0:00:11 > 0:00:13This is Coast.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45Our stunning sea cliffs.
0:00:45 > 0:00:51An imperious borderline, stitched with a rainbow tapestry of stone.
0:00:54 > 0:01:00Deceptive and dramatic, yielding and treacherous.
0:01:00 > 0:01:05Over millennia, we've learnt to negotiate this tricky terrain...
0:01:07 > 0:01:11..and carve surprising uses from its rocky skeleton.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16My quest has brought me to the Isle of Wight.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22I'm on a mission to delve into the hidden world of our sea cliffs,
0:01:22 > 0:01:26and I'm going to start with this key.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30MUSIC: "Mission Impossible" Theme
0:01:35 > 0:01:40Over a century ago, the locals unlocked a secret.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44This solid sea cliff had a helpfully soft core.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52Behind this grill is a disused lift shaft.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55A man-made hole bored straight into the cliff.
0:02:02 > 0:02:07I'm going to extreme lengths, investigating mysteries
0:02:07 > 0:02:10at the heart of our sea cliffs.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14Our island's edge, as you've never seen it before.
0:02:14 > 0:02:18This is The Secret Life of Sea Cliffs.
0:02:25 > 0:02:27My journey will take me
0:02:27 > 0:02:31across the vast and varied cliffs of Yorkshire.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35But first, I need to free myself from the depths of the Isle of Wight.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42Here, the sea has bitten chunks out of the headland.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50If nature could carve through the chalk, why not man?
0:02:56 > 0:02:59I've walked across cliffs, I've climbed up cliffs,
0:02:59 > 0:03:02but I've never abseiled through a cliff.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04And it's completely other-worldly.
0:03:07 > 0:03:13In the late 19th century, the Government had the cliff's centre scooped out.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16Part of a secret defence plan.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20This looks like a spur tunnel, this.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23It's got a very high roof and it's full of debris.
0:03:23 > 0:03:25This one looks like the main one.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31These tunnels have lain untouched for decades,
0:03:31 > 0:03:34but clues to their use still remain.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39Old electrical cables carried in this rusty steel pipe.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45There's a gigantic rusting engine.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48This must have been used to power the lift.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55A window ahead sheds some light.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03Look at this! Unbelievable!
0:04:06 > 0:04:11What could be more secure than a fortress built into a cliff face?
0:04:15 > 0:04:19Beginning in 1860, the military chiselled out the chalk
0:04:19 > 0:04:22to create a rock-solid defence.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26A fort dug into the cliff top.
0:04:26 > 0:04:30And near sea level, camouflaged gun positions,
0:04:30 > 0:04:34ideal for troops facing hostile warships in the channel.
0:04:39 > 0:04:44They had worked a way to make the most of their cliff edge.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47And this rocky border can lead me to further surprises.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53Imagine following this seam of chalk back inland.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56It would be an underground journey
0:04:56 > 0:04:58through the soft underbelly of England,
0:04:58 > 0:05:02emerging on the east coast in God's own country.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06The chalk rears its head again here.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09These are the White Cliffs of Yorkshire.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13Rising some 200 metres,
0:05:13 > 0:05:18these white precipices are among the loftiest in England.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22But they have a secret.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25They stretch much further than it seems on the surface.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31In many places, the white cliffs are actually brown.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33The gleaming face of the chalk
0:05:33 > 0:05:36is covered in a thick layer of sand and clay.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41This false facade extends for miles.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43The clay of an ancient seabed
0:05:43 > 0:05:47that was smeared up over the chalk during the ice age.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50Now, the sea's reclaiming her lost property.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54Seen from a distance, this cliff might look fairly solid,
0:05:54 > 0:05:58but up close it reveals its alarming secret.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04This stuff is so soft, it falls apart in your hand.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08As sea levels rise,
0:06:08 > 0:06:11this boulder clay along our east coast is crumbling.
0:06:20 > 0:06:26This massive structure from the Second World War
0:06:26 > 0:06:30is just lying on its back on the beach.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34It's made of brick, concrete, steel.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38Once upon a time, it stood up there on top of a cliff,
0:06:38 > 0:06:44and it was constructed to defend Britain from enemy forces.
0:06:44 > 0:06:49But it's been brought to its knees not by war, but by the attacking sea.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55In 2006, our cameras captured the same tower
0:06:55 > 0:06:59sitting a few metres from the cliff edge.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03Just three years later, the ground disappeared beneath it.
0:07:04 > 0:07:06Here's the present cliff.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10It's been receding over the last century-and-a-half
0:07:10 > 0:07:15at an astonishing average of 1.27 metres for every year,
0:07:15 > 0:07:20which means that since 1941 when that military emplacement was built,
0:07:20 > 0:07:25this cliff has receded about 76 metres.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28So I'm going to take a walk back through time,
0:07:28 > 0:07:30one pace for every year.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34One, two, three, four...
0:07:38 > 0:07:42Thirty paces in, I'm back in the 1980s.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44# Holiday... #
0:07:44 > 0:07:48Ten paces more, I hit the glam rock days of the 1970s.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51# Ch-Ch-Changes. #
0:07:51 > 0:07:53Through to the swinging '60s.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55# Talking about my generation
0:07:55 > 0:07:57# I'm not trying to cause... #
0:07:57 > 0:08:00And after 72 paces...
0:08:00 > 0:08:03# As time goes by... #
0:08:03 > 0:08:05This...
0:08:05 > 0:08:11was the line of the cliff in the 1940s. Look at it now!
0:08:11 > 0:08:13Extraordinary.
0:08:13 > 0:08:21# As time goes by. #
0:08:24 > 0:08:27Knowing how quickly this cliff is eroding
0:08:27 > 0:08:30makes you feel uneasy standing on the edge.
0:08:30 > 0:08:32So imagine living here!
0:08:35 > 0:08:40Since Roman times, over 30 villages on the east Yorkshire coast
0:08:40 > 0:08:42have been lost to erosion.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46Now the community of Aldbrough is under threat.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50While I'm at the seaside end of the village, it all looks pretty normal.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53Pretty little houses, village pub.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56What's not normal...
0:09:00 > 0:09:01..is this!
0:09:02 > 0:09:04A road to nowhere.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09Our edge is a precarious place to be.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14But some refuse to see this as the end of the line.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16I'm meeting Nigel Fairclough.
0:09:16 > 0:09:21Less than 20 years ago, he bought a seafront house here.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24But as the cliff started to nibble at his garden,
0:09:24 > 0:09:27it was condemned as unsafe.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30Now only a ghost house remains.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33We'd be walking up the front footpath here to the house?
0:09:33 > 0:09:35That's correct, yeah.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37So if we go in here and we turn left...
0:09:37 > 0:09:39you're in the living room.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42Lovely and cosy when the storms were from the sea.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46You walk straight through the living room.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50We had like a galley kitchen running along the back of the bungalow.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53So this is where we'd be standing here to make a pot of tea.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55Yeah. And you could stand here and look out.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58Beautiful view. You can see Bridlington.
0:09:58 > 0:09:59Could you hear the sea at night?
0:09:59 > 0:10:04Yeah. Odd stormy nights, the house would shake.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07Literally, we had a lot of ornaments up
0:10:07 > 0:10:10and when the sea were banging in on the cliff, the whole house shook.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12- You're kidding?- No, no.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15- The ornaments would tremble? - Yeah, yeah.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17We've had to move them back, if they were on a shelf,
0:10:17 > 0:10:19sometimes we had to push them back
0:10:19 > 0:10:21because they were working their way forward.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24Didn't that tell you that you were living somewhere quite precarious?
0:10:24 > 0:10:26Yeah, but...
0:10:26 > 0:10:30comparing where you live, living in a town to living somewhere like this,
0:10:30 > 0:10:32it were well worth putting up with it.
0:10:32 > 0:10:37Do you remember the day your house was knocked down?
0:10:37 > 0:10:41Yeah. We had to watch while they came in with their digger
0:10:41 > 0:10:44and virtually crushed it, turned it into matchwood
0:10:44 > 0:10:47and loaded it in a skip and took it away.
0:10:49 > 0:10:54Today, the street is slowly being bulldozed house by house
0:10:54 > 0:10:57as the cliff edge inches closer.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59It just seemed so solid.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03And you never expected this to happen to it.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07But Nigel is undeterred.
0:11:07 > 0:11:12He's just bought a new house 100 metres down the road.
0:11:15 > 0:11:21They reckon that's got 50 years, so it won't worry me one little bit.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24That one is going to be to see me out now, you know.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26It's a lovely area, it is great.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29It's just sad it's going.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39All our cliffs are shifting structures,
0:11:39 > 0:11:42slowly being reclaimed by the sea.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44As they know in Scarborough.
0:11:49 > 0:11:54In 1993, the Holbeck Hall Hotel was demolished
0:11:54 > 0:11:57after its east wing was lost to coastal erosion.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06When cracks started to show in Cornwall,
0:12:06 > 0:12:08a local geologist was lucky enough
0:12:08 > 0:12:11to capture a Rocky Horror Show on his phone.
0:12:11 > 0:12:13SHRIEKING
0:12:22 > 0:12:26Stretches of our coast do tumble into the sea.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29A story they recognise at Lyme Regis.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37These gentle slopes are evidence of the cliff's downfall.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43And as the land slips, it spills the beans on its past life.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50Cassie Newland is an archaeologist with a difference.
0:12:50 > 0:12:55She's raking up history the town thought it had buried long ago.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00Some archaeologists love Roman villas or Saxon hoards.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03I like more unusual things.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05And today, I'm trawling for trash.
0:13:08 > 0:13:12The 1950s is the birth of our modern throwaway society.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14But what we chuck away as rubbish,
0:13:14 > 0:13:18we're not expecting to get confronted by again.
0:13:18 > 0:13:20Here at Lyme Regis, we can do just that,
0:13:20 > 0:13:21and get into all the details
0:13:21 > 0:13:24of people's everyday lives in the past,
0:13:24 > 0:13:26when the sea cliffs give up their secrets.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39Remarkably, these cliffs were once used as a rubbish dump.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46Right on the edge of town, the locals can re-live past lives,
0:13:46 > 0:13:48revealed from the old dump.
0:13:52 > 0:13:57As the cliff crumbles, its curious contents litter the beach below.
0:13:58 > 0:14:00We've got an actual kitchen sink!
0:14:02 > 0:14:05And it's enamel. How '50s is that!
0:14:06 > 0:14:10It's fascinating to think that these domestic relics
0:14:10 > 0:14:13have lain hidden in the cliffs for decades.
0:14:13 > 0:14:15I'm meeting local geologists Paddy and Chris
0:14:15 > 0:14:17to make sense of the jumble.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19They've sifted out some prize pieces.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22- Chris, Paddy.- Hi.- Hello.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25This looks interesting. Is there anything you know dates of?
0:14:25 > 0:14:29That's 1937, that's a beer bottle top from Bridport.
0:14:29 > 0:14:31- Fantastic.- So that's got a date.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33Oh, I like that.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35That was actually found the day before yesterday...
0:14:35 > 0:14:37So that's George V.
0:14:37 > 0:14:39..by my youngest son, Leon.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43These ones you see give you a bit of a telltale.
0:14:43 > 0:14:44They're...they're machine-made.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47You can see that because they've got a seam going all the way down.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50And the reason you can tell is it also goes all the way over the top,
0:14:50 > 0:14:52so we know that these have to be after 1909,
0:14:52 > 0:14:55when the machine that did that was invented.
0:14:56 > 0:14:58We've got all of this interesting stuff
0:14:58 > 0:15:01that's just falling out of the cliff. Is that normal?
0:15:01 > 0:15:03When it gets wet, particularly in the winter,
0:15:03 > 0:15:06the rocks over on that side, they fail and they slide down.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09And it so happens the rubbish dump was up at the top of the cliff
0:15:09 > 0:15:11and all of that came with it.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13And all of this material fell down in May 2008
0:15:13 > 0:15:15when there was a very big fall,
0:15:15 > 0:15:18- about three-quarters-of-a-million tonnes.- Gosh!
0:15:18 > 0:15:20So we've got archaeology and geology.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23Archaeology and geology literally all muddled up and all mixed up.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28Out of sight and out of mind.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30No-one gave a thought to the cliff top dump.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33But oddly, the bin men who collected
0:15:33 > 0:15:36the town's trash became local treasures.
0:15:36 > 0:15:38No-one knew them better than Ken Gollop.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43So, Ken, your dad was a dustman?
0:15:43 > 0:15:45Yes. My old man was a dustman.
0:15:45 > 0:15:47# He wears a dustman's hat
0:15:47 > 0:15:49# He wears cor blimey trousers
0:15:49 > 0:15:51# And he lives in a council flat. #
0:15:51 > 0:15:54- Which one's your dad? - There you are. The big one.
0:15:54 > 0:15:56- Actually, it does look like you. - The big one.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58- They're amazing!- Yeah.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01They were on their rounds one day and a gentleman was moving house.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04And he had loads of bowler hats, top hats,
0:16:04 > 0:16:07dress coats, morning coats and things.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09He said to the dustmen,
0:16:09 > 0:16:11"Look, I got all these, do what you like with them."
0:16:11 > 0:16:14So, of course, Father being Father,
0:16:14 > 0:16:16he put a set straight on
0:16:16 > 0:16:20and they went around the town emptying dustcarts in top hats.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23- Fantastic! - They were so popular and that,
0:16:23 > 0:16:26that people used to stop and take photographs of them.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32The sartorial binmen were tourist favourites.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36But Lyme Regis was no holiday for them.
0:16:36 > 0:16:37So, this is very steep, isn't it?
0:16:37 > 0:16:40- This is a dustman's nightmare. - It is, isn't it?
0:16:41 > 0:16:45The cliff edge is a top spot to share some lost treasure.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48Hidden in the BBC archives,
0:16:48 > 0:16:51I've dug up a recording Ken's never heard.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55Now, Ken, tell me if you recognise this at all.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00"You sound as though you enjoy your job. You're very happy."
0:17:00 > 0:17:03"Oh, we four are the happiest men in Lyme.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06- "Yes, happiest men in Lyme, sir." - That's my father.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10"Oh, yes! We've had so many as 20 or 30 around us taking our photos.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13"We've had our photos took over a thousand times this summer."
0:17:13 > 0:17:15"You're very interested in hats."
0:17:15 > 0:17:19"Hats? Yes, sir. I expect I've got more hats than anybody in the land."
0:17:19 > 0:17:23He was taking the mickey out of the interviewer, wasn't he?
0:17:23 > 0:17:27He was, he was just...he was a clown all the time.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30And he made the best of everything.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33He really enjoyed his life.
0:17:33 > 0:17:35And he made a lot of people happy,
0:17:35 > 0:17:38and I think he realised he did that.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41- I loved that!- Oh, that was really wonderful, that was.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48The top-hatted dustmen of Lyme Regis are now long gone,
0:17:48 > 0:17:52but this cliff top time capsule continues to reveal its secrets.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54Oh, my goodness!
0:17:54 > 0:17:57These are Crittal windows, these metal-framed windows.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59If these were still in your house,
0:17:59 > 0:18:01you wouldn't be allowed to take them out.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07These may not be the jewels and relics some archaeologists crave,
0:18:07 > 0:18:10but to me, they are priceless.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13They tell the story of everyday people.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15It's the archaeology of us.