0:00:09 > 0:00:12Coast is home.
0:00:13 > 0:00:19Home to explore the most endlessly fascinating shoreline in the world -
0:00:19 > 0:00:20Our own.
0:00:25 > 0:00:27The quest to discover surprising, secret stories
0:00:27 > 0:00:31from around the British Isles continues.
0:00:35 > 0:00:37This is Coast.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16Standing on the brink, we dream of going beyond.
0:01:16 > 0:01:23Hoping to reach the magical meeting point of sea and sky.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27Heading out along natural causeways.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33And man-made walkways.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37Leaving the land behind lifts our spirits.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43Out here, different rules apply.
0:01:43 > 0:01:45If you ever wanted proof
0:01:45 > 0:01:49that people who live out on the edge do things a bit differently,
0:01:49 > 0:01:51this is it.
0:01:51 > 0:01:56For those who dare to take the plunge, adventure awaits.
0:01:56 > 0:02:01We're here to explore Life Beyond the Edge.
0:02:03 > 0:02:10I'm on a mission to reach the most westerly inhabited spot in England.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12I'm heading to the Isles of Scilly.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21Land's End isn't actually the end of England.
0:02:23 > 0:02:2628 miles beyond,
0:02:26 > 0:02:30this beautiful archipelago beckons.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35The ride out to the Isles of Scilly is a stunning voyage.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42There are five inhabited islands to choose from.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45The ferry comes into the largest, St Mary's.
0:02:47 > 0:02:49This is just the beginning of my journey.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53I'm heading out to the very edge of the Isles of Scilly,
0:02:53 > 0:02:57as far west as you can go in England.
0:02:57 > 0:03:02I want to discover the attraction of life beyond Land's End.
0:03:02 > 0:03:08One immediate appeal is that the daily routine just isn't so routine.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11- Have you ever dropped one in the water, Andy? - No, I haven't, no.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15Andy Smethurst is a postie with a rather unusual route.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18He's a vital link to the mainland,
0:03:18 > 0:03:22a role he's very happy to deliver.
0:03:22 > 0:03:23It's the best place.
0:03:23 > 0:03:25- This is your work run, isn't it? - It is, yeah.
0:03:25 > 0:03:27- Island hopping.- Yeah, yeah.
0:03:27 > 0:03:28In a small boat.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31It's a great job, I love it.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33What's it like in winter?
0:03:33 > 0:03:36Bleak. It... Rough, cold, wet.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40But it's still usually a lot warmer than...
0:03:40 > 0:03:43I go and see my parents in Devon,
0:03:43 > 0:03:46and there's sometimes about eight degrees difference.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49Right, I'm going to have to get on. All right. Are you holding on?
0:03:49 > 0:03:51Yes, I'm holding on tight.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58Andy can't afford to hang about.
0:03:58 > 0:04:04Twice a day he must complete a 15-mile route around five islands.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08But I'm getting dropped off with the first delivery,
0:04:08 > 0:04:11to continue my quest on foot.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19I'm in search of people who live life on the edge.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22I'm on the island of St Martin's, this one here,
0:04:22 > 0:04:25but I want to get to this island, Bryher,
0:04:25 > 0:04:29the most westerly inhabited spot in the whole of England,
0:04:29 > 0:04:31so I've got a bit of island-hopping to do.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36But no more boats for me.
0:04:36 > 0:04:42I want to walk the walk of those that enjoy life beyond the edge,
0:04:42 > 0:04:43and today I'm in luck.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47There's an exceptionally low tide,
0:04:47 > 0:04:50so the locals take the rare opportunity
0:04:50 > 0:04:54to stride through the sea from island to island.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58I've done some pretty strange walks in my life,
0:04:58 > 0:05:01but this is the most bizarre.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06The islanders have been doing this for as long as anyone can remember.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10It's scheduled for the lowest tide in September,
0:05:10 > 0:05:14when the water's at its warmest.
0:05:14 > 0:05:15But not that warm,
0:05:15 > 0:05:21and I soon find out why they need shallow water.
0:05:21 > 0:05:26This might look like a rather enjoyable Caribbean stroll,
0:05:26 > 0:05:29but there's a really strong tide pulling through here,
0:05:29 > 0:05:32it's hard work.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42We can't hang around.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45It's a race to make it between the islands.
0:05:46 > 0:05:50The land I'm on is living on borrowed time.
0:05:50 > 0:05:55Soon the sea will surge in to reclaim its domain.
0:05:56 > 0:05:58The tide's really starting to rip in here now,
0:05:58 > 0:06:00so I've got to get my skates on.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10This is biblical - I'm just waiting for the waters to part!
0:06:27 > 0:06:30That was absolutely wonderful.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32The last bit of wading was neck deep
0:06:32 > 0:06:34so we just made it, before it was too late,
0:06:34 > 0:06:37before the tide came in and took out the entire channel.
0:06:40 > 0:06:46This is a wonderfully weird water world. Here, in the eternal waltz
0:06:46 > 0:06:52between land and sea, swirl ancient tales of a lost kingdom.
0:06:54 > 0:06:59Later, when the tide ebbs again, I'll be exploring that landscape
0:06:59 > 0:07:02of myth and legend revealed offshore.
0:07:04 > 0:07:09Life beyond the edge of the mainland offers unique opportunities
0:07:09 > 0:07:13that go-getters have embraced on the south coast.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18Near Folkestone, engineers dug deep
0:07:18 > 0:07:22to profit from going beyond the Channel.
0:07:22 > 0:07:28At Sandbanks, they sell spectacular sea views.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32But over generations, some have seen an opportunity
0:07:32 > 0:07:35to harvest the sea and the soil.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40The people who worked here at Branscombe
0:07:40 > 0:07:43were both fishermen and farmers.
0:07:44 > 0:07:50Somehow they scratched a living on the steep slopes of these cliffs.
0:07:51 > 0:07:56Their lost way of life has got Ruth Goodman intrigued.
0:07:57 > 0:08:02Stood here you get a real feeling for Britain coming to an abrupt end,
0:08:02 > 0:08:06but for some people this was the start of the day's work.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10I've got a photograph here from the 1960s, and this tough little chappie
0:08:10 > 0:08:14with his donkeys is Clifford Gosling, known locally as Cliffie,
0:08:14 > 0:08:15which is really appropriate,
0:08:15 > 0:08:19because he was the last of the Branscombe cliff farmers.
0:08:21 > 0:08:29Cliffie was born in 1889. For over 60 years he cut a solitary figure,
0:08:29 > 0:08:35fishing in the morning, cultivating crops in the afternoon.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39Cliffie was the last man standing
0:08:39 > 0:08:43from a proud community of subsistence farmers.
0:08:44 > 0:08:49Now I want to discover what it's like to toil beyond the edge.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56They made do with poor soil, sloping at a precipitous angle,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59the residue from landslips.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04The cliff farmers' plots were known locally as "plats".
0:09:06 > 0:09:09This was Cliffie's plat.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11Oh, wow, what a view!
0:09:12 > 0:09:14SHE SIGHS
0:09:16 > 0:09:19This is really farming on the edge, isn't it?
0:09:21 > 0:09:24The view may be good. The land isn't.
0:09:25 > 0:09:29But canny locals found a way to make this lofty perch pay off.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35Fishing had been the main industry in Branscombe,
0:09:35 > 0:09:37but it was unreliable.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41They needed a back-up and so looked inland.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45On the cliff face they could farm a variety of crops
0:09:45 > 0:09:48all within sight of the sea.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52That was the life Cliffie Gosling clung on to until the end.
0:09:54 > 0:09:55Cliffie is long gone,
0:09:55 > 0:10:01but his son Alan knows how to eke a living from surf and turf.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04He's returning to the plat with his family.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11This is Granddad Cliffie, this is back in the 1920s.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13And he's with two of his donkeys.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16Oh, he does look a hard-working sort of a man, doesn't he?
0:10:16 > 0:10:19- Cliffie and Granny. - Oh, she's got her best on.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23It's right down on the beach and they're sitting in the boat.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26He used to stand every night and look out to sea
0:10:26 > 0:10:29before he came home with the donkeys.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32- That's just down there. - It was quite a hard life, I think.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35A couple of times they had landslips here and he lost his garden,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38so that was a bit of a disaster for him!
0:10:38 > 0:10:43Well, you never knew when you came to work whether your plat... the ground would still be there.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46This is all slipping all the time, the cliffs here.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49'Alan's in his 90s now,
0:10:49 > 0:10:52'but as a lad he did jobs for Dad, like collecting seaweed.'
0:10:52 > 0:10:57- What's that you got there? - Seaweeding hook.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01- Oh, for gathering?- Yes, yes, we used to cut it off the rocks.
0:11:01 > 0:11:03It's like a little tiny billhook.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06Quick as we could before the tide come in.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08Once the tide come in you still had to start loading then
0:11:08 > 0:11:12and whip it up into the beach, we'd unload it and go back for the rest
0:11:12 > 0:11:15and gradually bring it up the cliff, you know.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18I can see it still fits in your hand.
0:11:18 > 0:11:20LAUGHTER
0:11:20 > 0:11:22You don't forget.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27Part fisherman, part farmer, Cliffie used seaweed
0:11:27 > 0:11:29as a way of fertilising his land.
0:11:31 > 0:11:35To find out more about how sea complemented soil,
0:11:35 > 0:11:39I'm meeting John Hughes, the last fisherman left in Branscombe.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43- Can you remember the plats?- Oh, yeah. Further down this way more.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46Cliffie Gosling was the last one down there.
0:11:46 > 0:11:51He taught me a lot about different things, about seaweed, what you can do with seaweed.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53Where is the best place for seaweed round here?
0:11:53 > 0:11:57Down there where it's flat, where they used to send the donkey out,
0:11:57 > 0:12:01and one of 'em cut it, and then the donkey used to take it up
0:12:01 > 0:12:03and the other one'd take it out of the panniers.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09Time to see how Cliffie cut his seaweed fertiliser.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13I've been told fresh kelp was highly prized.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17To be honest, in the height of summer when it's a beautiful day, this is a really fun job.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21I think it might be rather different in the middle of November in the freezing cold.
0:12:24 > 0:12:30Once Cliffie had his seaweed, he needed to get it up a 500ft cliff.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39He had beasts to bear the burden.
0:12:39 > 0:12:44Enter Ginny and Smart, his beloved donkeys.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46And I've got my own work buddy, too.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49Hello, George. You going to give me a hand?
0:12:56 > 0:13:01'Having harvested the bounty of the sea, Cliffie put his kelp to work improving the poor soil.'
0:13:03 > 0:13:08This whole piece was dug by hand on a regular basis,
0:13:08 > 0:13:10fertilised with seaweed.
0:13:17 > 0:13:20These blokes were really scratching a living,
0:13:20 > 0:13:23on land that couldn't really be used for anything else,
0:13:23 > 0:13:29not suitable for big-scale farming, you couldn't get a plough down here.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31These plots may be precarious,
0:13:31 > 0:13:34but at least they're warmed by the sea in winter.
0:13:34 > 0:13:39The farmers selected crops to make the most of this frost-free zone,
0:13:39 > 0:13:41as Sue Dymond knows.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45Potatoes were the mainstay and the variety was Epicure,
0:13:45 > 0:13:47which they pronounced "apicure",
0:13:47 > 0:13:51but all along this coast that was the variety that they grew.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54Branscombe Teddies. They always called them teddies,
0:13:54 > 0:13:59and they were marketed as such, and the cry used to go up, "Teddies, Branscombe Teddies for sale."
0:13:59 > 0:14:01Really? And you'd have to know that that meant taters.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04Yes, but all the local people would know that they called them teddies.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07- Branscombe Teddies. - Branscombe Teddies, yes.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10They didn't eat them themselves, only the kind of reject ones.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13They had to get them to market to sell them,
0:14:13 > 0:14:17and the money they made saw them through the winter, alongside other jobs.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19- Bought the bread, paid the rent.- Yeah.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23Plats were passed on from father to son and that was how it was,
0:14:23 > 0:14:28it was very hard to work your way in if... if you didn't already have a plat,
0:14:28 > 0:14:32and the end of the plats was when the sons didn't want to do it.
0:14:32 > 0:14:37It was the 1960s and it was more or less all ended along this coast at that time.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43By the Swinging Sixties, Cliffie had his own Flower Power revolution.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47He ended his days selling blooms to the tourists.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52The cunning combination of fishing and farming
0:14:52 > 0:14:55that kept generations going through good and bad times
0:14:55 > 0:14:58was gone with the sea breeze.
0:14:59 > 0:15:06The cliff men and their donkeys managed to carve a life along here, on this edge of land.
0:15:06 > 0:15:11I mean, it must have been pretty tough at times, but you can see that there would be compensations.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15Caught between the fat of the land and the bounty of the sea,
0:15:15 > 0:15:17it does have its attractions.
0:15:17 > 0:15:19I'm on a journey,
0:15:19 > 0:15:25far beyond Land's End to the very edge of the Isles of Scilly.
0:15:29 > 0:15:35Bathed in clear blue water, warmed by the Gulf Stream,
0:15:35 > 0:15:40these sandy shores look and feel more like the Caribbean.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45The Tropical Gardens on Tresco
0:15:45 > 0:15:49thrive in a frost-free environment.
0:15:49 > 0:15:51No need for a greenhouse.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56Exotic plants bloom in the open air,
0:15:56 > 0:15:59not hiding behind glass.
0:15:59 > 0:16:04The soil's wrapped in its blanket of balmy water.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06Out here, boundaries are blurred
0:16:06 > 0:16:09between land and sea.
0:16:09 > 0:16:11The edges become fuzzy.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16Hidden away in the lush greenery,
0:16:16 > 0:16:18there's more evidence
0:16:18 > 0:16:21of the importance of the sea to these islands.
0:16:23 > 0:16:28Extraordinary. It's a sanctuary for the spirits of lost ships.
0:16:28 > 0:16:30Very beautiful.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38These figureheads look back to times long ago
0:16:38 > 0:16:40and age-old trade routes.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49Thousands of years ago, back in the ancient times,
0:16:49 > 0:16:52traders didn't see the Isles of Scilly as the end of Britain,
0:16:52 > 0:16:54but as the beginning.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59Look at the map with Bronze Age eyes.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03For ancient Greece to make bronze,
0:17:03 > 0:17:05they needed tin.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07Coming to collect tin from Cornwall,
0:17:07 > 0:17:11merchants may well have stopped off on the Isles of Scilly.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15Out there is the submerged home
0:17:15 > 0:17:17of some of our Bronze Age ancestors,
0:17:17 > 0:17:20a lost land that is rarely revealed.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23I just need to wait for the tide to ebb.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33At this exceptionally low tide,
0:17:33 > 0:17:38the seabed that was once land is exposed.
0:17:38 > 0:17:40People used to live out here
0:17:40 > 0:17:43before the water level rose
0:17:43 > 0:17:45thousands of years ago.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50Now I can walk back to the Bronze Age.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54My guide is historian Amanda Martin.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58What would this landscape have looked like in the Bronze Age?
0:17:58 > 0:18:00This area here, which is the Tresco Channel,
0:18:00 > 0:18:03would have been an area of tidal swamp
0:18:03 > 0:18:06fringed with the salt marshes,
0:18:06 > 0:18:09a place of very primitive cultivation.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12What evidence have you got that they were farming down here
0:18:12 > 0:18:15on what is now sand and a tidal channel at high tide?
0:18:15 > 0:18:19We've got some evidence of boundary walls, field boundaries.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21They wouldn't have been the sophisticated fields
0:18:21 > 0:18:26we can see from the modern era. They would have been far more rudimentary.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29So compared to these very neat dry stone walls behind us,
0:18:29 > 0:18:32the walls we're talking about back in the Bronze Age
0:18:32 > 0:18:34- were much more crude.- Absolutely.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40From the ground, you can see tantalising lines of stones.
0:18:41 > 0:18:47But from the air, you begin to notice man-made rock boundaries,
0:18:47 > 0:18:49unnaturally straight lines
0:18:49 > 0:18:53just visible in the chaos of debris.
0:18:53 > 0:18:58These walls are what remains of ancient farmland.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04Once, the separate Isles of Scilly were joined together
0:19:04 > 0:19:08in one large land mass.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11What's now the edge of these islands
0:19:11 > 0:19:13was once their heart.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18The farms were lost as the water level went up
0:19:18 > 0:19:21when ice melted millennia ago.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26This journey out to the edge of our isles
0:19:26 > 0:19:29is a voyage back thousands of years in time.
0:19:29 > 0:19:31We've gone beyond written history.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35What happened to the people out here as sea levels rose
0:19:35 > 0:19:39was passed on by storytellers down through the generations
0:19:39 > 0:19:41and remembered as myths and legends.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48The legend has it that once upon a time,
0:19:48 > 0:19:51the Isles of Scilly were connected to Cornwall.
0:19:54 > 0:19:56What's now the Atlantic
0:19:56 > 0:20:00was supposedly the lost kingdom of Lyonesse.
0:20:05 > 0:20:06A mythical world
0:20:06 > 0:20:10which may have given rise to tales of the Round Table and its knights.
0:20:13 > 0:20:18Some say Lyonesse is the resting place of King Arthur himself.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24If that great kingdom did exist,
0:20:24 > 0:20:27the most westerly tip of the Isles of Scilly
0:20:27 > 0:20:29would have actually been Land's End.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34And that's where I'm heading,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37continuing west till I come to a full stop
0:20:37 > 0:20:41and find the last house on the very edge of England.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52I'm not the only time-traveller around our shores.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57Fossil hunters pick away at crumbly cliffs,
0:20:57 > 0:21:00hoping to prise out a prize specimen
0:21:00 > 0:21:02from the age of the dinosaurs
0:21:02 > 0:21:05or beyond.
0:21:05 > 0:21:07Our coast remembers a time
0:21:07 > 0:21:11long before the big beasts of the Jurassic period.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18We can go much further back than the dinosaurs
0:21:18 > 0:21:20with a stop at St David's.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28Today, this tiny city draws the crowds
0:21:28 > 0:21:31because of its big cathedral.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34But in Victorian times, the craggy cliffs nearby
0:21:34 > 0:21:37were crawling with scientists,
0:21:37 > 0:21:41challenging the church's view of the world.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45Hermione is puzzled by the age of the Earth.
0:21:52 > 0:21:54150 years ago,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57our coast was causing a commotion.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00Ideas about the Earth were evolving rapidly
0:22:00 > 0:22:05thanks to Victorian naturalists probing the edge for knowledge.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10One of the scientists who came to this shore was J W Salter,
0:22:10 > 0:22:12a palaeontologist working
0:22:12 > 0:22:14for the British Geological Survey.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17In 1862, Salter's boat took a wrong turning
0:22:17 > 0:22:21and he landed purely by chance at this rocky inlet near St David's
0:22:21 > 0:22:23called Porth y Rhaw.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29Maybe it was divine intervention that steered him off course.
0:22:29 > 0:22:30Whatever the reason,
0:22:30 > 0:22:32he made a startling discovery.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38Salter uncovered evidence here that supported the idea
0:22:38 > 0:22:41that the Earth hadn't just existed for thousands of years,
0:22:41 > 0:22:44it had to be hundreds of millions of years old.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48A literal reading of the Bible
0:22:48 > 0:22:51suggested the world was around 6,000 years old.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56Salter found a fossil that said otherwise.
0:22:56 > 0:22:57- Hi, Bob.- Hi.
0:22:57 > 0:23:02'Dr Robert Owens knows that priceless fossil better than most.'
0:23:02 > 0:23:06- So, Bob, tell us about what Salter found here.- Well, he found these.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10- My goodness.- Giant trilobites.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13This one I'm holding in my hand comes from this very spot.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16- This is enormous.- Absolutely, yes.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19Imagine splitting a rock open and that's facing you.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22What would this creature have been like when it was living?
0:23:22 > 0:23:26Well, it's a distant relative of the crabs, lobsters, scorpions,
0:23:26 > 0:23:29spiders - the arthropods, that group of animals.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31This probably lived on the seabed crawling around
0:23:31 > 0:23:34and it was probably a predator scavenger,
0:23:34 > 0:23:36was probably fairly high up in the food chain.
0:23:36 > 0:23:39How old are these trilobites?
0:23:39 > 0:23:42On our present estimates, they're about 505 million years old.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46505, so that's a lot, lot older than any dinosaur, for example.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49Yes, over twice as old as the oldest dinosaur.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53- Right back to the beginnings of large life forms.- That's right.
0:23:53 > 0:23:55This geological period they come from,
0:23:55 > 0:23:57it's called the Cambrian, after...
0:23:57 > 0:24:00After Wales, where rocks of this age were first recognised.
0:24:00 > 0:24:01A truly Welsh fossil, then.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04If there were to be a national fossil of Wales,
0:24:04 > 0:24:05I think this might well be it.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09The Welsh trilobite helped prove
0:24:09 > 0:24:13that the Earth was old enough for life to evolve.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17But the fossil found here also tells a remarkable story
0:24:17 > 0:24:22about the evolution of the planet itself.
0:24:22 > 0:24:23Welsh trilobites
0:24:23 > 0:24:25aren't only found in Wales.
0:24:25 > 0:24:27Look at this.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30This is a postage stamp from Canada
0:24:30 > 0:24:32and the fossil depicted on it is a trilobite
0:24:32 > 0:24:33and not only a trilobite,
0:24:33 > 0:24:35it's Paradoxides davidis
0:24:35 > 0:24:38and that is the very trilobite we get in Porth y Rhaw.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41If you look at the rocks of Eastern Newfoundland of the Cambrian age,
0:24:41 > 0:24:45you find exactly the same fossils in them, the same trilobites
0:24:45 > 0:24:46including Paradoxides davidis.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48How has that come about?
0:24:48 > 0:24:50Well, we now know that
0:24:50 > 0:24:52500 and more million years ago,
0:24:52 > 0:24:56what is now Wales, what is now Newfoundland, were all located
0:24:56 > 0:24:58on the margins of a vast continent called Gondwana
0:24:58 > 0:25:02and this was about 60 degrees south of the equator.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05So when the trilobites were alive in the sea,
0:25:05 > 0:25:08Wales and that part of Canada were part of the same continent.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12Exactly, yes. They all lay quite close to one another.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16Hundreds of millions of years ago,
0:25:16 > 0:25:18what's now Wales and Canada
0:25:18 > 0:25:21were jigsaw pieces in one massive continent.
0:25:23 > 0:25:25Over time they started to drift apart
0:25:25 > 0:25:28and as the geological plates split open,
0:25:28 > 0:25:31they formed the vast Atlantic.
0:25:31 > 0:25:36This stranded identical trilobites on the coast of Wales and Canada.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41And because of that, our quintessentially Welsh fossil
0:25:41 > 0:25:44ends up over in Canada on one of their stamps.
0:25:44 > 0:25:45Yes, we have to share it
0:25:45 > 0:25:48but we got to name it first as we found it first.
0:25:48 > 0:25:50It's remarkable to think
0:25:50 > 0:25:53that this imprint in Welsh stone
0:25:53 > 0:25:55tells an epic tale
0:25:55 > 0:25:57of the birth of the Atlantic Ocean.
0:26:02 > 0:26:03I've made it to Bryher,
0:26:03 > 0:26:07the smallest of the five inhabited islands,
0:26:07 > 0:26:10home to around 80 permanent residents,
0:26:10 > 0:26:12and a couple of goats!
0:26:15 > 0:26:18The name Bryher is from the old Cornish,
0:26:18 > 0:26:22meaning "place of hills."
0:26:22 > 0:26:24Over the crest of the final peak
0:26:24 > 0:26:27lies the real Land's End of England.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29WAVES CRASH
0:26:34 > 0:26:39Who chooses to live out here in such isolation?
0:26:39 > 0:26:43I'm on my way to the most westerly house in England.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55- Hello, there!- Oh, hello.
0:26:55 > 0:26:57I'm sorry to bother you.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00You probably get fed-up with questions like this,
0:27:00 > 0:27:02- but do you live here?- Yes.
0:27:02 > 0:27:04Is this the most westerly house in England?
0:27:04 > 0:27:07Well, I think so,
0:27:07 > 0:27:10apart from next door's, we're all in a line.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13Are you? And you've never figured out who's the most western?
0:27:13 > 0:27:15- Well, I think we are, yes. - You think you are.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18- Where did you move from? - We moved from Northamptonshire.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20But that's right in the middle of England.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23I know, I know, sort of countryside.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26- Now you've come to the very edge of England.- I know.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28And that's where my husband spends most of his time.
0:27:28 > 0:27:29Wow!
0:27:29 > 0:27:31Look at that!
0:27:31 > 0:27:33This is a coastal view.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35- How do you do?- Good afternoon.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39- Sorry about the intrusion. - That's quite all right. You're most welcome to come around.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43My goodness. This must be one of the best views in England.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46Well, I can't think of anything better myself, yes.
0:27:46 > 0:27:47Look at that.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50# Oh-oh-oh-oh
0:27:50 > 0:27:53# This could be para-para paradise
0:27:53 > 0:27:56# Para-para paradise
0:27:56 > 0:27:59# Para-para paradise
0:27:59 > 0:28:04# Oh-oh-oh-oh ohoooo. #
0:28:04 > 0:28:07I'm standing on the most westerly point
0:28:07 > 0:28:10of any inhabited island in England.
0:28:10 > 0:28:12My journey's completed,
0:28:12 > 0:28:15and although it's quite wild and windy here,
0:28:15 > 0:28:18inside I feel quite still and calm,
0:28:18 > 0:28:20it's rather like reaching a top of a mountain.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24The journey's over, there's no further I can go, and yet,
0:28:24 > 0:28:26when I lift my eyes to the horizon,
0:28:26 > 0:28:28you can see there's more to come,
0:28:28 > 0:28:30the promise of something far bigger,
0:28:30 > 0:28:33and I think that's the appeal of life on the edge,
0:28:33 > 0:28:36it's on the cusp of another world.
0:28:45 > 0:28:46Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd