0:00:40 > 0:00:44# Listen to the girl
0:00:44 > 0:00:47# As she takes on half the world
0:00:47 > 0:00:52# Moving up and so alive... #
0:00:52 > 0:00:57There'll always be a Blackpool. Still going, with the cheeky postcards,
0:00:57 > 0:00:59the whirl of candyfloss and karaoke.
0:01:04 > 0:01:10Here, the Ribble Estuary settles into the vast five-mile swathe of sand,
0:01:10 > 0:01:14perfect for deck chairs, donkeys, pack-a-macs and chips.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16# ..Walking back to you
0:01:16 > 0:01:23# Is the hardest thing that I could do... #
0:01:23 > 0:01:29Blackpool boomed as a fleeting escape for whole townfuls of workers from the Lancashire mills,
0:01:29 > 0:01:32people new to the luxury of holidays.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36Today, it's overrun with the lads and ladettes of Scotland.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40This is the seaside people like to be beside.
0:01:40 > 0:01:45I'm very proud of Blackpool. It's my home town. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else,
0:01:45 > 0:01:46I like it here.
0:01:46 > 0:01:51"Sand-grown" means that you're born and bred here.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53Near the sands or on the beach.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57I wasn't actually born on the beach, but that's what it means. Like a Cockney's born
0:01:57 > 0:02:01within the sound of Bow bells, a "sand-grown" is born in Blackpool.
0:02:01 > 0:02:07I remember coming here as a kid to the tower, and coming up here, I was quite frightened.
0:02:07 > 0:02:08I wanted to hold onto the side,
0:02:08 > 0:02:11I wasn't keen on the height at all.
0:02:11 > 0:02:17At this time of year, I've got to replace or check some 10,000 lamps on the tower.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21They get battered over the winter in the winds. One of my other jobs is...
0:02:21 > 0:02:25actually cleaning the Walk of Faith, a glass panel in the floor.
0:02:25 > 0:02:30It obviously gets dirty. It's 300 foot up in the air,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33so it's slightly different than a normal window to clean.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37It concentrates your mind when you're at 300 feet. If you make a mistake, that's it.
0:02:39 > 0:02:44If you're scared of heights, you won't get used to it. You can either do it or you can't.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47If you're not happy with it, there's no point trying.
0:02:48 > 0:02:54Coming up to Easter, when everything is kicking in and people are starting to come back to the town,
0:02:54 > 0:02:59there are noisy areas and places where crowds are a problem.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03But it's my town, I'm not going anywhere, it's a great place.
0:03:09 > 0:03:14But Blackpool's carnival atmosphere comes at a cost.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21With stag and hen nights turning the town into a binge-drinking capital
0:03:21 > 0:03:24and one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in the UK,
0:03:24 > 0:03:27the cheeky postcard has caught up with the times.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00The Blackpool strip gives way
0:04:00 > 0:04:02to the magnificent Morecambe Bay.
0:04:06 > 0:04:11Over 120 square miles, the tides recede completely,
0:04:11 > 0:04:16exposing a dizzying expanse of sand flats and quicksands.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21It's a place of beauty, solitude and menace
0:04:21 > 0:04:23for our historian, Neil Oliver.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38There's a long history of people who have perished on the sands of Morecambe Bay.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41Most recently, it was a band of Chinese cockle pickers
0:04:41 > 0:04:44who were drowned when they were cut off by the incoming tide.
0:04:44 > 0:04:50Over the centuries, hundreds have died in the bay, but that hasn't stopped locals and visitors alike
0:04:50 > 0:04:53wanting to venture out onto the sands.
0:04:53 > 0:04:58You have to have respect for an area like this. It changes...
0:04:58 > 0:05:00every morning you get up and look out of the window.
0:05:00 > 0:05:05I study the bay, I study the tides, I like to look out there.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09I just think it's a wonderful place.
0:05:11 > 0:05:16Cedric Robinson knows the perils of the quicksands like no-one else. He's spent the last 42 years
0:05:16 > 0:05:19guiding walkers safely across the bay.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24This is one of the strangest landscapes I've ever been in, I think.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28It is a wonderful environment, Morecambe Bay,
0:05:28 > 0:05:32and I believe it is the largest tidal estuary in Britain.
0:05:32 > 0:05:39I mean, it is a dangerous place, but not if you're out there with someone who knows what they're doing.
0:05:39 > 0:05:45We'd better put a marker in here, I think. Just work it down into the sand.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49'Cedric still uses the traditional laurel branches to mark a safe route.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52'His knowledge comes with years of experience.'
0:05:52 > 0:05:55What are you looking for as you're putting these in?
0:05:55 > 0:05:58Well, with being on the sands all my life,
0:05:58 > 0:06:03I can read these sands like you would open up a newspaper in the morning and read it.
0:06:03 > 0:06:09And...it's only with following the sands and studying them, which I do.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14I live right on the edge. I get up and have my breakfast and I can look right across the bay.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18If there's a combination of high tides, heavy rainfall and strong winds,
0:06:18 > 0:06:22then it is a totally different environment to today.
0:06:22 > 0:06:27And distance is so deceptive when you're out here. So deceptive.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30A few years ago, there was four lads came to Morecambe,
0:06:30 > 0:06:33it was a summer's evening and they went for a stroll.
0:06:33 > 0:06:38Two of them were more adventurous and took their shoes and socks off and went out into the bay.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40Within ten minutes, they drowned.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45The distances are so great and the sands so flat,
0:06:45 > 0:06:50it's hard to believe how fast the tide can come in and how deep the waters can suddenly become.
0:06:50 > 0:06:55And that's the mistake it's just too easy to make.
0:06:55 > 0:07:00The infamous Morecambe quicksand forms in large dips, known locally as "melgraves",
0:07:00 > 0:07:03along the river channels after high tides.
0:07:03 > 0:07:08The sand becomes supersaturated with water until it can no longer support the weight of a person.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13Within a few strides of our safe route,
0:07:13 > 0:07:15the firm sand suddenly gives way.
0:07:15 > 0:07:20- Now, the stick's going further there, look.- That's... That's amazing.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23Look at that, it's going in deeper, better still.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26Fantastic, look how it's moving!
0:07:26 > 0:07:29It feels like a skin of sand over the water.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31- Look at that stick going in now. - Yeah.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33Eh? Oh, this is good here!
0:07:33 > 0:07:37I'm not pleased about how much you're enjoying this, Cedric.
0:07:37 > 0:07:39Let's have a look at Neil, where's he going?
0:07:39 > 0:07:42A little bit to go yet, Neil.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44I like being in this much danger. This is good!
0:07:46 > 0:07:48Oh!
0:07:48 > 0:07:50Wow! That's amazing, look at it!
0:07:50 > 0:07:53- Yeah.- It's like breaking the skin
0:07:53 > 0:07:58- on a rice pudding or something. - It is, yeah. Come on... Come on...
0:08:00 > 0:08:03Cedric's expertise is no mere hobby.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05So treacherous are these sands
0:08:05 > 0:08:07that a special appointment was made,
0:08:07 > 0:08:09Queen's Guide to the Sands.
0:08:11 > 0:08:16How did the post of official guide come about?
0:08:16 > 0:08:19Well, there was so many people lost their lives.
0:08:19 > 0:08:26This was in the middle 1500s, 1530s, I think it was, there was a petition got up and presented to the King,
0:08:26 > 0:08:28and from that time on, they were royalty-appointed.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31'Cedric is now the 25th
0:08:31 > 0:08:32'in the long line of guides
0:08:32 > 0:08:34'appointed ever since.'
0:08:34 > 0:08:37What happens when you retire?
0:08:37 > 0:08:41That'll be the saddest day of my life, won't it?
0:08:41 > 0:08:44I just enjoy what I do.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48But somebody has to follow in the footsteps of the sands guide.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51Hundreds follow in my footsteps every weekend.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55I just think it's a wonderful place, I have such a love of the bay,
0:08:55 > 0:08:57and...but respect as well.