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This is exciting. I'm off on my hols. | 0:00:16 | 0:00:18 | |
I'm on a trip to the seaside which brings happy memories rolling back. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:25 | |
Here comes my time machine, | 0:00:31 | 0:00:33 | |
and it's on time. | 0:00:33 | 0:00:35 | |
We've got a ticket to explore England's celebrated South Coast... | 0:00:36 | 0:00:42 | |
in style. | 0:00:42 | 0:00:44 | |
I'll be travelling along one of the world's most beautiful shorelines. | 0:00:48 | 0:00:52 | |
Generations of holiday-makers have adored this coast... | 0:00:52 | 0:00:57 | |
from Dorset, | 0:00:57 | 0:00:59 | |
through Devon | 0:00:59 | 0:01:02 | |
and into Cornwall, | 0:01:02 | 0:01:04 | |
ending where I can head west no more, at rugged Land's End. | 0:01:04 | 0:01:09 | |
And my coastal companions are close by. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:13 | |
Here it comes! | 0:01:13 | 0:01:15 | |
Nick runs an infamous tidal race. | 0:01:15 | 0:01:18 | |
Mark is naval gazing. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:25 | |
Above me is some 3,000 tonnes of modern fighting machine. | 0:01:25 | 0:01:30 | |
And Alice sniffs out the secrets of the seaside feel-good factor. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:37 | |
It works! | 0:01:37 | 0:01:38 | |
I'm so happy. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:40 | |
This is Coast, off to the seaside. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:44 | |
I'm heading along England's south- west coast to the tip of Cornwall. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:14 | |
My journey starts en route for Swanage. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:22 | |
You've got to love a steam train. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:26 | |
But the first time locos like these chuffed down the tracks, they caused consternation. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:33 | |
Now, we might only be travelling at 30 mph, | 0:02:37 | 0:02:39 | |
but when Queen Victoria took her first trip on a steam train, | 0:02:39 | 0:02:42 | |
she found the speed distressing. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
I've just got time to see how steam caused such a stir along our shore. | 0:02:47 | 0:02:51 | |
WHISTLE BLOWS | 0:02:53 | 0:02:54 | |
Tickets, please. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:56 | |
Christian Wolmar's an authority on the railway revolution. | 0:02:56 | 0:03:01 | |
There's undoubtedly something that steam trains add. It feels much more like actually going on holiday. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:09 | |
Absolutely. It's part of the experience, part of the fun. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:13 | |
Until the advent of the railway, if you lived more than | 0:03:16 | 0:03:19 | |
20 or 30 miles away from the coast, you probably never saw the sea. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:24 | |
But here we are - we've arrived, | 0:03:28 | 0:03:32 | |
following in the tracks of townies taking on a brave new world. | 0:03:32 | 0:03:36 | |
The arrival of these pioneering visitors had a dramatic effect on Swanage seafront. | 0:03:41 | 0:03:47 | |
So, Christian, before the railways connected the coast | 0:03:51 | 0:03:54 | |
to the rest of the country, what was here, what was in a town like this? | 0:03:54 | 0:03:58 | |
Well, frankly, not a lot. | 0:03:58 | 0:03:59 | |
Really, it was a place of just a few hundred people | 0:03:59 | 0:04:03 | |
who were left in peace most of the time. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:06 | |
So it was just like a working town that happened to be beside the sea. | 0:04:06 | 0:04:09 | |
Absolutely, just as with dozens of other places like this - | 0:04:09 | 0:04:13 | |
once the railway arrived, its peace was rather upset. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:17 | |
So the coast, as we think about it, the beach, the place for holidays | 0:04:17 | 0:04:22 | |
and weekends, this really was invented by and made by the railways. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:28 | |
It created a whole industry, you know, couple of hundred resorts in Britain | 0:04:28 | 0:04:32 | |
were created as a result of the railways. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:35 | |
And I'm going to see quite a few of them on this trip. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:37 | |
I'm heading down through Dorset, | 0:04:37 | 0:04:39 | |
through Devon and then into Cornwall, so it's kind of one of the meccas of beach holidays. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:46 | |
Absolutely, Torquay, Paignton, all those places, you'll see the same | 0:04:46 | 0:04:50 | |
pattern of development, the same houses built in the 19th century as a result of that. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:55 | |
And if it hadn't been for the railways, the steam engines, it would never have happened. | 0:04:55 | 0:04:59 | |
None of that would have happened at all. | 0:04:59 | 0:05:01 | |
Cheers! | 0:05:01 | 0:05:04 | |
Amazing, I've only been here 10 minutes - feel better already. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:08 | |
These days it's hard to imagine this coast without tourists. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:16 | |
Some 13 million visit England's south-west shore each year. | 0:05:16 | 0:05:22 | |
The attractions of Dorset are easy to see. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:33 | |
At Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door, the landscape frames a picture-perfect sea. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:40 | |
Calm waters on this coast pull in the crowds. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:45 | |
Its sheltered bay put Weymouth on the tourist map. | 0:05:45 | 0:05:49 | |
Weymouth's building boom started around 200 years ago, | 0:05:55 | 0:05:58 | |
when George III decreed that bathing here was "fit for a king" | 0:05:58 | 0:06:02 | |
and his subjects soon followed. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:05 | |
Swimmers and sailors can play in peaceful seas, provided they stay close to the shore. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:15 | |
But Nick isn't one to play it safe. | 0:06:18 | 0:06:21 | |
The rocky outcrop of Portland shelters the waters of Weymouth Bay. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:30 | |
But holidaymakers who stray too far from this haven | 0:06:32 | 0:06:37 | |
court disaster. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:38 | |
I'm venturing beyond the bay to brave some of the most dangerous waters in Britain. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:46 | |
Headlands are wild places. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:52 | |
Both wind and sea whip around them. | 0:06:52 | 0:06:54 | |
Strong currents in the English Channel accelerate | 0:06:57 | 0:07:02 | |
as they skirt the headland at Portland Bill. | 0:07:02 | 0:07:05 | |
It creates a treacherous tidal surge known as the Portland Race. | 0:07:05 | 0:07:11 | |
Skipper Alan Smith is expert at running the race. | 0:07:11 | 0:07:15 | |
What is the water doing as it's coming down here towards the tip of Portland Bill? | 0:07:15 | 0:07:19 | |
Well, what's happening, all the water from this big bay the other side is going down the channel | 0:07:19 | 0:07:25 | |
and it's being pushed out by Portland and compressed, | 0:07:25 | 0:07:27 | |
and so it's accelerated due to the fact that the island's sticking out and forcing all the water together. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:33 | |
How bad can it get, Alan? | 0:07:33 | 0:07:35 | |
It can get very, very dangerous. If it gets beyond rough | 0:07:35 | 0:07:38 | |
it can be quite life-threatening here. | 0:07:38 | 0:07:41 | |
'I may be in a powerful boat with an experienced skipper, but I hope my legs and my stomach are up to this.' | 0:07:43 | 0:07:50 | |
Alan's in the wheelhouse. He's about to cut the engine and we're going to get sucked into the Portland Race. | 0:07:51 | 0:07:57 | |
My heart's in my mouth, I don't mind admitting it. | 0:07:57 | 0:07:59 | |
As we come round the headland, the tide starts to pull us in. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:04 | |
Here it comes. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:05 | |
The boat is going all over the place like a cork. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
It's pretty scary. I've never seen anything like it in British waters. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:19 | |
We're now gripped by the tide race, and are being propelled westwards towards the Atlantic. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:28 | |
It's exhilarating but it's also a bit frightening. | 0:08:28 | 0:08:32 | |
'The tidal race is intensified by a submerged rock shelf sticking out for a mile beyond the headland.' | 0:08:34 | 0:08:41 | |
Here the depth suddenly decreases, and the waters racing around Portland | 0:08:41 | 0:08:47 | |
accelerate even more as the tide pushes over the shallow shelf. | 0:08:47 | 0:08:52 | |
Once over the obstruction, the Race hits slow-moving water, | 0:08:52 | 0:08:56 | |
a clash of currents that creates crunching waves. | 0:08:56 | 0:09:00 | |
Unfortunately, to get home there's little choice - | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
a long detour or head straight back through the Portland Race. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:12 | |
It's like the Cresta Run of the English Channel. | 0:09:12 | 0:09:15 | |
The irresistible tidal forces of the Channel chiselled this awe-inspiring 18-mile strip of shingle. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:34 | |
This is Chesil Beach, where you learn to cherish the pebble. | 0:09:41 | 0:09:47 | |
There's 180 billion of the blighters here, piled 45 feet high. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:53 | |
To tourists, it's a must-see - | 0:09:56 | 0:10:00 | |
to school kids, it's the answer to geography exam questions. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:04 | |
To me these pebbles are stepping-stones to what lies beyond. | 0:10:07 | 0:10:12 | |
Most people come for the beach, but trapped behind the shingle bank | 0:10:18 | 0:10:22 | |
is a lagoon that looks more like an inland sea. | 0:10:22 | 0:10:26 | |
This glistening gem is The Fleet - | 0:10:31 | 0:10:34 | |
a mixture of salt and fresh water that makes a rare and rich environment. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:39 | |
Around the 11th century, a monastery on the edge of The Fleet started farming the lake's wild birds. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:52 | |
Some thousand years later, and that swannery is the oldest survivor of its kind anywhere in the world. | 0:10:56 | 0:11:03 | |
I'm meeting the latest in a very long line of swan herds. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:12 | |
How long have the swans been here? | 0:11:14 | 0:11:16 | |
Well, possibly for a few thousand years, | 0:11:16 | 0:11:19 | |
but the earliest written record we have at the moment | 0:11:19 | 0:11:23 | |
dates back to the mid-1300s. | 0:11:23 | 0:11:25 | |
And what is it about this landscape that attracted them in the first place? | 0:11:25 | 0:11:29 | |
The habitat is great - although the lagoon is almost eight miles long, | 0:11:29 | 0:11:33 | |
it's very shallow, so they have no difficulty reaching eel grass, | 0:11:33 | 0:11:38 | |
their natural plant food in the mid-Fleet, and it can support an awful lot of swans. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:44 | |
The highest count in recent years is close to 1,400 | 0:11:45 | 0:11:49 | |
and that's a winter...wintering herd. We have quite a number of swans that will come from neighbouring counties, | 0:11:49 | 0:11:56 | |
particularly the Somerset Levels, and they come to use the food source here when food becomes depleted on rivers. | 0:11:56 | 0:12:04 | |
I assume that people wanted swans because they could eat them. | 0:12:04 | 0:12:07 | |
We know that Benedictine monks were really farming swans, | 0:12:07 | 0:12:12 | |
they were used for food and it was an important thing, yes. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:16 | |
These days you won't find swan on the menu. They're protected so it's illegal to kill them. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:24 | |
They're magnificent birds. I have to admire their loyalty. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
The parents do the absolute best for their young - they're beautiful, yes. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:35 | |
We don't eat them now, but we do feed them. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:40 | |
These days the swans put on a spectacular show for the tourists. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:45 | |
This coast is a roller coaster of ups and downs. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:54 | |
Vantage points rise up to bookend the beaches. | 0:12:54 | 0:12:57 | |
At over 600 feet, Golden Cap is the highest sea cliff on England's southern shore. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:05 | |
The peak towers over the town of Lyme Regis, giving great views over the harbour. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:16 | |
Steam was the engine of progress on this coast. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:30 | |
Brunel's wonderful railway | 0:13:30 | 0:13:32 | |
introduced tourists to the tranquil Torbay. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:35 | |
The bay's town of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham | 0:13:35 | 0:13:41 | |
were branded the English Riviera. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
The resort's reputation for glitz and glamour, British-style, became its selling point. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:51 | |
NEWSREEL: 'The call of the sea is irresistible to almost everyone.' | 0:13:51 | 0:13:55 | |
The railway started the rush, but by the late '50s, | 0:13:58 | 0:14:02 | |
steam was losing its pulling power, replaced by a new driving force. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:06 | |
On this bracing day, | 0:14:11 | 0:14:12 | |
Nick's come to see how road eclipsed rail. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:15 | |
I'm in holiday mode - no backpack, no boots, but I'm glad I brought the brolly. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:25 | |
'No summer holiday's complete without the joys of the British weather. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:31 | |
'So I'm very glad to be hitching a lift on a classic crowd pleaser, a welcome sight on a rainy day.' | 0:14:35 | 0:14:42 | |
-Hello, Nick. -Hi, Dave, what a magnificent coach. | 0:14:48 | 0:14:51 | |
Oh, thank you very much, a Yelloway coach, 1976. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:54 | |
It should be in a museum. | 0:14:54 | 0:14:57 | |
Well, come aboard, have a look around. | 0:14:57 | 0:14:59 | |
It IS a museum! | 0:15:00 | 0:15:01 | |
It is a museum, of course it is. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:03 | |
Dave Haddock's impressive collection harks back to the earliest days of motorised travel. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:11 | |
You've got stuff everywhere in here. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:14 | |
The very first coaches were steam-powered goods lorries, | 0:15:14 | 0:15:18 | |
converted at the weekends for the latest in passenger comfort. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:24 | |
-What were the seats made from? -Er, church pews. | 0:15:24 | 0:15:27 | |
You're kidding! | 0:15:27 | 0:15:29 | |
-No, no. -Hope they asked the vicar first. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:31 | |
Oh, well, yeah, I think the vicar was amongst them, actually. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:34 | |
There were no Health and Safety in those days. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:36 | |
So this is the beginning of mass tourism. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:38 | |
You have workers from the Pennine mill towns, | 0:15:38 | 0:15:41 | |
going off to the seaside at the weekend. | 0:15:41 | 0:15:43 | |
Yeah, competing with the railways. They were trying to take people off the railways. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:48 | |
Dave's personal collection is his tribute to the rise of one of the coach companies, Yelloway. | 0:15:48 | 0:15:55 | |
From their first Lancashire charabanc in 1910, | 0:15:56 | 0:15:59 | |
Yelloway grew into a national network transporting Northerners south to resorts like Torbay. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:06 | |
Glorious seaside holiday tours 1939. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:13 | |
This is a half cab. It's called the Yelloway 1940s. | 0:16:13 | 0:16:17 | |
-That's beautiful, isn't it? -Yeah. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:19 | |
And the colours of the coach really evoke the seaside, don't they, the yellow sand...? | 0:16:19 | 0:16:24 | |
-A real holiday livery on it, yes. -This was the passport to paradise. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:28 | |
Oh, yeah, of course it was, and when I was a young lad, I came on this type of coach, 1947. | 0:16:28 | 0:16:32 | |
It took 15 hours to get to Torquay from Rochdale, | 0:16:32 | 0:16:34 | |
and when we arrived at Leamington Road, | 0:16:34 | 0:16:36 | |
my mum said to me, the first words you said when you got off was, | 0:16:36 | 0:16:39 | |
"Are we at the other side of the world?" | 0:16:39 | 0:16:41 | |
-I thought we were, we'd come that far. -Would you take me for a spin? | 0:16:41 | 0:16:45 | |
Oh, yeah, course, definitely, let's go. | 0:16:45 | 0:16:47 | |
-It's got a very evocative engine sound. -Oh, yes, lovely, I love it. | 0:16:57 | 0:17:01 | |
-Reminds me of school trips. -Yeah. | 0:17:01 | 0:17:04 | |
I used to come every year with my mum and my dad, and my grandparents. | 0:17:04 | 0:17:08 | |
They used to spend a week every year in Torquay. | 0:17:08 | 0:17:11 | |
It was just the most beautiful place you could wish to come for when you was a child. | 0:17:11 | 0:17:15 | |
The thing that surprised me most, Nick, was we played out all day long, | 0:17:15 | 0:17:19 | |
and when I looked at my hands at the end of the day, they wasn't dirty, | 0:17:19 | 0:17:22 | |
yet if I'd have played out for an hour at home in the industrial North-west, my hands would be black. | 0:17:22 | 0:17:27 | |
So your grandparents came down here from the north, your parents, | 0:17:27 | 0:17:31 | |
you did and your children, so that's four generations. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:34 | |
That's right, Nick, and then... | 0:17:34 | 0:17:35 | |
I even spent my honeymoon here. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:37 | |
So you came on your honeymoon on a coach. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:40 | |
Oh, yeah, and the driver gave us the front seat, special front seat, | 0:17:40 | 0:17:43 | |
and the passengers had clubbed together and bought a bottle of champagne. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:47 | |
-Did they give you the back seat on the way home? -No! | 0:17:47 | 0:17:50 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:17:50 | 0:17:52 | |
At the edge of Devon lies the largest population centre on the south-west peninsula. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:10 | |
The city of Plymouth owes its existence to the Royal Navy. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:22 | |
They chose its muddy banks to build their dockyards to service the fleet at Devonport. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:29 | |
Today it's HMS Westminster's turn to call in for some tender loving care. | 0:18:34 | 0:18:41 | |
Getting the warship into the dry dock demands inch-perfect positioning. | 0:18:41 | 0:18:48 | |
Get it wrong, and, without the water, the keel could snap. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:52 | |
Mark's been granted privileged access to a state-of-the-art dockyard with a timeless feel. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:14 | |
Above me is some 3,000 tonnes of modern fighting machine. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:22 | |
'Frigates like Westminster are the workhorses of the Royal Navy. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:28 | |
'Her steel hull is in for a major maintenance and weapons upgrade. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:33 | |
'Fixing ships here harks back 300 years, | 0:19:35 | 0:19:39 | |
'and the tradition of woodworking still underpins the fleet. | 0:19:39 | 0:19:44 | |
'Commander Tim Hayley has to make sure the whole refit goes according to plan.' | 0:19:47 | 0:19:52 | |
-These wood blocks here - exactly the same as we'd have used 150 years ago. -They're just wooden blocks. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:57 | |
Hard wooden blocks with a softwood capping piece. | 0:19:57 | 0:20:01 | |
And why wood? Why not just concrete? | 0:20:01 | 0:20:04 | |
We need to have something that can absorb the weight without deforming too much. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:09 | |
Concrete would be too rigid, | 0:20:09 | 0:20:11 | |
and hardwood is just the best material for the job, because this ship is going to be here | 0:20:11 | 0:20:17 | |
for about 25 weeks. | 0:20:17 | 0:20:19 | |
And then how do you stop the ship from falling over? | 0:20:19 | 0:20:22 | |
To stop it flopping either way, we have these shores which support | 0:20:22 | 0:20:26 | |
-the ship as it comes down onto the blocks. -Still made of wood? | 0:20:26 | 0:20:30 | |
Absolutely, and they're large pieces of wood. They have to be specially cut from the centre of the tree. | 0:20:30 | 0:20:36 | |
So if you were to cut one of those in half, you would see the rings. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
Centre ring would be in the middle, and they'd work their way out. | 0:20:39 | 0:20:42 | |
I mean, isn't it just an incredible thought to think that, you know, in the same dock, Nelson's navy, | 0:20:42 | 0:20:49 | |
those great wooden-walled ships were docking in exactly the same way as the modern navy today? | 0:20:49 | 0:20:54 | |
Yes, more or less, although the ships today are obviously much, much bigger. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:59 | |
I mean, this is probably about 3,500 tonnes of steel on top of us. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:03 | |
Right, then let's move. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:06 | |
Devonport's modern expertise is built on historic foundations - | 0:21:10 | 0:21:14 | |
ones still upheld by wood. | 0:21:14 | 0:21:19 | |
This is the footprint of the very first dock. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:25 | |
In the 1690s, they built wooden warships here - why? | 0:21:25 | 0:21:32 | |
Because the Royal Navy needed to service the expanding British Empire. | 0:21:32 | 0:21:38 | |
And this is the oldest complete 18th century covered slip in any Royal dockyard. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:45 | |
With its timbers steeped in history, modern ships have long since bypassed this place. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:56 | |
Of all the naval remains in Britain, to me, this is my favourite. | 0:21:57 | 0:22:03 | |
In forgotten cathedrals of wood like this were built the ships of Nelson's navy. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:11 | |
This wooden roof is the same age as the victorious ships of Trafalgar. | 0:22:11 | 0:22:18 | |
The docks were covered to stop wooden warships rotting before they could be launched. | 0:22:18 | 0:22:23 | |
Devonport's heyday came in the '60s at the height of the Cold War. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:32 | |
Then, 24,000 locals where needed to keep the steel fleet afloat. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:38 | |
But surprisingly wood was still a key component. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:43 | |
Eric Wilcox signed up as an apprentice shipwright in 1963. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:51 | |
I started off with wood up here. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:53 | |
-Woodworking in a metal navy? -One of the first things we were taught | 0:22:53 | 0:22:57 | |
as an apprentice was how to put this shaft on this. | 0:22:57 | 0:23:00 | |
Well...this is... This is an adze. | 0:23:00 | 0:23:03 | |
I mean, this is straight out of medieval shipbuilding. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:06 | |
Yes, and still used today. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:08 | |
And what have we got here?! | 0:23:08 | 0:23:09 | |
They're not metal. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:12 | |
No, all wood. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:15 | |
-Amazing, isn't it? -Extraordinary! | 0:23:15 | 0:23:17 | |
I mean, here we've got everything that a navy needs. | 0:23:17 | 0:23:21 | |
And it's all made in wood to be made and cast in bronze, brass, steel... | 0:23:21 | 0:23:25 | |
And look, there's a spanner! | 0:23:25 | 0:23:27 | |
HE LAUGHS It's just a wooden spanner. | 0:23:27 | 0:23:30 | |
-It's amazing. -Pipes. -All out of wood. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:33 | |
All made out of wood. | 0:23:33 | 0:23:35 | |
The Navy kept vast stores of these wooden parts ready for when needed. | 0:23:37 | 0:23:42 | |
These templates were pressed into clay and then cast in metal. | 0:23:42 | 0:23:47 | |
The adze might be ancient, | 0:23:55 | 0:23:57 | |
but for some shipbuilding, this tool still has the edge. | 0:23:57 | 0:24:02 | |
-So this is how an adze works. -Yes, that's it. Watch how it's done. | 0:24:04 | 0:24:09 | |
What are we up to, how do we do it? | 0:24:09 | 0:24:10 | |
Well, we're just chopping away, we're making up a stem | 0:24:10 | 0:24:14 | |
for the bow of a boat, | 0:24:14 | 0:24:16 | |
and there's one we've made, as well. | 0:24:16 | 0:24:18 | |
Isn't that incredible? So smooth. | 0:24:18 | 0:24:20 | |
-You can do very fine work. -You've achieved that with an adze. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:23 | |
Yes, yes, they're razor-sharp. | 0:24:23 | 0:24:25 | |
Men were using the adze long before the birth of Henry VIII's Royal Navy. | 0:24:25 | 0:24:31 | |
Now it's my turn. | 0:24:31 | 0:24:33 | |
I'm probably going to butcher this bit of wood, so what do I do? | 0:24:34 | 0:24:38 | |
Be very careful, just keep one hand into your hand, and mind your legs. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:41 | |
Mind your legs - I don't want to lose one! | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
So, I've made a complete... dog's breakfast of this. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:51 | |
The extraordinary thing is, to think that in the 18th and 19th centuries, | 0:24:55 | 0:24:59 | |
there were armies of people with these tools, making those ships. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:03 | |
These days, Devonport ships have hulls of steel, | 0:25:07 | 0:25:11 | |
but they still rest on the foundations of the Navy - wood. | 0:25:11 | 0:25:15 | |
It'll take 200,000 man-hours and £40 million | 0:25:15 | 0:25:20 | |
before Westminster can be re-floated off her wooden blocks. | 0:25:20 | 0:25:25 | |
But then she'll be fit for the tasks of a modern navy. | 0:25:25 | 0:25:29 | |
She won't have to visit Devonport Dockyard for another five years. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:34 | |
The Tamar Estuary marks the Cornish frontier. | 0:25:42 | 0:25:45 | |
But the railway bridged the gap and rolled on regardless. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:51 | |
From now on, my journey has a more rugged outlook. | 0:25:55 | 0:25:58 | |
With its jagged shore and sheltered inlets, Cornwall is England's most coastal county. | 0:26:02 | 0:26:08 | |
Each step westwards brings subtle changes in the surrounding flora. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:21 | |
Lichen hate pollution, but they're plentiful here. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:28 | |
With little heavy industry and prevailing winds fresh from the Atlantic, | 0:26:29 | 0:26:34 | |
Cornwall has fantastically clean air, | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
yet there's always the smell of the seashore. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:40 | |
At the pretty little anchorage of Gorran Haven, | 0:26:44 | 0:26:48 | |
Alice is following her nose. | 0:26:48 | 0:26:52 | |
'There's something special about going down to the sea. | 0:26:57 | 0:27:01 | |
'There are those telltale signs that you're close, | 0:27:01 | 0:27:05 | |
'the sense of anticipation builds, | 0:27:05 | 0:27:07 | |
'and then it hits you and familiar feelings flood back. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:12 | |
'The beach bombards the senses, | 0:27:14 | 0:27:18 | |
'but if you just had your sense of smell, you'd still know you were by the sea.' | 0:27:18 | 0:27:24 | |
The seaside has this wonderful aroma, | 0:27:24 | 0:27:27 | |
it's the smell of summer holidays and happiness. | 0:27:27 | 0:27:31 | |
If only we could bottle it! But what is it? | 0:27:31 | 0:27:35 | |
'Water's odourless, so it must be something else in the sea that gives it that seductive smell. | 0:27:38 | 0:27:45 | |
'I'm in search of the solution with Professor Andrew Johnston. | 0:27:45 | 0:27:52 | |
'He thinks he's got the answer in his bag. | 0:27:52 | 0:27:54 | |
'He's brought bacteria. | 0:27:57 | 0:28:00 | |
'When these micro-organisms munch plankton, apparently they make a little whiff, | 0:28:00 | 0:28:06 | |
'a by-product of digestion. | 0:28:06 | 0:28:08 | |
'The bacteria belch out gas that gives the sea its distinctive smell. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:14 | |
'To bottle that seaside aroma, we've got to tempt Andy's bugs to start burping gas.' | 0:28:14 | 0:28:21 | |
-What else do we need? -Well, we need some seaweed. | 0:28:23 | 0:28:27 | |
Right... | 0:28:27 | 0:28:28 | |
'At the moment...' | 0:28:32 | 0:28:33 | |
Yeah, it just smells faintly seaweedy. | 0:28:33 | 0:28:35 | |
Yeah, a little bit, so if we just put some water in here... | 0:28:35 | 0:28:39 | |
'This seaweed soup is our version of the microscopic plant life | 0:28:39 | 0:28:45 | |
'naturally found in sea water.' | 0:28:45 | 0:28:48 | |
-OK, that's fine. -Another one. | 0:28:48 | 0:28:50 | |
-And now we need to add the other component, the bacteria. -OK. | 0:28:50 | 0:28:55 | |
-So can I open this up, is that safe? -Yeah. | 0:28:55 | 0:28:58 | |
Although it smells of something, it's not the seaside, | 0:28:58 | 0:29:00 | |
it's got a sort of musty smell. | 0:29:00 | 0:29:03 | |
-That's not the smell of the sea. -No, we're going to do something magical. | 0:29:03 | 0:29:06 | |
-Right, so what's the next step? -Well, what I'll do, is scrape some of that off, | 0:29:06 | 0:29:10 | |
add it to water, then add that back to the seaweed and see what happens. | 0:29:10 | 0:29:14 | |
So each of these loopfuls, I guess maybe a million, ten million bacteria, amazing numbers. | 0:29:14 | 0:29:20 | |
-Really? -But they're very, very small. | 0:29:20 | 0:29:22 | |
'We're hoping that after we've added the bottled bacteria to our seaweed soup | 0:29:23 | 0:29:27 | |
'and given them a few hours to feast, the solution will start to stink, | 0:29:27 | 0:29:32 | |
'and we'll have bottled the smell of the seaside.' | 0:29:32 | 0:29:35 | |
Shall we go and have a pasty and come back? | 0:29:35 | 0:29:38 | |
'The bacteria need to bask in the warm sun to digest their weedy meal.' | 0:29:39 | 0:29:44 | |
-The moment of truth. -OK. | 0:29:47 | 0:29:49 | |
So for the last two hours, the bacteria in this cloudy mixture | 0:29:49 | 0:29:53 | |
have been chomping away on the substance | 0:29:53 | 0:29:55 | |
in this seaweed, and producing something which you think I should be able to smell. | 0:29:55 | 0:29:59 | |
-Yes, I sincerely hope so. -The moment of truth. | 0:29:59 | 0:30:02 | |
Yes, indeed. | 0:30:02 | 0:30:04 | |
Yes! | 0:30:08 | 0:30:09 | |
Absolutely! | 0:30:09 | 0:30:11 | |
That is really strange. | 0:30:11 | 0:30:14 | |
But it is undoubtedly the smell of the sea. | 0:30:14 | 0:30:18 | |
-THEY LAUGH It works! -Yeah, I know. | 0:30:18 | 0:30:21 | |
'In a tiny test tube, Andy's experiment shows what's happening on a global scale. | 0:30:21 | 0:30:28 | |
'The scent of the sea comes from a sulphurous gas, dimethyl sulphide, | 0:30:28 | 0:30:32 | |
'also known as DMS - | 0:30:32 | 0:30:35 | |
'bacteria burps that are the by-product of digesting plankton. | 0:30:35 | 0:30:40 | |
'To us, it's the smell of seaside holidays, | 0:30:40 | 0:30:43 | |
'but to some birds and mammals, DMS is the smell of life. | 0:30:43 | 0:30:47 | |
'They home in on concentrations of the scent, | 0:30:47 | 0:30:50 | |
'knowing that where there's life, there's food.' | 0:30:50 | 0:30:53 | |
The Lizard Peninsula. | 0:31:06 | 0:31:08 | |
We've reached the most southerly point on the mainland. | 0:31:08 | 0:31:11 | |
Living on the edge, coastal folk must turn their hands to anything. | 0:31:15 | 0:31:19 | |
For millennia, the Cornish mined tin. | 0:31:19 | 0:31:23 | |
That metallic thread stretches along this coast to here at Mount's Bay, dominated by an iconic island. | 0:31:23 | 0:31:30 | |
This is St Michael's Mount. | 0:31:30 | 0:31:32 | |
In classical times, traders took tin from here, | 0:31:32 | 0:31:36 | |
mixed it with copper from Cyprus and fuelled the bronze-age arms race. | 0:31:36 | 0:31:41 | |
The entrepreneurial spirit lives on in industrious Newlyn, Cornwall's biggest fishing port, | 0:32:00 | 0:32:06 | |
Here, they start young. | 0:32:06 | 0:32:08 | |
My name's Phillip Lambourne. I'm 13. | 0:32:11 | 0:32:12 | |
My name is Tom Pasquer and I'm 12. | 0:32:14 | 0:32:17 | |
My name's James Lambourne and I'm nine. | 0:32:18 | 0:32:20 | |
My name's Archie Pasquer and I'm seven years old. | 0:32:23 | 0:32:26 | |
'It all started, we were down here one day | 0:32:28 | 0:32:32 | |
'and I rang up Tom to see if he wanted to go fishing with me, | 0:32:32 | 0:32:35 | |
'and he said no. | 0:32:35 | 0:32:36 | |
'Five minutes later, he rang and said, "Do you want to haul couple of prawn pots?" | 0:32:36 | 0:32:41 | |
'We did, and it escalated from there.' | 0:32:41 | 0:32:43 | |
We started with two pots and now we've got...about a dozen pots now. | 0:32:43 | 0:32:47 | |
That's it. Let Tom shake it out. | 0:32:49 | 0:32:52 | |
'Both our parents are fishermen and all our families are involved in fishing. | 0:32:52 | 0:32:56 | |
'The first pot we had was on the front here, and we just thought, | 0:33:00 | 0:33:03 | |
'"Well, let's try it here and try it here," and just trial and error and we found the best places now really.' | 0:33:03 | 0:33:09 | |
Wait. James, wait. | 0:33:10 | 0:33:13 | |
There's not really a captain or anything, just the four of us. | 0:33:13 | 0:33:17 | |
'We all get on fine, but there's always a moment where you have | 0:33:17 | 0:33:22 | |
'a bit of an argument or upset when someone disagrees, but...' | 0:33:22 | 0:33:25 | |
That's... We're all going to have a few of them. | 0:33:25 | 0:33:28 | |
No, Archie, sit back where you were. | 0:33:29 | 0:33:31 | |
Stay where you are, Arch, don't fall over. | 0:33:31 | 0:33:34 | |
-Right, who's hauling this first one in? -I'll haul the red one. | 0:33:34 | 0:33:37 | |
'The prawns like sheltered rocky places, not open places, and just the right temperature, | 0:33:44 | 0:33:49 | |
'not too warm and not too cold, and they like shelter, | 0:33:49 | 0:33:53 | |
'so under the quay or by the rocks would be perfect.' | 0:33:53 | 0:33:57 | |
This is the pot and the prawns go in that side. | 0:33:57 | 0:34:01 | |
And that side, and this is the hatch which we shake the prawns out of, and that's the bait hatch. | 0:34:01 | 0:34:07 | |
We haul them every two days. We did get, one day, 300 or 400 in one pot. | 0:34:14 | 0:34:19 | |
The best times to do it are the summer holidays to Christmas. | 0:34:23 | 0:34:27 | |
Next year, I'm hopefully going to go to sea a lot more, and let the two younger ones take over a bit more. | 0:34:28 | 0:34:34 | |
Last year, we made about £450, just short of £500, so it's worth quite a lot, | 0:34:36 | 0:34:41 | |
so when we hand over to these two next year, | 0:34:41 | 0:34:45 | |
since we started it off and bought all of the pots, | 0:34:45 | 0:34:47 | |
we'll have to take a share out of their earnings when they continue. | 0:34:47 | 0:34:51 | |
'The Cornish once relied on fishing. | 0:34:53 | 0:34:56 | |
'With these young go-getters, that tradition seems pretty safe to me.' | 0:34:56 | 0:35:01 | |
-Good lads, take care. -Cheers. | 0:35:01 | 0:35:03 | |
My last stop approaches. | 0:35:20 | 0:35:22 | |
One of Britain's most remote artistic attractions - | 0:35:22 | 0:35:26 | |
the Minack Theatre. | 0:35:26 | 0:35:28 | |
One of the great seaside traditions is taking in a show. | 0:35:31 | 0:35:35 | |
I'm not going to take in a show. Heaven help us all, I'm going to be in one! | 0:35:35 | 0:35:39 | |
On this windswept headland, stands the Minack, | 0:35:46 | 0:35:50 | |
a unique temple to the performing arts. | 0:35:50 | 0:35:53 | |
Less theatre of dreams, more place of my nightmares. | 0:35:54 | 0:35:59 | |
Well, would you look at that? You'd expect to find that in ancient Rome. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:08 | |
Maybe it's the scene of a Greek tragedy. | 0:36:08 | 0:36:11 | |
'My co-star in this personal drama is local thespian, Sarah Lincoln.' | 0:36:12 | 0:36:17 | |
-Hi, Sarah. -Hi, welcome to the Minack. | 0:36:17 | 0:36:19 | |
They tell me I'm going to perform here. | 0:36:19 | 0:36:22 | |
You are, yes. Tonight, on this very stage. | 0:36:22 | 0:36:25 | |
Ohh... Show me what I'm going to do. | 0:36:25 | 0:36:28 | |
The very first performance that was given here on this stage, | 0:36:28 | 0:36:31 | |
was a production of The Tempest in 1932, | 0:36:31 | 0:36:35 | |
so we thought it was really apt that YOU would play Prospero, and I will be your Ariel. | 0:36:35 | 0:36:41 | |
-And here are your lines. -Shakespeare, what a nightmare! | 0:36:41 | 0:36:44 | |
No, Shakespeare's easy, he tells you exactly what to do, | 0:36:44 | 0:36:47 | |
and he's great at commanding the elements, just like Prospero. | 0:36:47 | 0:36:50 | |
You've got the real sea and the real wind, and potentially even the real rain tonight. | 0:36:50 | 0:36:55 | |
-Right, let's go. -Shall we start rehearsing? -Let's go. | 0:36:55 | 0:36:59 | |
-Let's go hence to another place. -SHE LAUGHS | 0:36:59 | 0:37:01 | |
'This extraordinary amphitheatre exists thanks to The Tempest, | 0:37:03 | 0:37:08 | |
'Shakespeare's play set on a small island. | 0:37:08 | 0:37:10 | |
'In 1932, Rowena Cade wanted somewhere suitable for her friends to perform it. | 0:37:12 | 0:37:19 | |
'She chose this spot, at the end of her garden. | 0:37:19 | 0:37:23 | |
'The play's lead part, Prospero, has starred all the greats - | 0:37:25 | 0:37:29 | |
'Redgrave, Gielgud, McKellen, | 0:37:29 | 0:37:34 | |
'and now me!' | 0:37:34 | 0:37:35 | |
-"Our little life is rounded with a sleep." -Brilliant. | 0:37:35 | 0:37:41 | |
So what does the venue bring that isn't there in another kind of theatre? | 0:37:41 | 0:37:45 | |
I think the first thing it brings is scale. | 0:37:45 | 0:37:49 | |
I think the fact that the theatre is surrounded by nature, surrounded by the sea, the elements, the cliffs, | 0:37:49 | 0:37:54 | |
and the fact that you've got a real horizon. | 0:37:54 | 0:37:57 | |
When you stand on stage, as an actor, often you have to create a horizon, and there it is, looking at you, | 0:37:57 | 0:38:02 | |
and the audience are looking at you with that fantastic backdrop. | 0:38:02 | 0:38:06 | |
The early performances of The Tempest were such a great success it was repeated down the years. | 0:38:09 | 0:38:15 | |
Rowena Cade - and her long-suffering gardener - | 0:38:15 | 0:38:19 | |
spent the next 40-odd years building a unique theatre. | 0:38:19 | 0:38:24 | |
-Here we are. -OK. -Oh, the gorgeous white shirt... -Nice blouse(!) | 0:38:25 | 0:38:31 | |
-Pair of britches for you. -I'll look like little Jimmy Krankie! | 0:38:31 | 0:38:34 | |
I feel sick to my stomach. | 0:38:34 | 0:38:36 | |
-Slight problem, there! -SHE LAUGHS | 0:38:40 | 0:38:42 | |
I offer you...Prospero. | 0:38:45 | 0:38:47 | |
Outside, suitably ominous weather, | 0:38:49 | 0:38:53 | |
and a frankly certifiable audience are rolling in. | 0:38:53 | 0:38:57 | |
-We're English, we do this all the time. -It's all part of the fun. | 0:38:58 | 0:39:03 | |
Absolutely bonkers! | 0:39:03 | 0:39:05 | |
There must be something strange about the fact that behind you, | 0:39:05 | 0:39:09 | |
rather than a painted backdrop or a set, | 0:39:09 | 0:39:12 | |
there is uncontrollable...nature. | 0:39:12 | 0:39:16 | |
No actor on this planet can compete with a pod of 20 dolphins | 0:39:16 | 0:39:19 | |
doing a sort of, you know, moon-walking across the top of the water which they seem to... | 0:39:19 | 0:39:23 | |
It's like they rehearse round the corner and go, "We'll show them!" | 0:39:23 | 0:39:27 | |
and they come and do this fantastic display. | 0:39:27 | 0:39:29 | |
And do the audience..? | 0:39:29 | 0:39:31 | |
-Yeah, you haven't got a hope in hell. -They just turn to the...? | 0:39:31 | 0:39:34 | |
To the dolphins. You can stand there stark naked, chop your own head off | 0:39:34 | 0:39:37 | |
and, "Oh, look at the dolphins!" | 0:39:37 | 0:39:39 | |
This season, I had a performance I was directing | 0:39:39 | 0:39:42 | |
and we had to stop the show because there was an air-sea rescue. | 0:39:42 | 0:39:45 | |
This is not the easiest theatre in which to make one's debut, is it? | 0:39:45 | 0:39:48 | |
If the elements are raging, people really, really remember if you get through it, and they love it. | 0:39:48 | 0:39:54 | |
Well, the elements are certainly raging. | 0:39:54 | 0:39:57 | |
We've only a short scene, but I've never been on stage before. | 0:39:57 | 0:40:01 | |
Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. Welcome to the Minack. | 0:40:01 | 0:40:04 | |
I've never felt so ill in my entire life, I think I'll break my own leg. | 0:40:04 | 0:40:08 | |
There's something we want you to share with us this evening. | 0:40:08 | 0:40:11 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:40:11 | 0:40:13 | |
Our revels now are ended. | 0:40:19 | 0:40:22 | |
These, our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air. | 0:40:22 | 0:40:29 | |
We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. | 0:40:29 | 0:40:37 | |
Come with a thought, I thank thee, Ariel, come. | 0:40:37 | 0:40:41 | |
Thy thoughts I cleave to. What is thy pleasure? | 0:40:41 | 0:40:44 | |
Spirit, we must prepare to meet with Caliban. | 0:40:44 | 0:40:48 | |
Say again, where didst thou leave those varlets? | 0:40:48 | 0:40:52 | |
I told you, they were red-hot with drinking. | 0:40:52 | 0:40:57 | |
So full of valour that they smote the air. | 0:40:57 | 0:41:01 | |
The trumpery in my house, go bring it hither, for stale to catch these thieves. | 0:41:01 | 0:41:07 | |
I go, I go. | 0:41:07 | 0:41:09 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:41:12 | 0:41:14 | |
Land's End and journey's end. | 0:41:26 | 0:41:29 | |
Hollywood will never find me out here. | 0:41:29 | 0:41:32 | |
Well, the bard said, "All the world's a stage." It turns out that's even true of the coast. | 0:41:34 | 0:41:39 | |
Next time, we're off to France to explore our Celtic cousins' coast. | 0:41:42 | 0:41:47 | |
Bonjour, Brittany! | 0:41:47 | 0:41:49 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:41:55 | 0:41:57 |