:58sea forts,
0:48:58 > 0:49:01and hovercraft.
0:49:01 > 0:49:09The UK's only regular passenger service flies just above the sea out to the Isle of Wight.
0:49:09 > 0:49:16On this restless coastline everything's on the move, even the land.
0:49:16 > 0:49:22The Isle of Wight seems so permanent and immoveable, and yet it's on a monumental journey.
0:49:22 > 0:49:27Nick Crane's crossing the Solent, in search of where the island's been,
0:49:27 > 0:49:30and what's happened to it along the way.
0:49:35 > 0:49:38Sailing around the Isle of Wight you get some sense of its size.
0:49:38 > 0:49:46At 23 miles across its England's largest island.
0:49:46 > 0:49:48It seems like a lost world.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51In fact, it's a time capsule containing
0:49:51 > 0:49:55clues to a journey the whole of the British Isles has been on.
0:49:56 > 0:50:03On a lost world you'd hope to find dinosaurs, and you wouldn't be disappointed.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05This is a dinosaur footprint,
0:50:05 > 0:50:08the beach is absolutely littered with them,
0:50:08 > 0:50:12they've fallen out of the cliff above me as the sea has eroded.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14It belongs to a four or five-tonne Iguanodon,
0:50:14 > 0:50:17and look you can see one articulated toe here, here's another one,
0:50:17 > 0:50:20the third toe has been snapped off, and here is the heel.
0:50:20 > 0:50:26These massive beasts tramp along this beach 130 million years ago,
0:50:26 > 0:50:29except that back then this land wasn't even here.
0:50:31 > 0:50:36And that's because the Isle of Wight has been on the move for ages, geological ages.
0:50:38 > 0:50:42And the evidence of its epic voyage is everywhere.
0:50:43 > 0:50:46This chalk is created from the remains of plankton which died
0:50:46 > 0:50:5278 million years ago in a very warm, very clear tropical sea.
0:50:55 > 0:51:02There certainly aren't tropical seas here now, so where was the Isle of Wight when the chalk was laid down?
0:51:02 > 0:51:06Well, a lot further south, and at the time it wasn't
0:51:06 > 0:51:08even an island.
0:51:09 > 0:51:1410,000 years ago it was part of the landmass of Britain.
0:51:14 > 0:51:20Step back 10,000 more and Britain was attached to the European mainland,
0:51:20 > 0:51:26but rewind a colossal 135 million years to the time of the dinosaurs
0:51:26 > 0:51:33when the continents were a lot closer together, Europe was 1,000 miles further south than now.
0:51:35 > 0:51:39The Isle of Wight has seen a lot of action on its journey north, and not
0:51:39 > 0:51:43surprisingly has picked up a few knocks along the way.
0:51:43 > 0:51:49You can see the bruises from those knocks in the landscape.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52Overlooking the multi-coloured cliffs at Alum Bay,
0:51:52 > 0:51:56geologist Alasdair Bruce is helping me get my eye in.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00What we're looking at it the huge fold in the earth's crust.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04So if I elaborate by showing you this, that is essentially what we're looking at end-on.
0:52:04 > 0:52:08So this bit of the book is that peninsula sticking out in the sea?
0:52:08 > 0:52:10Yeah, those horizontal beds in the distance,
0:52:10 > 0:52:15and as you come further into the bay and into the Alum Sands themselves, they've now been tilted vertically.
0:52:15 > 0:52:20And that's the vertical part. That's the centre. This bit here?
0:52:20 > 0:52:23Indeed. OK. So what caused the fault?
0:52:23 > 0:52:26Well, millions of years ago when Africa thundered into Europe to create the Alps.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29These are the plates covering the surface of the planet
0:52:29 > 0:52:31that shift around. Constantly moving.
0:52:31 > 0:52:33And as a result of that collision
0:52:33 > 0:52:36we all had to make way, geologically speaking, and our contribution in
0:52:36 > 0:52:42Britain was this large fold, and this essentially forms the backbone of the Isle of Wight.
0:52:42 > 0:52:44Switzerland got the Alps, the Isle of Wight got the fold.
0:52:46 > 0:52:53The chalk ridge running the length of the Isle of Wight, is in fact the last ripple of a colossal shockwave,
0:52:53 > 0:53:00the result of a continental car crash between Africa and Europe 65 million years ago.
0:53:00 > 0:53:06But even that didn't dislodge the Isle of Wight from the mainland of Britain,
0:53:06 > 0:53:11and you can still see the evidence of where it was connected, at The Needles.
0:53:13 > 0:53:17Alasdair, can you describe exactly what we'd have seen 10,000 years ago
0:53:17 > 0:53:20if we'd looked from here towards what is now Dorset?
0:53:20 > 0:53:25We'd have seen a line of white chalk cliffs, and behind that you'd have had sort of like cliff
0:53:25 > 0:53:30tops covered in primitive grasses, and as you walked away from that sort of coastal environment,
0:53:30 > 0:53:35you'd have walked into ancient woodlands and slowly down to shores of the estuary of the River Solent.
0:53:35 > 0:53:37Sounds like a paradise. Indeed.
0:53:39 > 0:53:42So how did that woodland paradise become an island?
0:53:44 > 0:53:4820,000 years ago, Northern Europe and most of Britain
0:53:48 > 0:53:52was covered with a layer of glacial ice over a mile thick.
0:53:52 > 0:53:57It started to warm up, the ice melted and water levels rose,
0:53:57 > 0:54:02but that wasn't the only thing that helped create the Isle of Wight.
0:54:03 > 0:54:08The other process is best illustrated by two men with an inflatable bed.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13OK, this is a primitive United Kingdom, we're going to have Scotland at one end,
0:54:13 > 0:54:16and the Isle of Wight on the other end. This is the North?
0:54:16 > 0:54:18It is, and it's very malleable as you can see.
0:54:18 > 0:54:23So you're saying that the surface of the planet is this bendy in places? Yes, geologically speaking.
0:54:23 > 0:54:2720,000 years ago, Scotland was covered with two kilometres thick of ice,
0:54:27 > 0:54:33an enormous amount of weight, and I want you to be that weight, so in you go. I'm Scotland, covered in ice.
0:54:33 > 0:54:35If I bring in the Isle of Wight, put that in place,
0:54:35 > 0:54:39then we wind the clock forward to about 12,000 years ago,
0:54:39 > 0:54:43the glaciers are melting away from Scotland really rapidly, so off you get.
0:54:43 > 0:54:48This drops, sinks down a bit, that is called "isostatic rebound".
0:54:48 > 0:54:53But what's happened to the Isle of Wight is, not only have we got sea levels attacking it,
0:54:53 > 0:54:56sea levels rise from all the glacial water going into the sea,
0:54:56 > 0:55:01but you've got the isostatic rebound happening, so the sea is now going to come churning around this particular
0:55:01 > 0:55:04lump of rock and turn it into the Isle of Wight that we see today.
0:55:04 > 0:55:06So it's being hit by a double-whammy.
0:55:07 > 0:55:11It was this combination of rising sea levels and the sinking landscape
0:55:11 > 0:55:16that would eventually separate the Isle of Wight from the mainland.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19The sea was rising, biting away at this chalk cliff,
0:55:19 > 0:55:22and at the same time the River Solent doing its thing at the back,
0:55:22 > 0:55:26so there would come a point where it would become a very narrow knife-edge blade
0:55:26 > 0:55:31going out across the sea, and then finally one stormy night it was breached, and the sea
0:55:31 > 0:55:35basically flooded into this area, and got rid of what was the River Solent.
0:55:38 > 0:55:44It took a few thousand years before the Isle of Wight was totally cut off as we see it today,
0:55:44 > 0:55:50but that's a blink of the eye compared to its multi-million year trek,
0:55:50 > 0:55:55and this restless traveller is still moving, still evolving,
0:55:55 > 0:55:59part of the epic journey that the whole of the British Isles is on.
0:56:06 > 0:56:12'At the end of MY journey I'm also off out to The Needles.
0:56:12 > 0:56:17'It's not great conditions for studying rocks, but it is good for my passion.
0:56:17 > 0:56:22'This is after all the sort of weather lighthouses were made for,
0:56:22 > 0:56:25'and I enjoy a good lighthouse, me!'
0:56:25 > 0:56:29So I couldn't resist a visit to this one, on The Needles,
0:56:29 > 0:56:32especially when I found out they're about to clean the lens.
0:56:38 > 0:56:43Everything about a lighthouse reminds us that we are connected to other shores.
0:56:45 > 0:56:52As we come to this leg of our journey, I'm struck by how much we have reached out across the water.
0:56:52 > 0:56:55From flying the Channel in hovercrafts,
0:56:55 > 0:57:00to the ideas of Brighton's film-makers that travelled around the globe.
0:57:00 > 0:57:05We're surrounded by water, but we're not cut off by it.
0:57:05 > 0:57:12Even the specialist lens used in lighthouses is an invention from across the Channel from France.
0:57:12 > 0:57:16How often does the lens get cleaned, then? Just once a year.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19It's going to take about that long.
0:57:19 > 0:57:22I'd hate to be responsible for a smear.
0:57:26 > 0:57:29This really does feel like the edge of Britain,
0:57:29 > 0:57:35but of course the light from here continues on, travelling far beyond our shores and actually
0:57:35 > 0:57:39crossing the beam of the Gatteville lighthouse on the French coast.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41Even the light wants to bridge the gap.
0:57:41 > 0:57:45It kind of makes you want to reach out yourself and meet the neighbours.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd