Blackpool Coast


Blackpool

Similar Content

Browse content similar to Blackpool. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

Blackpool's a resort with global aspirations.

0:00:320:00:36

Its claim, that it's the world's first working class seaside resort.

0:00:420:00:47

But one visitor not here for donkey rides and ice cream

0:00:500:00:54

is Hermione Cockburn. She may be an earth scientist

0:00:540:00:57

but she can't avoid aircraft on this coast.

0:00:570:01:00

The plane just landing behind me never leaves UK airspace.

0:01:020:01:06

It belongs to the Ordnance Survey Flying Unit.

0:01:060:01:10

The Ordnance Survey makes over 150 sorties a year from their base

0:01:110:01:15

in Blackpool. I've come into town to meet Trevor Hilton,

0:01:150:01:19

one of the unit's aerial surveyors.

0:01:190:01:22

So, why Blackpool?

0:01:220:01:24

We map the whole of the country

0:01:240:01:26

and Blackpool's the airport nearest to the centre of Britain.

0:01:260:01:30

Another advantage, as you see, is the lovely weather.

0:01:300:01:33

This stretch of coast gets very good weather, a lot of sunshine,

0:01:330:01:37

so we're not going to be fogbound many days, or stuck on the airport.

0:01:370:01:40

-What are you actually doing up there?

-Britain has one of the most

0:01:400:01:44

comprehensive mapping databases in the world, and we update that

0:01:440:01:47

by various means, mainly on the ground,

0:01:470:01:50

but sometimes it's more efficient to do it by air.

0:01:500:01:52

The OS use a super-high resolution camera, a whopping 128 megapixels.

0:01:540:02:00

The photographs are processed at their Southampton HQ.

0:02:000:02:04

But computer software still needs help with detailed variations

0:02:040:02:08

like new housing, roads or coastal changes. These are traced in by hand.

0:02:080:02:14

This then becomes the basis for the standard OS maps we rely on.

0:02:140:02:18

As somebody who's flown the entire coastline of Britain,

0:02:180:02:23

-what's your favourite stretch?

-I've a few.

0:02:230:02:26

Probably the west coast of Scotland is my favourite.

0:02:260:02:29

There's some dramatic sights, like the Cullins arising on Skye

0:02:290:02:33

straight out of the sea. Cornwall, as well.

0:02:330:02:35

You can see this clear blue water, the white beaches. Only problem is

0:02:350:02:39

you see these people as specks, and sometimes I wish I was down there

0:02:390:02:43

enjoying myself not stuck up 5,000 feet working.

0:02:430:02:45

Trevor's favourite aerial views are at opposite ends of the country,

0:02:470:02:51

but one of the Ordnance Survey's biggest challenges

0:02:510:02:54

is right on their doorstep.

0:02:540:02:56

Formby Sands, just south of Blackpool,

0:02:560:02:59

is the most dynamic dune system in England.

0:02:590:03:02

Here, whole features have been wiped off the map.

0:03:020:03:06

The OS are going up to photograph Formby's changing coastline,

0:03:120:03:16

but with no spare room in the plane, I've come to meet coastal engineer,

0:03:160:03:20

Paul Wisse, to discover what's happening on the ground.

0:03:200:03:24

Paul, I'd say this is a fairly typical coastal dune system.

0:03:240:03:29

What's striking about this coastline is the speed that it's rolling back.

0:03:290:03:33

25 years ago, this was a caravan park where we're standing.

0:03:330:03:37

So, literally, the dunes have rolled back inland and engulfed...

0:03:370:03:40

Buried beneath us are caravans.

0:03:400:03:43

So do, sometimes, caravans get exhumed?

0:03:430:03:45

There haven't been any yet,

0:03:450:03:47

but in the next couple of years it's very likely that some will...

0:03:470:03:50

-pop out onto the beach.

-OK, can you see any evidence of former caravans?

0:03:500:03:54

You can see, just down below us,

0:03:540:03:55

an edge where the foundations of the car park were.

0:03:550:03:59

I got the children, over in the distance, helping pick up

0:03:590:04:02

some of the rubble, which has been washed out by the erosion.

0:04:020:04:07

5,000 feet up, Trevor is taking pictures that will show us

0:04:110:04:14

how Formby's dunes are shifting.

0:04:140:04:17

Meanwhile, Paul and his team have taken me out to get

0:04:190:04:22

the perspective from sea level.

0:04:220:04:25

Paul, how fast are the dunes along this coastline changing?

0:04:250:04:29

On average, over the last 100 years, they've eroded by five metres a year.

0:04:290:04:33

The Sefton Coast is mainly made of sand, which is readily moulded

0:04:330:04:37

by the coastal processes, such as the waves, tide, the wind.

0:04:370:04:41

There used to be a cafe on Formby Point,

0:04:410:04:44

-which has been lost to erosion.

-Really?

-Yeah, got some photos.

0:04:440:04:48

-This was the cafe in 1958.

-Right.

0:04:480:04:52

Just three years later, in 1961...

0:04:520:04:55

Oh, my goodness! So that was wave action?

0:04:550:04:57

That's been undermined by the coastal erosion, by the waves.

0:04:570:05:00

-It's just collapsed.

-What happened to the cafe?

0:05:000:05:04

According to my GPS, it's right beneath us.

0:05:040:05:09

-Beneath us here? But we're 100 metres or so...

-50 metres off shore.

0:05:090:05:13

AIRCRAFT ENGINE

0:05:130:05:15

Look, there's the plane going over.

0:05:150:05:17

The OS are up there taking our aerial survey.

0:05:170:05:20

You were saying that this coastline has been eroding for 100 years,

0:05:200:05:25

where would the coastline have been back then?

0:05:250:05:27

Keith?

0:05:280:05:30

We're going an awfully long way out!

0:05:350:05:39

-Another 350 metres.

-Really?

0:05:400:05:44

So right about where we are now, is where the coast was in 1906.

0:05:440:05:48

That is incredible.

0:05:480:05:50

-We're half a kilometre from the dunes!

-Yes.

0:05:500:05:53

That's half a kilometre of Lancashire coast wiped off the map

0:05:550:06:00

in just 100 years. The dramatic erosion here at Formby

0:06:000:06:04

is a combination of the soft sand and high tidal range.

0:06:040:06:09

What I want to know is how the Ordnance Survey's aerial photographs

0:06:110:06:14

capture the history of this eroding coastline.

0:06:140:06:17

-Hi, Trevor!

-Hiya!

0:06:200:06:22

So how did you get on? How was Formby Sands from the air?

0:06:220:06:25

We've got a couple of photos here that we took earlier at Formby.

0:06:250:06:28

-Right.

-It was a beautiful morning.

0:06:280:06:30

It looks fantastic! You can really see the line of the dunes, there.

0:06:310:06:37

We've got an earlier shot, here, taken back in 1978.

0:06:370:06:40

-You can see here a caravan park. See this bend, here?

-Yep.

0:06:420:06:46

-That bend there.

-So that's the caravan park that's now

0:06:460:06:49

-completely buried by these dunes?

-Indeed, yes.

0:06:490:06:52

How soon before we can expect to see these changes on these kind of maps?

0:06:520:06:57

Every week we're producing new sheets, and individual sheets,

0:06:570:07:01

it will be a number of years depending on rate of change.

0:07:010:07:04

So next time you're on the beach and a plane flies overhead,

0:07:040:07:09

it may be adding you to the map of Britain.

0:07:090:07:12

There are changes happening around our coast

0:07:170:07:20

that don't show up on the map.

0:07:200:07:21

The recent influx of migrant workers is one of them.

0:07:210:07:25

My name's Rafal Sekulski. Everybody calls me Ralf.

0:07:250:07:28

It's shorter. I come from Poland, and I work on Big One.

0:07:280:07:33

SCREAMING

0:07:320:07:33

It's the biggest roller coaster in Europe, 235 feet up,

0:07:330:07:38

up to 85 miles an hour you going on it.

0:07:380:07:40

Part of my job is to make sure that people are safe on Big One.

0:07:400:07:44

And they have fun.

0:07:440:07:47

The first time coming here I didn't really want to go on it,

0:07:470:07:50

cos I really scared of heights, but they pushed me in a train.

0:07:500:07:54

SCREAMING

0:08:010:08:04

I was really scared the first time.

0:08:050:08:07

When I went out of the train my legs were shaking, but now it's OK.

0:08:070:08:13

There's about seven or eight thousand Polish in Blackpool.

0:08:130:08:17

Sometimes when I walk on the prom, every second person speak Polish!

0:08:170:08:21

I just turn around, "oh, my God!" So many of them.

0:08:210:08:24

Sometimes I get a feeling like I'm on Baltic Sea, you know?

0:08:240:08:27

And the English are just foreigners who came abroad!

0:08:270:08:31

# I read the news today, oh boy... #

0:08:310:08:38

8,000 Poles in Blackpool, Lancashire - who'd have thought it?

0:08:380:08:43

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS