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This is Coast. | 0:00:10 | 0:00:12 | |
In the British Isles, we're familiar with wet weather | 0:00:40 | 0:00:43 | |
blown in from the wild seas. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:46 | |
One benefit of a temperate climate | 0:00:49 | 0:00:51 | |
is our wonderful labyrinth of rivers. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:53 | |
Giant waterways powered by rain, | 0:00:55 | 0:00:58 | |
that all run to the coast. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:01 | |
As rivers and seas collide great estuaries emerge. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:06 | |
Making our mark on these colossal watery spaces | 0:01:13 | 0:01:16 | |
has taken centuries of struggle. | 0:01:16 | 0:01:19 | |
That's left a wealth of extraordinary stories | 0:01:19 | 0:01:22 | |
waiting to be discovered along our estuaries. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:25 | |
We're braving three of our greatest, | 0:01:27 | 0:01:30 | |
the Firth of Forth, the Thames and the mighty Severn. | 0:01:30 | 0:01:35 | |
We're here to explore what becomes of the coast | 0:01:35 | 0:01:38 | |
when rivers and seas collide. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:41 | |
I'm starting my estuary odyssey | 0:01:46 | 0:01:49 | |
a pebble's throw from Edinburgh, on the Firth of Forth. | 0:01:49 | 0:01:52 | |
The scale of this seaway is staggering, | 0:01:55 | 0:01:57 | |
it's impossible to take the whole thing in. | 0:01:57 | 0:02:00 | |
What I could really do with is something tall to climb up | 0:02:03 | 0:02:07 | |
so I can get a bird's-eye view. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:08 | |
Only the engineering marvel of the Forth rail bridge | 0:02:14 | 0:02:18 | |
does justice to the sheer spectacle of the estuary. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:22 | |
As we're coming up here | 0:02:23 | 0:02:25 | |
you can see the rivets on this bridge that hold it together. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:27 | |
6.5 million rivets, and every one of them has been painted by hand. | 0:02:27 | 0:02:31 | |
This is it. This is it, Nick. Here we are on top of the Forth Bridge. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:41 | |
FOGHORN SOUNDS | 0:02:47 | 0:02:49 | |
Up here, right in the middle of the Firth of Forth | 0:02:53 | 0:02:56 | |
you can get a real sense | 0:02:56 | 0:02:58 | |
of the huge scale of this estuary. | 0:02:58 | 0:03:01 | |
I can see the Pentland Hills right over there, | 0:03:01 | 0:03:04 | |
there's the dark volcanic bump of Arthur's Seat | 0:03:04 | 0:03:08 | |
rising above the white buildings of Edinburgh. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:12 | |
Looking west, I can see all the way out to the open sea - the North Sea. | 0:03:12 | 0:03:16 | |
And looking inland, in this direction, there's even more. | 0:03:18 | 0:03:21 | |
Here's the Forth Road Bridge | 0:03:23 | 0:03:26 | |
arcing over the water in front of me, | 0:03:26 | 0:03:28 | |
behind it Rosyth naval base. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:31 | |
In the far distance | 0:03:31 | 0:03:33 | |
I can just make out Grangemouth power station | 0:03:33 | 0:03:36 | |
oozing smoke into the sky. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:37 | |
This estuary is so huge that even from this incredible vantage point, | 0:03:41 | 0:03:46 | |
inland it just fades into invisibility. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:49 | |
The only way of actually getting a true sense of its size | 0:03:49 | 0:03:52 | |
is by looking at a map. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:55 | |
This is the mouth of the estuary | 0:03:58 | 0:04:00 | |
marked by this little island, the Isle of May, here. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:04 | |
In the other direction, 60 miles inland, | 0:04:04 | 0:04:08 | |
the water gets less and less salty, gets fresher and fresher, | 0:04:08 | 0:04:11 | |
until you reach Stirling here, | 0:04:11 | 0:04:14 | |
where this estuary is born. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:16 | |
Starting at its birthplace, | 0:04:20 | 0:04:22 | |
I'm flying the length of the waterway. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:24 | |
Will the change in wildlife | 0:04:26 | 0:04:28 | |
help pinpoint the elusive spot where river becomes sea? | 0:04:28 | 0:04:32 | |
My guide is marine ecologist Stuart Clough. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:36 | |
And as we pass over Stirling, | 0:04:38 | 0:04:40 | |
the river's very beautiful seen from above, | 0:04:40 | 0:04:42 | |
it's like a huge coiled rope. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:44 | |
You're in classic lower river territory here, erm, | 0:04:44 | 0:04:47 | |
lower freshwater river. | 0:04:47 | 0:04:49 | |
The place where the tide just starts to have its effect. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:52 | |
And even now the mud banks are starting to appear on the side. | 0:04:52 | 0:04:56 | |
And in those, you've got all kinds of worms and shellfish | 0:04:56 | 0:04:59 | |
that live within those sediments, and they become food for birds. | 0:04:59 | 0:05:02 | |
It's a fantastic environment. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:04 | |
Is it possible to identify the point at which this river, the Forth, | 0:05:04 | 0:05:09 | |
ceases to be a river and begins to be sea? | 0:05:09 | 0:05:13 | |
From a biologist's perspective, it's a continuum - | 0:05:13 | 0:05:15 | |
it changes all the time. | 0:05:15 | 0:05:17 | |
On the one hand it's a no-man's-land | 0:05:17 | 0:05:19 | |
and, on the other hand, it's a diverse and rich place | 0:05:19 | 0:05:22 | |
with masses of life. | 0:05:22 | 0:05:23 | |
Life is rich where rivers and seas meet. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:30 | |
And where we flock, so does the wildlife. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:37 | |
As we move into saltwater, | 0:05:39 | 0:05:42 | |
the big hitters start to surface - | 0:05:42 | 0:05:46 | |
dolphins, seals, | 0:05:46 | 0:05:48 | |
and even whales have all been spotted here. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:51 | |
We're now over the sunlit seaside, aren't we, Stuart? | 0:05:53 | 0:05:56 | |
It's completely changed. | 0:05:56 | 0:05:59 | |
Absolutely, yeah. We're right out in the outer estuary now. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:02 | |
The freshwater influence is a long way behind us, | 0:06:02 | 0:06:05 | |
the beaches are sandy. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:06 | |
If we were down at sea level now | 0:06:06 | 0:06:08 | |
what kind of birds and so on would we be looking at? | 0:06:08 | 0:06:10 | |
Auks - like razorbills and guillemots and puffins. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:13 | |
You've got fulmar, you'll have kittiwakes, you'll have gannets - | 0:06:13 | 0:06:16 | |
real marine species that you'd never find | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
in the freshwater parts of the estuary. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:21 | |
At the edge of the estuary, | 0:06:25 | 0:06:28 | |
we get a box-office view of the gannets of Bass Rock. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:31 | |
This swirling mass makes the most of food from the sea | 0:06:33 | 0:06:36 | |
and shelter from the land. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:38 | |
Where are we now? | 0:06:40 | 0:06:42 | |
We're just adjacent to the Isle of May - | 0:06:42 | 0:06:44 | |
very much the outer limit of the estuary. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:46 | |
We've flown the whole way from the freshwater of a river | 0:06:46 | 0:06:52 | |
to the saltwater of the open sea. | 0:06:52 | 0:06:55 | |
Over an extraordinary diversity of habitats | 0:06:55 | 0:06:58 | |
both human and natural - estuaries are worlds of their own. | 0:06:58 | 0:07:03 | |
20 million of us, | 0:07:10 | 0:07:12 | |
one third of the UK's population, live on an estuary. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:17 | |
Their flat shorelines are perfect for building, | 0:07:19 | 0:07:23 | |
so each of these coastal highways comes with its own gatekeeper. | 0:07:23 | 0:07:28 | |
Great cities surge up | 0:07:32 | 0:07:35 | |
where mighty rivers plunge into the sea. | 0:07:35 | 0:07:39 | |
It's fitting that the country's capital | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
crowns the most hard-working waterway of all - | 0:07:42 | 0:07:45 | |
the titanic Thames. | 0:07:45 | 0:07:48 | |
For centuries, Londoners have swallowed up the benefits | 0:07:50 | 0:07:53 | |
the estuary brings in. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:55 | |
The sea brought riches from abroad, | 0:07:57 | 0:07:59 | |
and the river supplies two thirds of the city's drinking water. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:03 | |
But the Victorians found a new job for old Father Thames - | 0:08:05 | 0:08:10 | |
doing their dirty work. | 0:08:10 | 0:08:13 | |
Tessa's getting to grips with a grubby tale of triumph and tragedy. | 0:08:16 | 0:08:22 | |
The power of the tide gave an eminent Victorian engineer | 0:08:23 | 0:08:27 | |
an extraordinary idea - | 0:08:27 | 0:08:30 | |
turn the Thames into a giant self-flushing loo. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:35 | |
The tidal range of the river is huge - around eight metres. | 0:08:36 | 0:08:42 | |
This powerful ebb and flow gave rise to an ingenious sewer plan - | 0:08:42 | 0:08:48 | |
release excrement as the tide turns, | 0:08:48 | 0:08:52 | |
and let the outgoing flow | 0:08:52 | 0:08:54 | |
flush London's waste way out to sea. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:58 | |
The city's relationship with the sea | 0:08:59 | 0:09:01 | |
spawned a sewer system that was the envy of the world. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:04 | |
Opened in 1865 by the Prince of Wales | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
this subterranean labyrinth | 0:09:07 | 0:09:09 | |
elevated its mastermind, Joseph Bazalgette, | 0:09:09 | 0:09:13 | |
to become a hero of the Victorian age. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:16 | |
Bazalgette's master plan demanded a warren of waste pipes, | 0:09:20 | 0:09:24 | |
a network over 1,000 miles long | 0:09:24 | 0:09:28 | |
to carry the capital's raw sewage out to the Thames. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:31 | |
It took six years to build, | 0:09:31 | 0:09:34 | |
constructed so well it still forms the backbone | 0:09:34 | 0:09:38 | |
of London's sewer complex. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:41 | |
Over 300 million bricks placed so precisely | 0:09:41 | 0:09:45 | |
they form watertight tunnels. | 0:09:45 | 0:09:47 | |
You know how to treat a girl, don't you, Rob? | 0:09:50 | 0:09:53 | |
I do, I take them only to the best spots. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:56 | |
Impressive as this labyrinth is, | 0:09:56 | 0:09:58 | |
it's only the means to a watery end. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:00 | |
The city's sewage still needed sweeping out to sea, | 0:10:00 | 0:10:04 | |
so it was piped towards the coast | 0:10:04 | 0:10:06 | |
to pass the problem onto the tide. | 0:10:06 | 0:10:09 | |
The muck flowed downstream | 0:10:09 | 0:10:11 | |
to arrive at the final triumph of the entire system, | 0:10:11 | 0:10:15 | |
the pumping station at Crossness. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:19 | |
This is staggering! | 0:10:27 | 0:10:31 | |
It's like some sort of ballroom. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:32 | |
It's a real indication of the level of pride | 0:10:39 | 0:10:42 | |
they took in their work, the beauty is just breathtaking. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:46 | |
And these huge pumps | 0:10:46 | 0:10:47 | |
are even named after members of the royal family. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:52 | |
The pumping stations were the final stage of Bazalgette's grand plan - | 0:10:55 | 0:11:00 | |
they pushed the sewage up into huge reservoirs, | 0:11:00 | 0:11:03 | |
to be stored until the tide began to turn. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:06 | |
When the tide started to ebb, | 0:11:12 | 0:11:13 | |
they released the sewage into the Thames just there. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:17 | |
They relied on the surge of seawater | 0:11:17 | 0:11:19 | |
to whisk Londoners' muck out of sight and out of mind. | 0:11:19 | 0:11:23 | |
This was Joseph Bazalgette's big tidal flush - | 0:11:23 | 0:11:27 | |
his plan to turn the Thames into one gigantic toilet bowl was complete. | 0:11:27 | 0:11:32 | |
Bazalgette was heralded as the city's saviour. | 0:11:34 | 0:11:38 | |
But is there a skeleton lurking in London's water closet? | 0:11:38 | 0:11:42 | |
Life may have been rosy for those in central London, | 0:11:43 | 0:11:46 | |
but it didn't smell so sweet for those living downstream. | 0:11:46 | 0:11:51 | |
Like a real-life toilet, the Thames is full of U-bends. | 0:11:54 | 0:12:00 | |
The waste wasn't clearing as fast as Bazalgette had imagined, | 0:12:00 | 0:12:04 | |
and the consequences turned out to be devastating. | 0:12:04 | 0:12:08 | |
It's the 3rd of September 1878, | 0:12:09 | 0:12:12 | |
the pleasure steamer The Princess Alice | 0:12:12 | 0:12:16 | |
is on its way back to London crammed with passengers. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:20 | |
The day-trippers had been enjoying fresh air | 0:12:20 | 0:12:22 | |
at the mouth of the estuary | 0:12:22 | 0:12:24 | |
but, returning to the city, near the sewage outlet, | 0:12:24 | 0:12:27 | |
the pleasure steamer was struck by disaster. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
It collides with another boat. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:36 | |
Hundreds are flung into the river, many will be drowned. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:41 | |
But it's even worse than that. | 0:12:41 | 0:12:43 | |
Revealing the gruesome fate of those floundering in the estuary | 0:12:46 | 0:12:49 | |
is local historian Joz Joslin. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:51 | |
So the vessel's upended, and hundreds of people are in the water. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:57 | |
Yes. And lots of them are women and children, | 0:12:57 | 0:13:00 | |
and they're screaming, | 0:13:00 | 0:13:02 | |
and unfortunately it's not water that they're in, | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
they're actually in sewage, so there was no oxygen. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:08 | |
A lot of them died because there was no air to breathe. | 0:13:08 | 0:13:12 | |
So they're either being suffocated or drowning. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:15 | |
Or poisoned. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:17 | |
How revolting. And the majority died? | 0:13:17 | 0:13:19 | |
Yes, the majority died. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:21 | |
They said that every street in the east end of London | 0:13:21 | 0:13:23 | |
had lost somebody, | 0:13:23 | 0:13:24 | |
because it was their Sunday school outings | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
that were on board the vessel. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:29 | |
The pleasure boat sank close to the sewage works, | 0:13:29 | 0:13:32 | |
and the timing could not have been worse. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:37 | |
The Beckton sewage outlet pipe carrying all of North London's waste | 0:13:37 | 0:13:41 | |
had just discharged its stinking load into the river. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:45 | |
Over 600 people choked to death in a toxic soup of human filth. | 0:13:47 | 0:13:52 | |
After the tragedy, | 0:13:58 | 0:14:00 | |
Bazalgette's sewage system came under the spotlight. | 0:14:00 | 0:14:05 | |
Members of the local historical society | 0:14:05 | 0:14:08 | |
read the words of their forefathers. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:11 | |
"There had been an accumulation of black, greasy, | 0:14:11 | 0:14:14 | |
"filth along the shore. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:16 | |
"The filth settles on the steps as the tide goes down." | 0:14:16 | 0:14:19 | |
"The river in hot weather is very bad. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:22 | |
"In some places it smells so bad you cannot stand it." | 0:14:22 | 0:14:25 | |
A commission of inquiry delivered a damning indictment, | 0:14:25 | 0:14:29 | |
concluding "it is neither necessary or justifiable | 0:14:29 | 0:14:33 | |
"to discharge sewage in its crude state | 0:14:33 | 0:14:37 | |
"into any parts of the Thames". | 0:14:37 | 0:14:39 | |
The Pall Mall Gazette took Bazalgette to task, | 0:14:39 | 0:14:43 | |
stating "the natural man in him, | 0:14:43 | 0:14:45 | |
"puts off the evil day of having to admit failure." | 0:14:45 | 0:14:49 | |
Luckily for Bazalgette, the muck didn't stick, | 0:14:50 | 0:14:54 | |
but London did pull the plug on his big tidal flush. | 0:14:54 | 0:14:59 | |
In 1887, a new system started. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:03 | |
Now the solid human waste was pumped into vessels like this. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:07 | |
The excrement was shipped out to the open sea and dumped. | 0:15:07 | 0:15:12 | |
They were known locally as Bovril boats, amongst other things. | 0:15:12 | 0:15:16 | |
We used to call them... Well, never mind what we used to call them! | 0:15:16 | 0:15:20 | |
What did you call them? No, I'm not saying. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:23 | |
They used to come and moor - they had moorings for them - | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
and they would take the residue of it. | 0:15:26 | 0:15:28 | |
Cos all the fluids were taken off, | 0:15:28 | 0:15:30 | |
so it was almost solid the stuff | 0:15:30 | 0:15:32 | |
that they took out - human detritus - | 0:15:32 | 0:15:35 | |
so that it wasn't into the river. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:38 | |
Sewage carrying ships didn't just do the dirty work of London - | 0:15:38 | 0:15:42 | |
they were once a common sight on our estuaries, | 0:15:42 | 0:15:45 | |
cleaning up Glasgow, Belfast and other coastal cities. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:50 | |
London's Bovril boats were finally pensioned off in 1998. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:58 | |
Bazalgette's tunnels still bring raw sewage here | 0:16:01 | 0:16:04 | |
to the Crossness Works, | 0:16:04 | 0:16:07 | |
but now the solid matter's burnt off to make electricity. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:10 | |
The liquid sewage is treated - | 0:16:13 | 0:16:15 | |
it goes from this... | 0:16:15 | 0:16:17 | |
to this. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:19 | |
And the cleaned-up fluid? | 0:16:19 | 0:16:21 | |
It still gets the big tidal heave-ho, | 0:16:21 | 0:16:23 | |
and is discharged into the Thames, where the river and the sea collide. | 0:16:23 | 0:16:27 | |
The Severn estuary used to pose a fearsome challenge | 0:16:37 | 0:16:40 | |
on any journey between England and Wales. | 0:16:40 | 0:16:43 | |
The two countries were divided by this massive tear in our coastline. | 0:16:45 | 0:16:50 | |
Avoiding it meant a diversion deep inland. | 0:16:51 | 0:16:56 | |
Even so, only hardy travellers would brave the deadly waters. | 0:16:56 | 0:17:01 | |
Today, a concrete solution spans this vast channel. | 0:17:08 | 0:17:12 | |
But conquering the Severn was a bold venture fraught with peril, | 0:17:14 | 0:17:18 | |
as Mark is about to discover. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:21 | |
Dashing over the estuary from Wales to England, | 0:17:23 | 0:17:26 | |
commuters take the elegant crossings their lives depend on for granted. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:32 | |
But imagine a world before this bridge was possible. | 0:17:34 | 0:17:37 | |
A world without steel cables, | 0:17:37 | 0:17:40 | |
without reinforced concrete, | 0:17:40 | 0:17:42 | |
when the sea reigned supreme. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:46 | |
That was a challenge faced by the Victorians | 0:17:46 | 0:17:50 | |
to cross the River Severn. | 0:17:50 | 0:17:52 | |
The formidable collision of river and sea facing the early engineers | 0:17:56 | 0:18:01 | |
can still be experienced. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:03 | |
It's one of the most dangerous seaways in the world, | 0:18:05 | 0:18:08 | |
and I'm just a little bit excited. | 0:18:08 | 0:18:10 | |
The Severn Area Rescue Association | 0:18:12 | 0:18:15 | |
is going to pit me against the ebb tide. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:19 | |
Cast off! | 0:18:21 | 0:18:23 | |
The power of the tide here is just extraordinary! | 0:18:23 | 0:18:25 | |
As the tide goes out it's like a maelstrom. | 0:18:32 | 0:18:36 | |
The waters were an immense challenge | 0:18:36 | 0:18:40 | |
but, by the 1840s, crossing the river by boat was old hat. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:44 | |
An irresistible new force was spreading across Britain - | 0:18:48 | 0:18:52 | |
the railways. | 0:18:52 | 0:18:53 | |
Come hell or high water, | 0:18:53 | 0:18:56 | |
estuaries weren't going to stand in the way of progress. | 0:18:56 | 0:18:59 | |
The great Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
is a hero of mine - | 0:19:06 | 0:19:08 | |
he'd already managed to cross the Avon gorge | 0:19:08 | 0:19:11 | |
with a mighty suspension bridge. | 0:19:11 | 0:19:13 | |
When his railway came to Bristol, he wanted to cross into South Wales, | 0:19:13 | 0:19:17 | |
and planned an even bigger suspension bridge. | 0:19:17 | 0:19:20 | |
Here are the preliminary sketches. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:22 | |
The biggest problem | 0:19:23 | 0:19:25 | |
was the sheer scale of the span that Brunel required - | 0:19:25 | 0:19:29 | |
over 1,000 feet. | 0:19:29 | 0:19:31 | |
He left a little note in his notebook, | 0:19:33 | 0:19:36 | |
which says "is 1,100ft practicable?" | 0:19:36 | 0:19:41 | |
Brunel's bridge was never built, | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
but if taking trains over the water defeated the best brain of the age, | 0:19:46 | 0:19:51 | |
how about going underneath? | 0:19:51 | 0:19:53 | |
A tunnel - was that the answer? | 0:19:56 | 0:19:59 | |
Digging deep to create a railway under the water - | 0:19:59 | 0:20:03 | |
this was very bold, big thinking. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:08 | |
This is one of the original drawings of the tunnel from around 1887, | 0:20:08 | 0:20:12 | |
and you can see how the track comes down | 0:20:12 | 0:20:16 | |
underneath the deepest part of the Bristol channel here, in The Shoots, | 0:20:16 | 0:20:20 | |
and gradually up to the Welsh side. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:23 | |
So what we've got here is around seven miles of railway track. | 0:20:23 | 0:20:28 | |
That passage under the estuary is now a vital link | 0:20:29 | 0:20:33 | |
between England and Wales. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:36 | |
Carrying over 250 trains a day. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:40 | |
Passengers are oblivious to a catastrophe | 0:20:41 | 0:20:45 | |
that nearly sank the tunnel before the first train ran, | 0:20:45 | 0:20:50 | |
and is a problem that still lurks below. | 0:20:50 | 0:20:53 | |
So, here we go. | 0:20:58 | 0:20:59 | |
I've been granted access to a shadowy water world | 0:20:59 | 0:21:04 | |
few get to see. | 0:21:04 | 0:21:07 | |
It's great - we're just coming into the cutting, | 0:21:07 | 0:21:09 | |
the portal's ahead, and we're about to go under the sea. | 0:21:09 | 0:21:14 | |
Ah! Wahey! | 0:21:18 | 0:21:21 | |
Isn't that fantastic?! | 0:21:21 | 0:21:22 | |
We're heading for the deepest point in the tunnel. | 0:21:24 | 0:21:27 | |
Just 50ft above us | 0:21:30 | 0:21:32 | |
millions of gallons of water are swirling around - | 0:21:32 | 0:21:36 | |
the River Severn and the sea are in full flow. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:40 | |
Keeping the water out here is hard enough, | 0:21:40 | 0:21:44 | |
but can you imagine if there was a flood down here? | 0:21:44 | 0:21:46 | |
With an estuary hanging over their heads, | 0:21:49 | 0:21:52 | |
engineers knew there'd be seepage of seawater, | 0:21:52 | 0:21:55 | |
but it was freshwater that nearly drowned the project. | 0:21:55 | 0:22:00 | |
Nobody expected this - | 0:22:02 | 0:22:06 | |
a raging torrent! | 0:22:06 | 0:22:09 | |
They'd broken through to an underground spring. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:12 | |
In October 1879, water began to pour into the tunnel. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:18 | |
The workers fled for their lives. | 0:22:20 | 0:22:22 | |
The disaster struck when a shaft dug on the Welsh coast | 0:22:24 | 0:22:29 | |
cut into an underground river deep below the surface. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:33 | |
For four years, the engineers made desperate attempts | 0:22:36 | 0:22:40 | |
to block the freshwater spring, | 0:22:40 | 0:22:43 | |
but every effort proved futile. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:46 | |
And it's been flooding in at this alarming rate ever since. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:53 | |
If they couldn't stop the spring water, they'd have to live with it. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:57 | |
The only solution were pumps, | 0:23:01 | 0:23:02 | |
massive ones like this that pump the water out as fast as it comes in, | 0:23:02 | 0:23:08 | |
right up to the surface. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:09 | |
Leighton Jenkins helps keep the tracks dry today. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:16 | |
So what would happen if the pumps actually failed? | 0:23:16 | 0:23:19 | |
Every second counts, | 0:23:19 | 0:23:21 | |
as soon as the pumps stop we'd have to inform the control | 0:23:21 | 0:23:24 | |
within 10 minutes to shut the tunnel itself, | 0:23:24 | 0:23:27 | |
and within 20 minutes we've got water coming up through the tracks, | 0:23:27 | 0:23:30 | |
so every second absolutely counts. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:32 | |
But have they ever failed? | 0:23:32 | 0:23:34 | |
No, not as far as I know, no. Not while I'm on a shift anyway. | 0:23:34 | 0:23:38 | |
The railways had proved irresistible. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:43 | |
With rival Victorian companies vying for routes, | 0:23:43 | 0:23:47 | |
by the time it was finished the tunnel already had a competitor. | 0:23:47 | 0:23:52 | |
In 1879, trains had started to roll over the estuary, | 0:23:56 | 0:24:02 | |
but the bridge's sturdy uprights - | 0:24:02 | 0:24:04 | |
always an obstacle to shipping - | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
would ultimately prove its downfall. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:09 | |
Do you see, that's a tower | 0:24:12 | 0:24:14 | |
where the railway bridge once crossed the Severn Estuary. | 0:24:14 | 0:24:20 | |
I've got a photograph | 0:24:20 | 0:24:22 | |
that shows the stanchions marching across the river - | 0:24:22 | 0:24:26 | |
now totally destroyed. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:28 | |
The raging waters where river and sea smash together | 0:24:31 | 0:24:35 | |
would deliver a fatal blow to the rail bridge. | 0:24:35 | 0:24:39 | |
In October 1960, the Arkendale, carrying oil, | 0:24:43 | 0:24:48 | |
and the Wastdale, laden with petrol, | 0:24:48 | 0:24:51 | |
were heading for combustible collision. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:55 | |
The Arkendale was carried in by the surging tide. | 0:24:55 | 0:25:00 | |
That powerful current would drive it into the Wastdale | 0:25:00 | 0:25:05 | |
on a foggy night at Sharpness Docks. | 0:25:05 | 0:25:09 | |
As Alan Hayward knows. | 0:25:09 | 0:25:11 | |
They were coming upriver intending to come into the docks here, | 0:25:13 | 0:25:16 | |
but they were accidentally swept past. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:19 | |
And then they collided and became, in effect, stuck together. | 0:25:19 | 0:25:23 | |
Disabled ships in thick fog, | 0:25:24 | 0:25:27 | |
carrying 600 tonnes of inflammable cargo | 0:25:27 | 0:25:31 | |
at the mercy of a swirling sea, | 0:25:31 | 0:25:33 | |
propelled them to disaster. | 0:25:33 | 0:25:36 | |
They were desperate to separate from each other, | 0:25:38 | 0:25:41 | |
fighting by steering in different directions, | 0:25:41 | 0:25:43 | |
but it just didn't work. | 0:25:43 | 0:25:45 | |
And they only had about four minutes | 0:25:45 | 0:25:47 | |
before they would reach the railway bridge. | 0:25:47 | 0:25:49 | |
The rail bridge across the Severn loomed out of the fog, | 0:25:51 | 0:25:55 | |
a collision with the ships carrying oil and petrol was now inevitable. | 0:25:55 | 0:26:00 | |
A lot of sparks would have been created | 0:26:07 | 0:26:08 | |
which ignited the petrol in one of the vessels. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:11 | |
The fuel, of course, spilt out over the river, | 0:26:14 | 0:26:16 | |
so the whole river became a mass of flame. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:18 | |
First mate Percy Simmonds was aboard one of the tankers. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:26 | |
His son Chris was 13 at the time. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:29 | |
I try to imagine that night and what he was going through, | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
and it must have been just terrible with the flames and everything. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:35 | |
I'm just sure he was determined to make it across this river somehow | 0:26:35 | 0:26:39 | |
and make it back to us. | 0:26:39 | 0:26:43 | |
Daylight and a low tide revealed wrecks of the fuel tankers | 0:26:43 | 0:26:47 | |
smouldering on a sandbank. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:51 | |
Soon the first body was found. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
They identified the body there, | 0:26:54 | 0:26:56 | |
and they, you know, let Mum know that, yeah, it was definitely Perce. | 0:26:56 | 0:27:02 | |
Chris's father Percy died along with four others | 0:27:02 | 0:27:06 | |
on that terrible evening. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:08 | |
The damaged bridge was too expensive to repair, it was demolished. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:14 | |
But each day, when the tide recedes, | 0:27:14 | 0:27:17 | |
scars of tragedy are revealed. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:20 | |
Out there, of course, are two hulks, | 0:27:20 | 0:27:22 | |
buried now in the sands that have been washed over by countless tides. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:27 | |
But they're still there. They're there as monuments. | 0:27:27 | 0:27:30 | |
They're here as a reminder to all of us. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:32 | |
It's immensely humbling | 0:27:35 | 0:27:37 | |
to be next to such a vast body of brooding water. | 0:27:37 | 0:27:43 | |
Even on a calm day like this | 0:27:43 | 0:27:47 | |
one can feel the power | 0:27:47 | 0:27:49 | |
where rivers and sea collide. | 0:27:49 | 0:27:52 | |
Surging waters urge us on to fresh endeavours. | 0:28:02 | 0:28:06 | |
And we're not alone in finding creature comforts | 0:28:08 | 0:28:11 | |
around the fringes of our great seaways. | 0:28:11 | 0:28:14 | |
The tide brings in the bounty | 0:28:16 | 0:28:18 | |
that makes our estuaries brim with vitality. | 0:28:18 | 0:28:21 | |
Safe havens that offer boundless prospects. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:35 | |
Where rivers collide with the sea our coast comes alive | 0:28:35 | 0:28:40 | |
and opportunity awaits. | 0:28:40 | 0:28:42 | |
If it ever came to pass that Mr Corbyn were the Prime Minister, | 0:29:11 | 0:29:15 | |
this country would be a basket case. | 0:29:15 | 0:29:18 | |
Well, I think we're a basket case now. Have you seen Southern Rail? | 0:29:18 | 0:29:21 | |
Have you seen the National Health Service? | 0:29:21 | 0:29:23 | |
And we'll be more of a basket case once she triggers Article 50. | 0:29:23 | 0:29:27 |