0:00:12 > 0:00:16Southwest Britain, where the Welsh and Cornish coastlines
0:00:16 > 0:00:19form the mouth of a huge natural funnel
0:00:19 > 0:00:22which traps a vast body of water.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28As the Atlantic Ocean behind me surges along this coastline, it
0:00:28 > 0:00:33gets squeezed towards the point over there where England and Wales meet.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36In English, that's the Severn Estuary.
0:00:36 > 0:00:41In Welsh, it's Mor Havren, the Severn Sea.
0:00:41 > 0:00:46"The Severn Sea" - now that's a name that makes you want to explore!
0:00:46 > 0:00:51On my expedition to the Severn Sea and beyond I'm joined by some
0:00:51 > 0:00:54familiar faces, and a brand-new addition to the team.
0:00:54 > 0:01:02Champion surfer Renee Godfrey swims with seals and explores the unspoilt marine habitats of Lundy.
0:01:02 > 0:01:07The water here is running wild, as nature intended.
0:01:07 > 0:01:14Mark Horton discovers how painting a simple line on the side of ships has helped save countless lives.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16Fantastic!
0:01:16 > 0:01:22Nick Crane gets the hang of climbing on Exmoor's treacherous sea cliffs.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25I'm clinging on to everything I can, I tell you.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28And Hermione Cockburn visits an enchanted castle by the
0:01:28 > 0:01:33sea where a millionaire media mogul let his imagination run wild.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36This is not something he would get away with today.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40This is Coast.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09Crossing from the north coast of France, we're back on home turf.
0:02:09 > 0:02:11Our journey continues,
0:02:11 > 0:02:16heading for Porthcawl, starting at Botallack, near Lands End.
0:02:17 > 0:02:23The jagged edge of Cornwall jabs defiantly into the Atlantic.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27Only the most durable rock can resist that ocean's pounding.
0:02:27 > 0:02:32This tough coastline doesn't give up its treasures easily.
0:02:32 > 0:02:38But from the earliest times, men have been drawn here to pit themselves against the granite.
0:02:39 > 0:02:45Hidden inside the rock is a magical ingredient that brought the world to the Cornish coast.
0:02:45 > 0:02:51They came in search of a rare metal with remarkable properties - tin!
0:02:53 > 0:02:58The relics of tin mining can be seen along the north coast of Cornwall.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02The engine houses and their chimneys may be derelict,
0:03:02 > 0:03:08but these ruins are reminders of an industry that connects us directly to the ancient world,
0:03:08 > 0:03:12thanks to a humble household object.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15How about this? A tin.
0:03:15 > 0:03:20Nowadays though, you'd probably call it a can, made of aluminium or steel.
0:03:20 > 0:03:28But the originals started out in the 1800s, and were made of iron, iron coated with a thin layer of tin.
0:03:28 > 0:03:32Tin doesn't rust. It's one of its many magical properties.
0:03:32 > 0:03:38And food kept in rust-free tin cans remained edible for ages.
0:03:38 > 0:03:44But ages and ages ago, tin was at the cutting edge of a much bigger revolution.
0:03:47 > 0:03:51Mix tin with copper and you get bronze.
0:03:51 > 0:03:58The birth of the Bronze Age, some 3,500 years ago, owed a lot to the tin of the Cornish coast.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02'Archaeologist Adam Sharpe has studied ancient bronze tools.'
0:04:02 > 0:04:03An axe head.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06This is sort of the staple working tool of the bronze age.
0:04:06 > 0:04:11Virtually every piece of bronze that you find in Western Europe
0:04:11 > 0:04:12has got Cornish tin in it.
0:04:12 > 0:04:18Once people the world over realise that tin is to be had here,
0:04:18 > 0:04:20- Cornwall becomes pivotal. - Absolutely.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23In terms of distribution on the Earth's surface,
0:04:23 > 0:04:27tin is very rare indeed even in terms of sort of western Europe.
0:04:27 > 0:04:32There's a bit in Iberia in Spain, there's a little bit on Sardinia,
0:04:32 > 0:04:35but almost all of it is in Cornwall and West Devon.
0:04:35 > 0:04:41And it means that the people who controlled that resource traded all over Western Europe.
0:04:41 > 0:04:46Thousands of years ago, long and perilous journeys were being made to this coast.
0:04:46 > 0:04:51As the Bronze Age boomed in Europe, they needed Cornish tin.
0:04:51 > 0:04:57The tin trade wasn't just with near neighbours across the Severn Sea but with the wider world.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01Tin was travelling as far away as Ancient Greece and the Middle East.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06Bronze Age traders took great risks navigating
0:05:06 > 0:05:10this treacherous coastline, but the rewards were worth it.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15Copper tool, it blunts very easily, it's too bendy.
0:05:15 > 0:05:19Adding just the right amount of tin, 10-11% of tin, makes it hard, makes
0:05:19 > 0:05:22it tough, it's sharpenable, it can be polished.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26For what, in the main is bronze being used to make?
0:05:26 > 0:05:30Utilitarian tools, axes and knives and chisels and things like that.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33Enormous range of jewellery and weapons, and
0:05:33 > 0:05:40it's the making of swords, which is, absolutely typifies the later part of the Bronze Age.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44So in a way, that puts Cornwall at the centre of an international arms trade!
0:05:44 > 0:05:46I'm afraid so!
0:05:46 > 0:05:54Throughout the Bronze Age, ancient armies relied on the Cornish coast for the raw materials of battle.
0:05:54 > 0:05:55Hiya, Neil.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58'To see why, I'm meeting Neil Burridge, who still
0:05:58 > 0:06:01'practises the age-old art of forging bronze weapons.'
0:06:01 > 0:06:04Got the fire going, just starting to warm up.
0:06:04 > 0:06:11As the temperature rises, Neil prepares a mould made of stone so we can cast our own bronze sword.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13So that's it.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16Oh, I'm so excited.
0:06:16 > 0:06:23Inside the fire is a crucible containing the two metals that together form bronze.
0:06:23 > 0:06:3090% copper will make our sword flexible, 10% tin will make it hard with a cutting edge.
0:06:30 > 0:06:35Heated to 1,200 degrees Celsius, we're ready to pour.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39- That's good.- Wow.
0:06:45 > 0:06:47Wow, even that is a beautiful thing.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51Look at the colour of it.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57- My first sword!- I'm just going to take the clamps off it now.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01If we try to move it too quickly it'll snap.
0:07:01 > 0:07:06And if we leave it too long in the mould it gets stuck in the mould and it won't come out.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09So, a bit like Excalibur, really.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12- It sure is.- Give it a
0:07:12 > 0:07:17little wiggle. I can feel it so you should be able to draw it out very slowly, but don't drop it.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27Wow, look at that.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34That's how you draw a sword from a stone!
0:07:37 > 0:07:39A short distance up the coast,
0:07:39 > 0:07:45Tintagel Castle, long associated with the legendary King Arthur.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49Arthur and Merlin may be a magical myth...
0:07:50 > 0:07:56..but just 35 miles across the water is a real magic kingdom, Lundy Island.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01This jewel on the edge of the Severn Sea is one of the most
0:08:01 > 0:08:06precious wildlife sites in Britain, now owned by the National Trust.
0:08:06 > 0:08:12North Atlantic storms batter little Lundy, it takes a special breed to survive.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17These hardy ponies were introduced by the island's previous owner.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19So were the Soay sheep.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22But the real lure of Lundy is beyond the cliffs.
0:08:22 > 0:08:29Some claim the surrounding waters are the wildest, most diverse habitat anywhere on our coast.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33Champion surfer, diver, and Coast first-timer Renee Godfrey
0:08:33 > 0:08:40is a native of the Severn Sea but has never ventured out to Lundy, until now.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44I've surfed all along the Devon coastline and I know the Welsh
0:08:44 > 0:08:45coast like the back of my hand.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49And Lundy's always just been there, mysteriously on the horizon,
0:08:49 > 0:08:53and now I'm finally going to get the chance to explore.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59I'm really looking forward to swimming with the grey seals
0:08:59 > 0:09:02and getting a closer look at their unique underwater habitat.
0:09:03 > 0:09:09What makes the waters around Lundy so special is that they're completely protected.
0:09:09 > 0:09:16Lundy is England's first and only marine nature reserve, so the water here is running wild,
0:09:16 > 0:09:19as nature intended.
0:09:19 > 0:09:20Hi, Keith, how are you?
0:09:20 > 0:09:24- I'm well, welcome to your first dive on Lundy.- Thank you very much.
0:09:24 > 0:09:30I'm going to give you my kit. Marine biologist, Keith Hiscock, has been diving off Lundy since the 1960s.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34Recently the experience has become even more spectacular.
0:09:34 > 0:09:40In 2003, Lundy became Britain's first statutory no-take zone.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44That means it's now completely undisturbed by fishermen.
0:09:44 > 0:09:49I'm eager to see how nature gets on left to its own devices.
0:09:55 > 0:10:00The first thing you notice is the plant life, like a garden gone wild.
0:10:00 > 0:10:07In deeper waters there are wonderful corals that you might expect to see only in much warmer climes.
0:10:10 > 0:10:15I'm hoping Keith can show me some of Lundy's hidden gems.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18Now look at these trumpet anemones.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22Lundy is one of the few places in Great Britain where they occur.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26They look so delicate and as the water moves past them,
0:10:26 > 0:10:30look like they're clapping their hands with their tentacles.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33They're mostly a bag of water with stinging cells.
0:10:33 > 0:10:41The trumpet anemones actually have photosynthetic algae in the tissue just like tropical corals, so they
0:10:41 > 0:10:45only occur in shallow water where there's enough light for the algae to thrive.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51This anemone wouldn't look out of place in the warmer Mediterranean waters.
0:10:51 > 0:10:56That's the magic of Lundy, it's full of surprises.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01Beautiful snakelock anemones.
0:11:01 > 0:11:07They're very beautiful but they're also very dangerous to any animals that stumble into them.
0:11:07 > 0:11:12Because again they've got stinging cells which paralyse the prey
0:11:12 > 0:11:19and so any clumsy shrimp or crab that clutches the tentacles is dead meat.
0:11:19 > 0:11:24Lundy's lobsters, though, are armour-plated against
0:11:24 > 0:11:25such dangers.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28Since the no-take zone was established, there are more
0:11:28 > 0:11:32of them here than before, and they're much bigger.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35But what I really want to see in this underwater treasure trove is
0:11:35 > 0:11:40a tiny gem that's rare in British waters and all too easy to miss.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47Here we are, I've got scarlet and gold star corals here.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52Wow, they're so small, they're like little hidden jewels, aren't they?
0:11:52 > 0:11:59Yes, that's a very good way to put it, hidden jewels, because we've had to look quite hard
0:11:59 > 0:12:03for these and you do have to know what sort of habitat they occur in.
0:12:06 > 0:12:12These seas are absolutely bursting with life,
0:12:12 > 0:12:15completely untainted by man.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19The shores of Lundy are nourished by
0:12:19 > 0:12:22balmy currents from the Gulf Stream.
0:12:22 > 0:12:29Not only do warm-water corals find a home here, all sorts of plant and animal life flourish.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33It's a rich source of food and an ideal environment for larger sea mammals.
0:12:33 > 0:12:38Island warden Nicola Saunders is taking me to see Lundy's amazing grey seals.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42Look, there's some on that rock over there.
0:12:42 > 0:12:48They lead a truly wild life. Out here I've got to play by their rules.
0:12:48 > 0:12:49They're wild, so you've got to be
0:12:49 > 0:12:53careful and treat them with respect but generally as long as
0:12:53 > 0:12:55you're fairly passive, don't chase after them,
0:12:55 > 0:12:57then they're just inquisitive and they
0:12:57 > 0:13:00want to see what you're up to in their territory.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02Great, let's get in.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35They're so big and clumsy and cumbersome when they're lying on the rocks.
0:13:35 > 0:13:41And the minute they get into the water they're so agile and
0:13:41 > 0:13:46so quick and they swim up to you, look you right in the eyes, and try and gauge whether they
0:13:46 > 0:13:51like you or not, and then just swim away like that, so fast, amazing!
0:13:51 > 0:13:53That was incredible.
0:13:56 > 0:14:00Lundy more than lives up to its promise.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03It's a rich and precious haven for marine life.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07A coastline where nature really runs wild.
0:14:09 > 0:14:14Lundy's once remote paradise has been opened up to the public.
0:14:14 > 0:14:19Day trippers travel to and fro aboard the MS Oldenburg.
0:14:19 > 0:14:26Her route takes us back to the Devon coast, to a resort town with a difference.
0:14:29 > 0:14:35200 years ago, the seaside holiday we take for granted was still being invented.
0:14:35 > 0:14:42In places like Ilfracombe they faced some formidable challenges, not least just getting to the beach.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46High cliffs stand all around the sheltered coves.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50So in the 1820s they looked across the Severn Sea for a solution.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54They brought in the real experts to break through the cliffs,
0:14:54 > 0:14:57miners from South Wales.
0:14:57 > 0:15:02I'm going to follow in the footsteps of those miners to explore how the
0:15:02 > 0:15:05Victorians learnt to love to be beside the sea.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08My guide is outdoor swimmer Kate Rew.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11Now, I'm amazed at this. This seems like an awful lot of trouble to go
0:15:11 > 0:15:15to for a swim, to actually dig a tunnel through a rock!
0:15:15 > 0:15:18It's amazing what people will do to get to a nice beach.
0:15:18 > 0:15:23Look at that, that's where it's been cut. That's maybe where they've drilled for blasting.
0:15:23 > 0:15:25All so that they could get to a beach for a swim.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28Some of us are very desperate to get into the water.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35Capitalising on the newfangled fashion for taking a dip, the Ilfracombe Sea Bathing Company's
0:15:35 > 0:15:42Welsh miners dug four tunnels through solid rock, wide enough to take a horse and carriage.
0:15:42 > 0:15:47They swam in from bathing machines, they were called, wooden huts on
0:15:47 > 0:15:51wheels that would be horse drawn all the way through these tunnels.
0:15:51 > 0:15:57And three foot into the water, where the ladies would elegantly step out.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00Bathing machines were portable changing rooms
0:16:00 > 0:16:05for preserving a lady's modesty in this novel environment.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10Once in the water, the novice bathers had to learn how to behave.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14The whole experience was stage managed.
0:16:14 > 0:16:19At Ilfracombe, they held back the rough seas by fencing off tidal pools.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22Walls were built to hold in calm water.
0:16:24 > 0:16:28Early bathers still needed some encouragement, and with the prospect
0:16:28 > 0:16:32of a swim here myself, I know how they felt.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36Looking forward to your dip?
0:16:36 > 0:16:38Let's talk about that later.
0:16:38 > 0:16:43Well, I've got an album here that I'd like to show you of someone who was here
0:16:43 > 0:16:48at all times during Victorian times to encourage people, people like you, to go swimming.
0:16:48 > 0:16:50He's not the kind of figure I expected.
0:16:50 > 0:16:55This is Professor Harry Parker, who was quite a figure around here.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59- He certainly was, that's quite a figure!- With his top hat and his comedy nose,
0:16:59 > 0:17:03and he is one of England's greatest natatorial artistes.
0:17:03 > 0:17:09- Easy for you to say.- Absolutely, and he would teach any good people on the beach diving and fancy swimming.
0:17:09 > 0:17:13Tricks like lighting a cigar while swimming, drinking a glass of champagne.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17This kind of comedy action showed how happy people could be in the water.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19Was it a family affair?
0:17:19 > 0:17:21Very much not, actually, even though the Victorians
0:17:21 > 0:17:25were very family orientated, the beaches were strictly segregated.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29So we're sitting here on, this is the men's beach, so men only.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33The women would be taken through the headland to the other side and
0:17:33 > 0:17:37a bugler would sit on the rocks in between and if any man dared swim out the area
0:17:37 > 0:17:42- enough to actually catch sight of the women, then a horn would be blown loudly.- Wow!
0:17:42 > 0:17:47They would be ejected, there were newspaper reports saying that, you know, if the men were named that had
0:17:47 > 0:17:51committed this crime, then they would be thrown out of civilised society. It was very strict.
0:17:51 > 0:17:57Not only were they confined to separate beaches, there was a strict dress code too.
0:17:57 > 0:18:01And quite a double standard for men and women.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04The Victorian lady had to be very properly dressed when she
0:18:04 > 0:18:09went into the water, and these are the kinds of things that they wore.
0:18:09 > 0:18:15- Very nice.- So you needed a good pair of pantaloons, below the knee obviously, to preserve her modesty.
0:18:15 > 0:18:21And a kind of dress or smock over the top, and these were apparently sometimes weighed down with lead
0:18:21 > 0:18:23pellets around the hem to stop them floating up.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26Lead is what you want on a swimming costume in the open sea!
0:18:26 > 0:18:28Half a pound of lead shot.
0:18:28 > 0:18:33- It would be like swimming in a sort of a hessian sack, I think, by the time it's wet.- And what about me?
0:18:33 > 0:18:36- What do I get?- You delightfully get to swim in the buff!
0:18:36 > 0:18:42Oh, come on! I wanted a duffle coat, wellington boots and a hat.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44She's not joking.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48Away from the ladies, hidden behind the headland on their own beach,
0:18:48 > 0:18:51those Victorian gents were a lot less buttoned up than you might imagine.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54It wasn't uncommon for the men to swim in the nude,
0:18:54 > 0:18:58even if the women on the beach next door were covered up.
0:18:59 > 0:19:04Swimming in the buff? I thought Victorian gentlemen had more decorum.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07Where's Queen Victoria when you need her? That's what I want to know.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14The tidal pool is still used today.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17The water is calmer and warmer than the sea around it.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20It's still a bit chilly all the same.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25- Watch out, you might get arrested. - I can definitely hear a bugler!
0:19:33 > 0:19:37The Welsh miners who crossed the sea to open up the beaches of Ilfracombe
0:19:37 > 0:19:41were followed by waves of tourists on day trips between England and Wales.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46In the late 19th and early 20th century,
0:19:46 > 0:19:50pleasure boats criss-crossed the Severn Sea.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54The motor vessel Balmoral is a relic of a time when
0:19:54 > 0:20:00foreign travel was, for some, a booze cruise between the resorts of South Wales and North Devon.
0:20:02 > 0:20:08By the 1960s, exotic locations overseas made the pleasure steamers look dated and the
0:20:08 > 0:20:13opening of the Severn Bridge meant the sea was no longer the quickest route between England and Wales.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22Travelling along this coast, though, has always been a struggle.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26This is where Exmoor meets the Severn Sea.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29These imposing sea cliffs posed another challenge
0:20:29 > 0:20:32to Victorian engineers opening up this coast for tourists.
0:20:32 > 0:20:38In 1890, Lynmouth, by the sea, was linked with Lynton, up the hill,
0:20:38 > 0:20:42by a water-powered funicular railway that's still going strong.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48But not everyone wants to take the short cut.
0:20:48 > 0:20:55Nick Crane is meeting some pioneers who were determined to tackle these cliffs the hard way.
0:20:57 > 0:21:02It's 1953 and the world's highest mountain has been conquered
0:21:02 > 0:21:05in a breathtaking 29,000 ft ascent.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08The achievement prompted one mountaineer who'd missed out on the
0:21:08 > 0:21:13Everest adventure to plan a conquest of his own. Not up, but along.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16And it was a lot more than 29,000 ft.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22In his younger days, Clement Archer had been working in India when Everest was conquered.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26It's thought that he'd secretly hoped to join that expedition.
0:21:26 > 0:21:31Instead, Archer pioneered a new concept here on the Exmoor coast.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35Nowadays we might call it coasteering, a 14-mile climb along
0:21:35 > 0:21:41sea cliffs sandwiched perilously between pounding sea and sky.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44The purists know this route as the Exmoor Traverse.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48It runs from Foreland Point to Combe Martin,
0:21:48 > 0:21:51nearly three times longer than the ascent of Everest.
0:21:51 > 0:21:57And this route wasn't completed until 25 years after Everest.
0:21:58 > 0:22:06In 1978, Terry Cheek and a team of three young police cadets finally conquered the Exmoor Traverse.
0:22:06 > 0:22:08It took them four days and nights.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11Their achievement has not been matched since.
0:22:11 > 0:22:1630 years later, Terry and two of his team are back at the Exmoor Traverse.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20Ah, now what is going on there?
0:22:20 > 0:22:24You've got no rope shift, you're creeping around under an overhang above the water,
0:22:24 > 0:22:26wearing what look like soggy jeans.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29Yeah, and of course it was flares back 30 years ago.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31You did this in flared jeans?
0:22:33 > 0:22:35Do you remember this part of it, Trevor?
0:22:35 > 0:22:38Yeah, and talking about the clothing, the boots were made of
0:22:38 > 0:22:40pressed cardboard with a rubber sole.
0:22:40 > 0:22:45They were very cheap and not very flexible to begin with.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48Course, they get saturated with water and it's almost like
0:22:48 > 0:22:52wearing papier-mache while rock climbing. So it's a real challenge.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54If you don't get it right, you're cut off.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57And that may, without getting dramatic about it, mean drowning.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00What they call risk assessment, I don't remember us
0:23:00 > 0:23:02talking about those words back then.
0:23:02 > 0:23:04I'm not sure there was a risk assessment.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07Absolutely not, otherwise we wouldn't have done it!
0:23:07 > 0:23:12Terry was already an experienced climber in 1978.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15He's in his sixties now and still loves these cliffs.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21He's challenged me to take on a section of this daunting traverse.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23The Exmoor Everest.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25- The Exmoor Everest.- Shall we go down? - Yes, certainly.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32Doesn't sound like a walk in the park.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36Below, below.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40I just kicked a rock down which is not good when you've got somebody below.
0:23:43 > 0:23:49Terry, the nature of this route in rock-climbing terms is pretty bizarre really, it seems to me.
0:23:49 > 0:23:56Because I associate climbing with going up mountains, not going horizontally along, sideways.
0:23:56 > 0:24:00The climbing is much the same. I mean, you really set your own rules.
0:24:00 > 0:24:05We set a rule of not entering the water and not climbing out onto the grass line above the rock.
0:24:05 > 0:24:10It's probably one of the harder spots
0:24:11 > 0:24:16because we're only about three feet above the high water mark now.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20So, I mean, only a couple of hours ago the waves were bashing at the bottom of this, weren't they?
0:24:20 > 0:24:24Just below my feet, yes.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26This is a bit of a tricky move, isn't it?
0:24:27 > 0:24:29It's quite difficult.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33That's it, cling your hands underneath that spike.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35I'm clinging on to everything I can!
0:24:35 > 0:24:37Look down at your feet, you'll be OK there.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39- Under here it's all wet and slimy. - Yes.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42It's covered in sea water.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45Jam the hands up in that crack. I know it's wet and it's painful.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49Very tricky. Now what?
0:24:49 > 0:24:54Some of the finger holes are really pretty minute, aren't they?
0:24:56 > 0:24:58It's not quite as easy as...
0:24:58 > 0:25:01sitting at a desk
0:25:01 > 0:25:04working on my laptop, it has to be said.
0:25:07 > 0:25:12If you get caught by a rising tide or a storm surge in the Bristol Channel, what do you do?
0:25:12 > 0:25:17Once you've been driven above the high water mark, then you are in unknown territory.
0:25:17 > 0:25:23You could be in absolute hell about 70 feet up on probably rock and vegetation.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29We had to resort to climbing at night, waiting on
0:25:29 > 0:25:32the cliffs for the tide to
0:25:32 > 0:25:37recede to get past a difficult section, and it was freezing.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40We also discovered what barnacles could do to your hands.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44You know, it's like very rough, coarse sand paper. Very painful.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47I've only done a section of this climb, and as
0:25:47 > 0:25:51we haul ourselves up the cliff I'm feeling pretty exhilarated.
0:25:51 > 0:25:57I've got nothing but admiration for the achievement of Terry and his team three decades ago.
0:25:57 > 0:26:04I'm left too with a new respect for the awesome cliffs and the fierce tides of the Severn Sea.
0:26:06 > 0:26:11Eventually, the imposing cliffs of north Devon give up their grip on the coast.
0:26:18 > 0:26:24At Bridgwater Bay at low tide, the shallow water becomes a vast expanse of mud.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28On the edge of the bay, in Stolford, there's a fishing family who
0:26:28 > 0:26:32for generations have earned their living from the mud.
0:26:34 > 0:26:36To come home with a decent catch,
0:26:36 > 0:26:42they rely on centuries-old skills, and ancient tools, unique to the men of the mudflats.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47My name is Brendan Sellick and I've been a mudhorse fisherman
0:26:47 > 0:26:51all my working life ever since I was a nipper.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54I used the mudhorse right up till well in me 70s.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58My son Adrian is now doing it.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01He's pushing the mudhorse because it's a very physical job.
0:27:01 > 0:27:03You've got to be fit out there in the soft mud.
0:27:03 > 0:27:10If you tried to go and do that without a mudhorse, some days you'd just disappear.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15It gets in your bones and when I first started there was
0:27:15 > 0:27:18quite a number of families in this estuary doing it.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20Not only around here but all around the Bridgwater bay.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24It's just now got that there's just us left.
0:27:24 > 0:27:30We come out in all weathers, even if it's snowing, sleet, hailstones.
0:27:30 > 0:27:32We do get worn down like any other job, I suppose,
0:27:32 > 0:27:37but this job you've got to come out otherwise your catch gets spoilt.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41On a day like today, I know it's a bit drizzly, but it's quite pleasant.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45You feel the breeze and then you know the tide's turned.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48Should be turning now in a minute.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52You work with the tide, not the tide works with you.
0:27:52 > 0:27:56You don't really know what you're going to catch with it, but that's what I like about it.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59Brown shrimp, that's what we're mainly after.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04When I've got a few little dover sole, slip soles.
0:28:04 > 0:28:06One or two prawns.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10We've caught all sorts out here. I've had a little lobster, a seahorse.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14And what I do is give them a sieve,
0:28:15 > 0:28:17let all the baby shrimps go
0:28:20 > 0:28:22and pick the rubbish out I don't want.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30That's my favourite, the little slip soles.
0:28:30 > 0:28:32Rolled in flour, fried in butter.
0:28:32 > 0:28:34Beautiful.
0:28:36 > 0:28:38There's a nice skate.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53Two hours ago, that was swimming.
0:28:53 > 0:28:55How fresher do you want than that?
0:29:06 > 0:29:11Onwards to one of Britain's great maritime cities.
0:29:11 > 0:29:18For centuries, Bristol has thrived as a hub for international trade, the metropolis of the Severn Sea.
0:29:19 > 0:29:26In 1497, John Cabot connected Bristol to the New World by sailing to Newfoundland.
0:29:28 > 0:29:35A replica of Cabot's little ship sits next to the mighty SS Great Britain, the first ocean-going ship
0:29:35 > 0:29:39with an iron hull, brainchild of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45Bristol's famous sons are remembered by their historic ships.
0:29:45 > 0:29:49But Mark Horton's on the trail of the city's unsung hero,
0:29:49 > 0:29:54whose memorial is written on the side of modern ships worldwide.
0:29:56 > 0:30:01Bristol's port carries 12 million tonnes of cargo every year.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05Hundreds of steel containers are moved every day.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08So they have to run a tight ship here.
0:30:10 > 0:30:17To check that a vessel is not overloaded, every ship has to have a series of lines painted on the side.
0:30:17 > 0:30:25They're known as the Plimsoll line, and over the last 140 years they've saved thousands of lives.
0:30:25 > 0:30:32If the water comes over the Plimsoll line when the ship's being loaded, it's too heavy and might sink.
0:30:32 > 0:30:37This warning mark was the brainwave of Bristol born Samuel Plimsoll.
0:30:37 > 0:30:43Remarkably, 140 years ago, a simple brush-stroke made Plimsoll the most
0:30:43 > 0:30:47popular man in Britain, and nearly brought down the government.
0:30:47 > 0:30:53But aside from a modest plaque, there's very little in Bristol to mark his extraordinary story.
0:30:53 > 0:30:58In the 19th century, there was a national scandal in our ports.
0:30:58 > 0:31:03Greedy owners deliberately overloaded ships to increase profits,
0:31:03 > 0:31:08or claim on the insurance when their overburdened ships sank.
0:31:08 > 0:31:12Samuel Plimsoll realised a line must be drawn.
0:31:12 > 0:31:16Now, though, the nation has all but forgotten his struggle.
0:31:16 > 0:31:24Writer Nicolette Jones is as passionate as I am about restoring Plimsoll's reputation.
0:31:24 > 0:31:28How big a problem was overloaded ships in the 19th century?
0:31:28 > 0:31:30Bigger than you'd think.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33The reports suggest that 500 sailors a year
0:31:33 > 0:31:35lost their lives unnecessarily.
0:31:35 > 0:31:42Something like 856 ships went down within 10 miles of the British coast in 1871.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45In conditions that were no worse than a strong breeze.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49Which suggests that there was quite a prevalence of avarice and neglect.
0:31:49 > 0:31:54I've got an example here, the London Times, March 1st 1866,
0:31:54 > 0:31:58and it tells of the loss of the London.
0:31:58 > 0:32:04"The ship is sinking, no hope of being saved, God bless my poor orphans."
0:32:04 > 0:32:06Was this common?
0:32:06 > 0:32:08It was one of the sad events that triggered
0:32:08 > 0:32:11Plimsoll's campaign because the London, a ship that was
0:32:11 > 0:32:17travelling to Australia, was partly a passenger ship and also carried a great deal of cargo.
0:32:17 > 0:32:19A lot of the witnesses who saw it leave said it
0:32:19 > 0:32:23was conspicuously overloaded, it was too low in the water.
0:32:23 > 0:32:27And 270 people drowned, so it struck a chord with the public.
0:32:27 > 0:32:33So in many ways the London was sort of the Titanic of an earlier generation?
0:32:33 > 0:32:36Yes, it was, and the inquiry afterwards did suggest that perhaps
0:32:36 > 0:32:41a load line in the future would avoid this kind of catastrophe.
0:32:41 > 0:32:47Plimsoll campaigned to get his safe load line painted on ships.
0:32:47 > 0:32:52But knowing exactly where to draw the line isn't as simple as it seems.
0:32:52 > 0:32:54It has a lot to do with salt.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58Scientist John Polatch has offered to give us a demonstration using
0:32:58 > 0:33:03two tanks of water, one salty and one fresh.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06And we have some eggs here and we can show with the eggs that
0:33:06 > 0:33:09things float differently in fresh water than they do in salt water.
0:33:09 > 0:33:12So, if we pop an egg into fresh water, it sinks.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15and salt water.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18It floats! So we've got a couple of little boats there.
0:33:18 > 0:33:22We've got some weights that we can attach to these little tin boats.
0:33:22 > 0:33:24I'm going to come down and look at this close up.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27We also have some cargo to load into them.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30You've got to be careful it's balanced.
0:33:30 > 0:33:33Now, that's looking good.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36So that's now floating pretty well.
0:33:37 > 0:33:43So shall we now take this one out and put it in fresh water?
0:33:43 > 0:33:45It should sink.
0:33:45 > 0:33:51And that is precisely why the ship can sail with heavier cargo in
0:33:51 > 0:33:54sea water, because it has more buoyancy in the water.
0:33:54 > 0:34:00So, ships are marked with different lines for salt and freshwater,
0:34:00 > 0:34:02but climate plays a part too.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07Ship's pilot Paul Chase needs to know one line from another.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10We have this for the summer.
0:34:10 > 0:34:12The regions of the world have been split up.
0:34:12 > 0:34:15This is our summer load line.
0:34:15 > 0:34:19If we go to tropical, T for Tropical.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23Better weather, therefore we can load the ship deeper.
0:34:23 > 0:34:28If we go to weather that's worse, we refer to it as winter, we have to load it less.
0:34:28 > 0:34:31So it's temperature-dependent but salt-dependent as well.
0:34:31 > 0:34:33Yes, you're right.
0:34:33 > 0:34:40With so many lives at stake, you'd think painting a line on a ship wouldn't be controversial.
0:34:40 > 0:34:44But it took Plimsoll years of bitter struggle.
0:34:44 > 0:34:46There were too many vested interests.
0:34:46 > 0:34:51Plimsoll became an MP and found himself in a house full of ship-owning MPs
0:34:51 > 0:34:56who wanted to make as much profit as possible and who sabotaged his legislation at every stage.
0:34:56 > 0:34:59So there must have been immense parliamentary battles to achieve this
0:34:59 > 0:35:02and rather like the battles to abolish the slave trade.
0:35:02 > 0:35:07Yes, Plimsoll's story is very much a story about machinations in the corridors of power.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11It reached its climax when Plimsoll lost his temper.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15He called ship owners murderers and the MPs who colluded with them villains.
0:35:15 > 0:35:20He shook his fist at Disraeli. The most celebrated moment of his career.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24And it led to a huge national outcry which nearly ousted Disraeli from government and led
0:35:24 > 0:35:30to a hasty Merchant Shipping Bill which introduced the Plimsoll mark as we know it.
0:35:30 > 0:35:36Plimsoll's triumph over the greed of ship owners and the corruption of MPs
0:35:36 > 0:35:39made him a national hero to the Victorians.
0:35:39 > 0:35:44It's ironic that today he's perhaps better known
0:35:44 > 0:35:48for the shoes that were named after him.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52I'm wearing a pair of plimsolls, which are perfectly dry,
0:35:52 > 0:35:56providing the water doesn't rise above the rubber.
0:36:01 > 0:36:06We leave Bristol and head back out to sea, over Portbury and Avonmouth
0:36:06 > 0:36:12docks and up the estuary to Purton, on the banks of the Severn.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15I've come to the graveyard of the Severn Sea.
0:36:15 > 0:36:17The Purton Hulks.
0:36:17 > 0:36:23A collection of dead ships that lie sprawled for a mile and a half along the estuary.
0:36:24 > 0:36:29They were brought here to stop erosion by the strong currents.
0:36:29 > 0:36:34Holes were knocked into their hulls so that they silted up and stayed put.
0:36:34 > 0:36:39A lot of these vessels spent their working lives plying up and down the estuary.
0:36:39 > 0:36:43But now they're just an eerie reminder of a time not so very
0:36:43 > 0:36:47long ago when the only way to cross that stretch of water was by boat.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54Its Welsh name, Mor Havren, the Severn Sea, says it all.
0:36:54 > 0:36:59But now that sea has been tamed by two great bridges across the estuary.
0:37:01 > 0:37:07Look hard alongside the first Severn bridge and there's still evidence of the earlier crossing between England
0:37:07 > 0:37:12and Wales, the car ramp for the ferry, abandoned when the service stopped in 1966.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19Back in the '60s, this crossing saved a 50-mile trip round the estuary.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22But you still had to wait for the ferry.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30Long enough for one famous passenger to get caught on camera.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33In May 1966, Bob Dylan had just performed in Bristol
0:37:33 > 0:37:39on his Judas tour, so-called because he'd gone electric.
0:37:39 > 0:37:44Dylan had been booed by some fans, and was facing an uncertain reception in Cardiff.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48The times were changing for the ferry too.
0:37:48 > 0:37:53In the background, the first Severn Bridge just weeks from completion.
0:37:53 > 0:37:57The day it opened, not everyone was cheering.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04Enoch Williams, the ferry owner, lost his livelihood.
0:38:04 > 0:38:11His passion for the old ferry still runs in the family, and Enoch is not forgotten.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15My name is Richard Jones, I'm the eldest grandson of Enoch Williams,
0:38:15 > 0:38:20who was the founder of the last incarnation of the Beachley-Aust ferry.
0:38:20 > 0:38:24This boat on which we're standing at the moment is the Severn Princess.
0:38:24 > 0:38:30This crossing was very important because it was the only crossing available for car traffic.
0:38:30 > 0:38:33It was a lifeline to people in their daily business.
0:38:33 > 0:38:35Many people courted on the ferries.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39Girls in England meeting gentlemen from Wales and vice versa.
0:38:39 > 0:38:45Everybody knew the bridge was coming, because they could see the bridge being built.
0:38:45 > 0:38:49I think Enoch still harboured thoughts of continuing but it became obvious
0:38:49 > 0:38:52the bridge really was going to be a very different proposition
0:38:52 > 0:38:58and so he decided that it would not be economical and there was really no point in fighting against it.
0:38:58 > 0:39:03He tried his best to make sure that the company obtained as much compensation as possible.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06How much do I think I'm going to get is a sore point.
0:39:06 > 0:39:10What we are worth and what we are going to get are two different things.
0:39:10 > 0:39:14- Would you say you would get, what, 20 or 30,000?- Oh, no, that isn't the price of a boat.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17- A lot more than that then? 100,000? - And a bit more.
0:39:17 > 0:39:22The last day that the service carried cars was September 8th 1966,
0:39:22 > 0:39:24the day that the first Severn Bridge opened.
0:39:24 > 0:39:31To commemorate the first crossing of the Severn Bridge, I have great pleasure in unveiling this plaque.
0:39:33 > 0:39:37It was a joyous day in some ways because everybody likes a party,
0:39:37 > 0:39:42but it was also very sad to see my grandfather's lifelong work come to an end.
0:39:42 > 0:39:49I would not wish to be considered a traitor, but at age 17, the bridge opened up huge new possibilities.
0:39:49 > 0:39:51So a great feeling of regret, but at the same time
0:39:51 > 0:39:55that was tempered somewhat by a feeling of new freedom.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03Moving west, The deep water ports of Newport and Cardiff
0:40:03 > 0:40:07were built to trade far beyond the confines of the Severn Sea.
0:40:08 > 0:40:15Exports of coal helped finance the building of resorts like Penarth for miners on day trips close to home.
0:40:18 > 0:40:23But the appeal of the South Wales coast stretches far beyond these shores.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26At St Donat's, it's not hard to see the attraction.
0:40:26 > 0:40:30A grand coastline, and a grand castle.
0:40:33 > 0:40:38It boasts 800 years of history, but by the start of the 20th century
0:40:38 > 0:40:43countless careless owners had left St Donat's in need of a little love.
0:40:43 > 0:40:50In 1925, it was about to attract a wealthy overseas admirer.
0:40:50 > 0:40:54Hermione Cockburn's exploring how one of the world's richest men
0:40:54 > 0:40:57transformed this castle into a pleasure palace.
0:41:00 > 0:41:05This is an edition of Country Life from the early 1900s.
0:41:05 > 0:41:09And alongside articles of bird watching and trout fishing,
0:41:09 > 0:41:13there's an illustrated feature about a Welsh castle down on its luck.
0:41:13 > 0:41:17But St Donat's would soon capture one reader's heart.
0:41:17 > 0:41:22The magazine attracted the attention of one of America's great newspaper
0:41:22 > 0:41:25magnates, William Randolph Hearst.
0:41:25 > 0:41:31He was one of the most powerful men in the USA, calling the shots both in Washington and Hollywood.
0:41:31 > 0:41:36His media empire could make and break politicians and movie stars alike.
0:41:36 > 0:41:41Hearst, famously the inspiration for the film Citizen Kane,
0:41:41 > 0:41:45had a passion for excess and the money to indulge it.
0:41:45 > 0:41:47He'd already built one extravagant castle,
0:41:47 > 0:41:51on the Californian coast at San Simeon, complete with its own zoo.
0:41:51 > 0:41:56But why, in 1925, was he hatching a new scheme
0:41:56 > 0:41:59thousands of miles away on the Welsh coast?
0:42:01 > 0:42:07Without ever coming to Wales, he cabled his staff in London, "Buy St Donat's Castle".
0:42:07 > 0:42:12And so he acquired this modest pile in need of a little work.
0:42:16 > 0:42:20It was another three years before he set foot here, but when he did,
0:42:20 > 0:42:22he turned the place upside down.
0:42:22 > 0:42:27Before Hearst, St Donat's boasted just three bathrooms.
0:42:27 > 0:42:29He fitted another 32!
0:42:29 > 0:42:33Like all good fixer-uppers, he installed central heating,
0:42:33 > 0:42:36as well as connecting the castle to the water mains.
0:42:36 > 0:42:40And he added not one but three tennis courts, and a heated pool.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45With the essentials fixed, Hearst really started to show off,
0:42:45 > 0:42:49and decided the Welsh history of the house wasn't quite enough.
0:42:49 > 0:42:54To discover the full extent of Hearst's fantasies, I'm meeting Thea Osborne,
0:42:54 > 0:42:58who's studied the man and his dream castle.
0:42:58 > 0:42:59Look at this room.
0:42:59 > 0:43:03- Yeah, it's amazing, isn't it? - It is fantastic.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05And look at the ceiling.
0:43:05 > 0:43:07It's absolutely beautiful.
0:43:07 > 0:43:09What's the history of this part of the castle?
0:43:09 > 0:43:12Hearst actually built this room himself, originally
0:43:12 > 0:43:16this was the outer wall and he added on these three extra walls.
0:43:16 > 0:43:20And he imported the ceiling from the Bradenstoke Priory in Wiltshire.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23A 14th-century ceiling, he brought it and built the room around it.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26Unbelievable. You would never guess to look at it.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29It looks so well integrated.
0:43:29 > 0:43:32The ceiling and the windows both come from Bradenstoke Priory.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35But what kind of reaction did he get?
0:43:35 > 0:43:38This is not something he would get away with today.
0:43:38 > 0:43:40It caused controversy at the time.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44Various Members of Parliament called it vandalism of historic buildings.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47But he had enough money and he was quite determined about what he
0:43:47 > 0:43:50wanted to do and create the right entertaining space for himself.
0:43:50 > 0:43:55- Entertaining space? Was this his party room?- Yeah,
0:43:55 > 0:43:59he'd sort of have dance and dinners here for all of his various famous guests.
0:43:59 > 0:44:02And what kind of people would have come?
0:44:02 > 0:44:07Well, he had members of the Hollywood elite including Charlie Chaplin and the Warner brothers and
0:44:07 > 0:44:13then people from the UK like Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George, the Mountbattens came and stayed.
0:44:13 > 0:44:18What about the fireplaces? There's a beautiful one at that end of the room, very ornate one there.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21These, presumably, aren't original either?
0:44:21 > 0:44:25No, he had a thing for fireplaces, brought in 18 in total and put them all over the castle.
0:44:25 > 0:44:27These ones are both from France.
0:44:27 > 0:44:30He plucked them from various areas within France and the UK and
0:44:30 > 0:44:36- would even cut them down in size so they fitted in the room just in the way he wanted.- Quite extraordinary.
0:44:36 > 0:44:38Yeah, it's amazing.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41So what else did Hearst get away with?
0:44:41 > 0:44:45Gothic screens, ancient coats of arms,
0:44:45 > 0:44:50and the gilded ceiling from St Botolph's, a celebrated parish church
0:44:50 > 0:44:57in Boston, Lincolnshire, all found their way here to satisfy Hearst's insatiable appetite for history.
0:45:00 > 0:45:07In truth, Hearst wasn't just a lover of history, he was a lover, a man with a mistress.
0:45:07 > 0:45:13So a little Welsh hideaway a few thousand miles from home suddenly starts to make sense.
0:45:13 > 0:45:19Her name was Marion Davies, a Hollywood actress.
0:45:19 > 0:45:23Marion and Hearst loved to entertain the rich and famous, and she was the
0:45:23 > 0:45:28reason for this private little scheme, well away from prying eyes.
0:45:29 > 0:45:34But for all the money he lavished on this castle, Hearst spent just a few months here.
0:45:34 > 0:45:40He lost control of his empire in the Great Depression, and with it most of his wealth.
0:45:40 > 0:45:47Hearst and Davies, the American lovers, may have abandoned this Welsh castle,
0:45:47 > 0:45:49but the world has moved in.
0:45:51 > 0:45:56St Donat's is now home to Atlantic College, a private boarding school.
0:45:56 > 0:46:02350 sixth-formers from 75 countries live and study here.
0:46:03 > 0:46:08The students are encouraged to make the most of their coastal home.
0:46:08 > 0:46:13They even run their own in-shore life boat with the RNLI.
0:46:18 > 0:46:22After a hard day on the water, they're probably grateful for
0:46:22 > 0:46:27the bathrooms and central heating put in by William Randolph Hearst.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36Atlantic College attracts students from all over the world,
0:46:36 > 0:46:42but just a little further down the coast, near the vast Merthyr Mawr dune system, one group of visitors
0:46:42 > 0:46:47came a lot less willingly, and were a little too eager to leave.
0:46:47 > 0:46:53The wide open spaces here are a good place to roam free, or to hide.
0:46:53 > 0:46:58Around 60 years ago, a deadly serious game of hide and seek was about to begin.
0:46:59 > 0:47:05- It's the morning of Sunday 11th March 1945. - BELLS RING
0:47:05 > 0:47:11Listen carefully and you might hear the sound of bells carried on the wind across this coast.
0:47:11 > 0:47:17That ringing sound isn't a comforting call to prayer, it's a grim call to action.
0:47:17 > 0:47:22At the height of the war, church bells would only have been rung to signal invasion.
0:47:22 > 0:47:27But now, in 1945, they were sounded in a desperate attempt to warn that
0:47:27 > 0:47:33there might be Germans at loose in these dunes, not trying to invade, but to escape.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37I've got a recording from the day the story broke.
0:47:37 > 0:47:43'Here is the midnight news for today, Sunday 11th March, and this is Alvar Lidell reading it.
0:47:43 > 0:47:48'70 Germans escaped from a prisoner of war camp at Bridgend, Glamorgan,
0:47:48 > 0:47:51'last night and it is thought that the men may have found cover in the Welsh
0:47:51 > 0:47:58'hills and sparsely-populated valleys or in the caves and sand dunes on the coast a few miles from the camp.'
0:48:00 > 0:48:04So were there German prisoners roaming these sand dunes?
0:48:04 > 0:48:07Soon, a massive manhunt was under way.
0:48:07 > 0:48:11It seemed every available man and woman had been mobilised.
0:48:11 > 0:48:16Even the local girl guides wanted in on the act.
0:48:16 > 0:48:18The fear was real enough.
0:48:18 > 0:48:25By 1945, around 400,000 German prisoners of war were being held in camps up and down Britain.
0:48:25 > 0:48:31NEWSREADER: 'At one of the camps in Britain, ex-German sailors saved from sunken U-boats and ex-German airmen
0:48:31 > 0:48:37'whose planes were brought down are learning to start life afresh in more peaceful jobs.'
0:48:37 > 0:48:43One of those camps was Island Farm, near Bridgend, close to these dunes.
0:48:48 > 0:48:56By March 1945, there were around 1,600 German prisoners of war in the camp here.
0:48:56 > 0:49:00Most of it's been demolished now, in fact, that hut is all that remains.
0:49:00 > 0:49:05But that is Hut Number 9, the hut from which the escape attempt originated.
0:49:05 > 0:49:11One of the main problems for prisoners of war is boredom.
0:49:11 > 0:49:15So the men here spent time drawing sketches of naked women on the walls.
0:49:15 > 0:49:18But they weren't drawing just to pass the time.
0:49:18 > 0:49:22The racy paintings were there to distract the guards from a daring
0:49:22 > 0:49:26plan that was being hatched right under their noses.
0:49:26 > 0:49:29The prisoners were busy making other drawings too.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33On this handkerchief they sketched a plan of the Welsh and Irish coasts.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38And on a shirt tail, they drew a map of the English Channel.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44But the heavy work was happening silently, underground.
0:49:44 > 0:49:50This is an old tin can. It was used for digging and for removing spoil.
0:49:50 > 0:49:56This is a rough, extremely primitive digging tool made from two lengths of pipe tied together with string
0:49:56 > 0:50:01or wire, just enough to give them purchase to cut at the clay.
0:50:01 > 0:50:09This is a block of the clay, the actual clay that that was removed during the digging of the tunnel.
0:50:09 > 0:50:13In a laborious process they had to compact it into balls, carry it in their pockets
0:50:13 > 0:50:18and then hide the whole heap inside that building so that the guards would be none the wiser.
0:50:18 > 0:50:23But of course, after all the elaborate planning, the back-breaking work and the danger
0:50:23 > 0:50:29of it all, there came the night when there was nothing left to do but put it all into action.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40So how many Germans hid here in the dunes?
0:50:42 > 0:50:44Writer and historian Herbert Williams
0:50:44 > 0:50:47knows the full story of the "great escape" from Hut 9.
0:50:49 > 0:50:5467 escaped, they dug a 60-foot tunnel under the barbed wire
0:50:54 > 0:50:56into a field beyond.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59Were there high-ranking officers? Rank and file?
0:50:59 > 0:51:04They were young officers, they were determined really not to submit to being prisoners of war.
0:51:04 > 0:51:09Some of them were really devoted Nazis, they belonged to the Hitler Youth.
0:51:09 > 0:51:15This was a big, big story when it broke, all these Germans loose in South Wales.
0:51:15 > 0:51:21So Fleet Street gobbled up the story for the big news all over Britain.
0:51:21 > 0:51:25- So there's the notorious tunnel. - Yes, there it is, yes.
0:51:25 > 0:51:29Some were captured quickly, close to the prison camp,
0:51:29 > 0:51:32others were determined to make it across the sea to freedom.
0:51:32 > 0:51:35Four of the Germans planned to get to an airfield.
0:51:35 > 0:51:39They found a car, but it wouldn't start, so they
0:51:39 > 0:51:43persuaded prison guards, coming home from the pub, to give them a hand.
0:51:45 > 0:51:51These Germans, they said to them, "We are Norwegians, engineers, on important war work.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54"We must get to Croydon but our car won't start.
0:51:54 > 0:51:56"Could you help us push-start it?"
0:51:56 > 0:52:01And they said, "Yes, of course, boy, of course we'll get you, get in the car, we'll push-start."
0:52:01 > 0:52:04So they push-started the car and off they went.
0:52:04 > 0:52:08- And how far did they get?- They got 130 miles to the outskirts of an
0:52:08 > 0:52:14airport and hid in the wood there and some farm workers found them in the edge of the wood and the game was up.
0:52:14 > 0:52:20But the furthest anyone got were a couple of escaped prisoners that went to Southampton.
0:52:22 > 0:52:26All of the Germans were recaptured before they could cross the Channel.
0:52:26 > 0:52:30The waters round our coastline, so long a barricade keeping the Nazis out,
0:52:30 > 0:52:35ultimately formed a stockade, holding them in.
0:52:37 > 0:52:40On this journey, I've been impressed how the people
0:52:40 > 0:52:45of this coast have reached out together across the Severn Sea.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49They've forged links overseas from the earliest times,
0:52:49 > 0:52:53like the early arms trade with warriors on distant shores.
0:52:53 > 0:53:00And co-operated closer to home, like the Welsh miners who cut tunnels through English rock at Ilfracombe.
0:53:00 > 0:53:06Steamers, ferries and bridges have transformed these two coastlines into one.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12Standing here on the Welsh shoreline,
0:53:12 > 0:53:18looking out across Mor Havren, the Severn Sea, it strikes me that the few miles of water between
0:53:18 > 0:53:25Wales and England have done just as much to unite these two nations as they have to separate them.