East Anglia Coast


East Anglia

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Transcript


LineFromTo

-Oh, my God!

-Heave! 2-6! Heave!

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We're back, at the very edge of our isles.

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But now we're on a whole new kind of adventure.

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An unique Great Guide to our coast.

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But this is a guide beyond anything you'll find in your average

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tourist brochure.

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A guide crammed with local knowledge,

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amazing discoveries and stunning secret spots.

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Coast and her expert crew have spent over ten years navigating

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this ever-changing natural wonder.

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And now we're bringing it all together, and more,

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to give you the ultimate guide to our coast.

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We've selected eight stretches of British coast.

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North, south, east, west,

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and some of the best bits in-between.

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Each week, we'll be taking to the sea

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in a remarkable array of boats and ships.

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We'll have a completely fresh perspective on the coast.

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We'll seek out charismatic characters.

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Andy, fancy seeing you here!

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Momentous events.

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This is Britain's most deadly shoreline.

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Secret spots and surprising stories.

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There's no denying that there's a charge to be had from

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holding something like this.

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A brand-new view of our coast,

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with all the inside info you need to enjoy these shorelines like a local.

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Ahoy, sailors! Haul away!

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This time, I'm heading for East Anglia.

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This is Coast.

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The Great Guide.

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The East Coast of England.

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Don't be fooled by these sleepy-looking shores.

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Expert eyes reveal a dynamic,

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enigmatic, extraordinary coast.

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One that pits man against nature.

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Shifting sands, collapsing cliffs,

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an ever-changing edge devoured by the sea.

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Revealing some of the most stunning wildlife in the world.

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And jaw-dropping secrets of the past.

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Awash with stories,

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the Coast experts have dug deep into this shoreline.

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It was here that the island of Britain was born.

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Seven, eight, nine thousand years ago,

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we couldn't have done this, could we? We would have been on land.

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And ancient kings were laid to rest with astonishing treasures.

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This is Britain's Tutankhamen's mask.

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A coast with a wartime record of epic proportions.

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It's the sort of place James Bond gets brought, isn't it?

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-That's right, that's right.

-When he's been caught!

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Where plucky people live on the brink, battling Mother Nature.

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My God!

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What an incredible sight!

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Now we're back with our Great Guide to this shape-shifting coast.

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And we're going to go further than the tourist books to reveal

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its unique character.

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History, geology, wildlife, momentous events.

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This is Coast's Great Guide to East Anglia.

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Hopping between boats, I'll be making my way down this coast,

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revealing the very best sights and stories the shore has to offer.

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Gathering the inside info from those in the know.

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It's a big lump of Yarmouth history that's got to be preserved.

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I'll be embarking from Norfolk's Blakeney Point.

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Cruising around the coast to Happisburgh and Great Yarmouth,

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and then sailing south to Suffolk and the mysterious Orford Ness.

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Along the way, I'll be compiling our great East Anglian Guide from

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a wider canvas of stories that stretches all the way from

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The Wash in the north, to Canvey Island in the south.

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East Anglia, a natural beauty.

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The stage for stunning wildlife.

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At Blakeney Point, low-lying lands merge seamlessly with the sea.

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Creating a nature reserve of global repute.

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It's where I'm starting my first voyage.

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Here on England's eastern edge,

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we have an intimate relationship with the water.

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Little jetties dot the shores like coastal taxi ranks,

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and I'm going to hitch a ride on one to go and visit some seals.

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Ajay!

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-Hello, Neil.

-How are you doing?

-Very well, thanks.

-Good to see you.

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-And you.

-Isn't this perfect?

-Perfect day.

-Yeah.

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Seal watching is a must-do in this neck of the woods.

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And they live in a unique location.

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Blakeney Point was Britain's first coastal nature reserve,

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established in 1912.

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A trailblazer in the science of ecology.

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The grey seal colony here is England's biggest and one of

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the few places grey and common seals live side by side.

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A sight to behold for our Great Guide.

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National Trust ranger Ajay Tegala

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has a favourite place to spot the seals.

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What kind of seals are those we can see?

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Those are mostly common seals on the tip there.

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For a novice like me, what is the difference between

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a common seal and a grey seal?

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The common seals generally are the cuter ones.

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So these behind us, they've got nice round, smiley faces. Quite cat-like.

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Whereas the grey seals are larger and they've got more

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speckling on them and they've got more pointed, long noses.

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So they've got more of a dog-like appearance.

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-Oh, there's a grey.

-Oh, yes, yeah.

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-Yeah, I see what you mean. Big Alsatian dog face.

-Yeah.

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At Blakeney, greys outnumber the commons by 3:1.

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Why's the colony doing so well? Why are grey seals thriving here?

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They're top of the food chain. So they're filling a niche, really.

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-There's nothing to predate them, there's plenty of food.

-A-huh.

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It's a safe place for them.

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Is there anything that we have done as a population

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-that's made life better for these mammals?

-It's what we're not doing.

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So in the past, they were shot, they were hunted,

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they were controlled by fishermen and so they saw man as a threat.

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But that's no longer the case.

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And some of the old people that used to shoot them are now taking

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people out on their seal trips to see them and enjoy them.

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It's not just seals that gather here in huge numbers.

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The sand and mudbanks of the East Anglian Coast

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are a mecca for over 100,000 wading birds.

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Why is that?

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Bird-loving Miranda Krestovnikoff searched for answers on The Wash.

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The seasonal home of choice for knot, oyster-catcher,

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redshank and dunlin.

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Out here, the horizon seems to stretch forever in every direction.

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The sky's huge, the mudflats are vast and somewhere out there is

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a point where the land meets the sea.

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The mudflats are oozing with molluscs and crustaceans.

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Just the sort of food that waders love to eat.

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As the birds are making the most of the mud, it's my chance to get mucky

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and see the tasty morsels which bring them here in the first place.

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-Look at those! These are just little clams, are they?

-Yeah.

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-What's feeding on these, then, Jim?

-Things like knot.

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-Knot particularly like these because you can see they're not too far from the surface.

-Brilliant.

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-And the ragworms, they're quite big and fat!

-Yeah.

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There must be quite a few calories in one of those.

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Things like redshank will feed on these.

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The Wash is like a giant bed and breakfast for waders.

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Some check in briefly en route to sunnier destinations

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and others make themselves at home for the winter.

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They haven't got long to stock up - the tide is already turning.

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And as the tide races in, the birds just take off.

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SQUAWKING

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The reason the wildlife of East Anglia is so rich and varied

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is down to the wealth of coast it can choose from.

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A stunning mix of wetlands, salt marsh, sand dunes and shingle.

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Here at Blakeney, the sea constantly shifts the stones.

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Restless waves creating a shingle spit, snaking out into the sea.

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Back in 2005, Nick Crane did a hands-on demo

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of how this shingle spit grows.

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Driven by the strong, prevailing north-easterly winds,

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the waves hit the shore obliquely.

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Each wave picks up a handful of shingle and moves it

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a bit further along the coast.

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Over time, all the shingle builds up into long ridges, or spits,

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which run almost parallel to the land, but just offshore.

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More than ten years on,

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I'm here to see if the spit at Blakeney is still on the move.

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How permanent is this landscape?

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At the end of the day, it's just a dump of shingle, isn't it?

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Yes, yeah. It is a very mobile habitat.

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A lot of the shingle does get moved on a daily basis.

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But when you get the plants colonising it,

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their roots help to stabilise it and hold it in place.

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So, the longer the vegetation is in place, the better the chance

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-of this place, or at least part of it, becoming fixed?

-Yes, indeed.

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But it's still vulnerable to big storms.

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So in the winter, we quite often get erosion with strong waves

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bashing against the sand dunes and eroding them.

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But, yeah, the more vegetated areas are more able to withstand

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that sort of pressure from the sea.

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The four-mile long sand and shingle spit at Blakeney Point

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is the perfect home for rare, botanical treasures.

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Grey-hair grass, sea-lavender and the yellow-horned poppy.

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This is our Great East Anglian Guide.

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We'll be finding fossilised footprints

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hundreds of thousands of years old.

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Revealing clandestine wartime secrets.

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And unearthing an amusement arcade like no other.

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As I continue south for the tiny town of Happisburgh, I'm travelling

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along a coastline that's stood in the eye of storms for centuries.

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The wind and the water have always conspired against

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these low-lying lands.

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Man's efforts to protect the coast litter these shores.

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Wooden breakwaters snaking out to sea.

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Rocky barriers, a defiant concrete curtain.

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These are our sea defences, but why are there so many?

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In 1953, the East Coast was hit by the worst storms in living memory.

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A tidal surge met a strong north wind and an extra-high spring tide.

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It created chaos.

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A catastrophic wave of water that barrelled down the coast.

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From north to south, the effects were devastating.

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Over 300 lives lost. Thousands of homes swept away.

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Disaster on an unprecedented scale.

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And countless personal tragedies.

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Ten years ago, Nick visited Canvey Island

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to hear to story of survivor Graham Manser.

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As we sort of got out of bed,

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we were straight into water up to our knees.

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Gradually, my father realised that things were getting worse.

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So he sort of punched holes in the ceiling with his fists

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and pulled the ceiling plaster down to expose the rafters.

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The storm had swept town by town down the entire East Coast.

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With precious few telephones, no warning could be sent ahead.

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When the waves reached Canvey just after midnight, a deluge

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burst through the limited banks of earth that defended the island.

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Residents of many single-storey homes had to cling

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desperately to the roofs outside.

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Huddled in their loft, Graham and his brothers

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sang hymns to raise their spirits,

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while his mother struggled with a pram in the perishing waters below.

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My brother Keith, who was sitting next to me,

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he toppled into the water.

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And so my eldest brother there, Chris,

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he dived in after him and held him up for hours.

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Unfortunately, he'd been dead for quite a long time.

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My brother was just holding up a dead body.

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My mother that was rocking the pram,

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um...she kept sort of saying to my dad, "Are the kids all right?

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"I can't hear any noise. Nothing's happening."

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So he said, "It's all right, Ann. Don't worry, they're asleep."

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But in fact, we thought about it afterwards and what had happened,

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the water had seeped through the underneath of the pram

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and they drowned in their pram.

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Since then, countless miles of coastal defences have been

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repaired or replaced.

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Protecting locals from any similar natural disasters.

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But the bulked-up barricades had unintended consequences,

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creating a problem of their own.

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They pushed an angry sea to places where it could attack the land.

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Previously safe shores were now at risk.

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Beaches vanished, homes were pushed to the edge.

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But one man refused to surrender his land to the sea.

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Peter Boggis launched a mission to fight the waves by rallying

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a private army of local truckers.

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This self-appointed King Canute

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deserves a special mention in our Great Guide.

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At the height of his battle, Nick met the persistent pensioner.

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-So, this is the front line, where it was eating back from?

-Yes.

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-Are you working down below here?

-Further along.

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-What's going on?

-Here we have a truck coming in.

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That will turn, possibly, here.

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My God!

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What an incredible sight!

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-Yes. It's, er...

-I can't believe it.

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I thought we were going to be looking down on a beach.

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No, this is us defending Britain.

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What an astonishing sight! There's trucks and mud and...

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I'm absolutely stunned by the scale of it.

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I was expecting something far, far smaller.

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Peter's defences are far more extensive than

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a load of home-made sandbags.

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He's organised up to 50 trucks a day to dump soil and clay

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at the base of the cliff.

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It's a mutually-beneficial alliance with local contractors

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that helps them get rid of their waste.

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The bank has to be constantly topped up

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as a third of it is washed away every year.

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Now, it's 500 metres long.

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And the retreat has been halted for the time being.

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11 years on and now 85,

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Peter's coastal crusade has been halted by the courts.

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They ruled his defences were stopping sand washing

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down shore to replenish the local beach.

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He's reluctantly downed tools, but he's unrepentant.

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If it were feasible for me to start again tomorrow

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without blundering headfirst into the courts,

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I would do it without hesitation.

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Here, as compared with last year,

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nearly five metres of cliff have gone

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in the past winter and this spring.

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I've done what I can to protect it.

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As I continue my journey, I've swapped boats.

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Meet Tempo, former lifeboat and veteran guardian of these waters.

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I'm heading down the north Norfolk Coast for Happisburgh.

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But the next story for our guide is at the very heart of this coast.

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South Wold and Aldeburgh.

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This unpredictable coast is also one of unprecedented beauty.

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Here, the light changes as much as the shoreline.

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From superb sunrises and famous big skies

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to crashing seas and ferocious storms.

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This is our artistic coast.

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Over the centuries, a staggering array of artists

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have fired creative sparks on these shores.

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From Old Master painters to controversial sculptors,

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musicians, writers

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and off-the-wall creatives have made this coast their muse.

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For our Great Guide, we salute three inspired pioneers.

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Composer Benjamin Britten,

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Impressionist painter Philip Steer

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and an unsung eccentric engineer, Tim Hunkin.

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Our epic story starts with a great British artist

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who brought Impressionism to these shores.

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Alice Roberts, herself a bit of a painter, followed in his wake.

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Philip Wilson Steer came to Southwold to paint

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for the first time in 1884.

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One of his most famous works depicts children paddling

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at the mouth of Southwold Harbour.

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And to really understand the inspiration behind it,

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I want to see the place itself.

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Here we are, standing by the scene of the painting,

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or as close as we can get.

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And the boat coming in is just in front of the fishing boat we see here.

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-So, this bank here, is that what we can see?

-Yeah, it is.

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-It's lost its hut on the end and its capston.

-Hm.

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But it is very much that arm of the harbour.

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So, was he actually out here, on the beach, painting away?

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Was he doing it plein air, like the French Impressionists?

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To an extent. What he really did was

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he went around taking lightning sketches in pencil and crayon

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and then he would take them back to Chelsea, where he was living,

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and over the winter, he would then build them up into paintings.

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Southwold has also inspired creativity of

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a less-traditional kind.

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Not everyone comes here to create with paint and brush.

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Going into our guide is a great British eccentric

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with a mechanical mind.

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Inspired by that most seaside of traditions,

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the end-of-the-pier show.

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I'm Tim Hunkin. I'm an engineer and I'm also a cartoonist.

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For the last ten years, I've been making machines

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for my amusement arcade, The Under-The-Pier Show.

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And I love it!

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This is my arcade.

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It's all home-made, mostly by me.

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You can take a dog for a walk, you can enter the mind of a fly.

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Where is that damn fly?!

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This is one of the most popular machines at the moment,

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you have to hit the bankers.

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It's really difficult to make the hammers last

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more than a couple of weeks.

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People just come on a pier to have fun.

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I don't think there's anywhere else that people would be quite

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so eager to do silly things,

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like lie on an exercise bed while everybody's watching them.

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Take a fibreglass dog for a walk

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or to cross a motorway with a Zimmer frame anywhere else.

0:23:300:23:34

The fun of the fair on Southwold Pier

0:23:350:23:38

earns its place in our Great Guide.

0:23:380:23:41

But not every creative force on this coast is something you can see or do.

0:23:430:23:47

Nine years ago, on a classic East Anglian beach,

0:23:500:23:53

I searched for the sound of a genius.

0:23:530:23:56

Hailed as the greatest opera composer of the 20th century,

0:24:000:24:03

Benjamin Britten found inspiration in Aldeburgh for a modern classic,

0:24:030:24:09

Peter Grimes.

0:24:090:24:10

The vivid story of a fisherman pursued by the locals

0:24:100:24:14

after the death of two apprentices.

0:24:140:24:16

Pleas for mercy fall on deaf ears.

0:24:200:24:22

Grimes descends into madness and suicide.

0:24:260:24:29

The powerful, evocative Peter Grimes goes into our Great Guide.

0:24:340:24:38

# Peter Grimes, we are here to investigate the cause of death

0:24:380:24:42

# Of your apprentice, William Spode

0:24:420:24:46

# Whose body you brought ashore from your boat, The Boy Billy

0:24:460:24:49

# On the 26th ultimo. #

0:24:490:24:52

Based on a poem by a local author,

0:24:540:24:56

Peter Grimes is set in a small seaside town called the Borough.

0:24:560:24:59

One man who knows how much this coast influenced the writing

0:25:080:25:10

of the opera is Jonathan Reekie, director of the Aldeburgh Festival.

0:25:100:25:14

You can hear the coast.

0:25:170:25:19

You can hear the sea, the wind, the birds,

0:25:190:25:23

the scrunch of the pebbles, in that piece.

0:25:230:25:26

And the piece is structured with the Four Sea Interludes.

0:25:260:25:29

And it's so vivid. It's very hard, once you've heard Peter Grimes,

0:25:290:25:33

it's very hard to stand on this beach and not hear it.

0:25:330:25:36

OPERA MUSIC

0:25:360:25:39

How much of the world that Britten portrayed still survives today?

0:25:440:25:49

Well, I think very little.

0:25:490:25:51

I mean, literally,

0:25:510:25:52

there are specific things in Peter Grimes,

0:25:520:25:55

like the place where Peter Grimes' hut was, that have gone,

0:25:550:25:59

that have been washed away by the sea.

0:25:590:26:01

And of course, the fishing industry is hanging on by its fingertips now.

0:26:010:26:05

But if you're on this beach, you still hear the sea.

0:26:050:26:07

I mean, the sea hasn't changed.

0:26:070:26:09

WAVES CRASH

0:26:120:26:15

Our guide reveals a coastline bursting with creativity.

0:26:290:26:33

But also one with a deep connection to its past.

0:26:330:26:37

I've arrived at the one place on these shores where that

0:26:390:26:42

connection runs deepest and longest.

0:26:420:26:45

Happisburgh.

0:26:480:26:50

It sits on a small stretch of coast with the biggest of stories.

0:26:520:26:56

Happisburgh's a lovely little place. It has just 1,372 inhabitants.

0:27:000:27:06

But it's been populated off and on for thousands of years.

0:27:060:27:11

If you come down to the beach at the right time here,

0:27:130:27:16

you're in for a big surprise.

0:27:160:27:18

Once upon a time, there was a muddy river estuary here.

0:27:210:27:24

And experts have found evidence of Britain's most ancient

0:27:240:27:28

footprints 800,000 years old.

0:27:280:27:31

They belong to men, women and children

0:27:350:27:38

known as Homo antecessor, or pioneer man.

0:27:380:27:41

The oldest footprints ever discovered outside of Africa.

0:27:430:27:47

In fact, this whole stretch of coast is an archaeological paradise.

0:27:470:27:51

Flint tools, animal bones

0:27:530:27:55

and one of the most complete mammoth skeletons ever discovered.

0:27:550:27:59

And to give you an ideal of the animal's size,

0:28:030:28:05

this is a mammoth tooth.

0:28:050:28:08

Look at the wear on it.

0:28:080:28:11

That's the grinding surface.

0:28:110:28:13

This was found on a beach at West Runton,

0:28:140:28:17

about 18 miles from here.

0:28:170:28:19

And it's a wonder to behold.

0:28:190:28:21

And it's unavoidable to feel a kind of electric charge in holding it.

0:28:210:28:27

Because this is from a time thousands of years ago

0:28:270:28:31

when human beings and mammoths lived side by side.

0:28:310:28:35

Happisburgh's archaeology earns a place in our guide,

0:28:400:28:43

but the story doesn't stop there.

0:28:430:28:46

Many of these fantastic finds

0:28:480:28:50

are from a time before Britain became an island.

0:28:500:28:53

It was right here that Britain as we know it was born.

0:28:560:28:59

Where there's now water was once land.

0:29:010:29:03

This spot once connected us to Europe through

0:29:050:29:08

a lost world known as Doggerland.

0:29:080:29:10

Nick went offshore to explore Britain's very own Atlantis

0:29:130:29:17

for our Great Guide.

0:29:170:29:19

So here we are, bobbing around on a fishing boat in the North Sea,

0:29:220:29:25

but seven, eight, nine thousand years ago,

0:29:250:29:27

-we couldn't have done this, could we? We would've been on land.

-That's it.

0:29:270:29:30

We would've been actually sitting on a big plain of Doggerland

0:29:300:29:33

with the rivers, the trees behind us and the little hills.

0:29:330:29:36

It would've been a diverse landscape we'd have been sitting on.

0:29:360:29:40

Just off our coast, there's a lost world.

0:29:430:29:46

Mighty rivers once ran through Doggerland,

0:29:460:29:49

a wetland paradise rich with fish and birdlife

0:29:490:29:52

to feed the early Europeans.

0:29:520:29:54

Around 10,000 years ago, as the ice started to melt, sea-level rose.

0:29:540:29:59

Doggerland was submerged. Its residents moved on.

0:29:590:30:03

Some into Britain, which became an island as Doggerland disappeared.

0:30:030:30:08

The ice sheets that wiped out Doggerland are long gone.

0:30:150:30:19

10,000 years have passed since the Big Freeze gripped this shore.

0:30:190:30:24

But it's left an enduring legacy on this eroding coast.

0:30:260:30:30

It's the last Ice Age that can take credit

0:30:310:30:33

for the crumbling eastern shoreline.

0:30:330:30:36

In Happisburgh, the advancing ice sheet

0:30:390:30:42

pushed up the soft clay that now lines this shore.

0:30:420:30:46

These fragile cliffs are vulnerable to the pounding waves.

0:30:460:30:49

They're no match for severe storms and dilapidated defences.

0:30:530:30:57

This is Britain's fastest-shrinking shore.

0:31:010:31:04

An unwished-for honour that puts Happisburgh into our guide.

0:31:070:31:10

27 homes have been lost to the sea in the past three decades.

0:31:130:31:17

Over two months in 2003, 13 metres just disappeared.

0:31:180:31:24

A challenge for coastal campaigner, Malcolm Kirby.

0:31:260:31:29

Malcolm, this cliff is a pretty stark demonstration

0:31:310:31:33

-of the power of the sea, isn't it?

-Oh, absolutely.

0:31:330:31:36

The sea, no-one can argue with the sea. It will do what it wants to do.

0:31:360:31:41

Bad news for the residents of Happisburgh.

0:31:440:31:48

A 1940s law meant if homes vanished,

0:31:480:31:51

people simply had to swallow the loss.

0:31:510:31:54

So basically, you've got people who, for a long time,

0:31:540:31:57

-were living quite far away from the sea.

-Absolutely.

0:31:570:32:00

And it's moving so fast that they're going to lose their homes,

0:32:000:32:04

-but they can't get help from the establishment?

-Yep.

0:32:040:32:07

-They can't insure.

-No.

0:32:070:32:09

And when the worst happens, if and when it does,

0:32:090:32:12

they can't get compensation either?

0:32:120:32:14

Absolutely right.

0:32:140:32:15

The community couldn't make a stand against the waves,

0:32:170:32:20

so, led by Malcolm,

0:32:200:32:21

they settled for a strategic retreat step by step inland.

0:32:210:32:27

And we were able, for the first time in British maritime history,

0:32:280:32:31

or coastal maritime history, to buy nine properties

0:32:310:32:35

-and release those people to get on with their lives.

-Right.

0:32:350:32:38

-So, they've been able to sell up and move elsewhere?

-Absolutely.

0:32:380:32:42

In simple terms, as they drop off the front,

0:32:420:32:46

build them at the back, carry on doing that,

0:32:460:32:49

pop back in 200 years' time, you still have Happisburgh.

0:32:490:32:53

The sea still gnaws at the cliffs around Happisburgh,

0:32:560:32:59

but government funding has thrown the locals a lifeline

0:32:590:33:02

to build new homes and new lives away from the threat of the waves.

0:33:020:33:07

-What's the atmosphere like in Happisburgh now?

-It's brilliant.

0:33:110:33:15

There's a real... There's a kind of a charge in the atmosphere.

0:33:150:33:20

-Optimism?

-Yes, absolutely.

0:33:200:33:22

And the whole community is more at one with itself

0:33:220:33:25

and feels better about itself

0:33:250:33:27

and is poised for a much, much better future.

0:33:270:33:30

This is the Coast Great Guide to East Anglia.

0:33:420:33:45

For the past ten years, our team of experts have hunted

0:33:480:33:51

these shores for secret stories and hidden gems.

0:33:510:33:54

But what are the can't-afford-to-miss highlights?

0:33:570:34:01

This is our flying visit to East Anglia.

0:34:010:34:04

Any East Anglian adventure starts here,

0:34:140:34:17

with the tidal mudflats of The Wash scrubbed clean by the tides

0:34:170:34:22

and teeming with wildlife.

0:34:220:34:24

Also home to these mysterious concrete doughnuts.

0:34:260:34:29

These 1970s sci-fi structures were designed to capture freshwater,

0:34:320:34:37

creating reservoirs to ease drought in Britain.

0:34:370:34:40

Now abandoned, they provide the perfect protected habitat

0:34:420:34:45

for over 3,000 pairs of breeding sea birds.

0:34:450:34:49

Hunstanton, with distinctive red and white chalk cliffs.

0:34:530:34:56

And a two-mile beach perfect for kites. But not just any old kites.

0:34:590:35:04

To a lot of onlookers, it's a weird and wonderful thing they're seeing.

0:35:070:35:11

Is it a kite? Is it a paraglide? Is it a parachute?

0:35:130:35:15

And then you end up getting into all sorts of funny conversations

0:35:150:35:19

with little old ladies and men on the beach who just sit and watch for hours on end.

0:35:190:35:22

Travelling down the coast to Sheringham,

0:35:270:35:29

you'll find a real rarity in Norfolk, a hill!

0:35:290:35:34

Measuring a mighty 207 feet above sea-level.

0:35:350:35:39

Head south and seek out seaside treats.

0:35:410:35:46

Cromer, famous for crabs and a pier voted Britain's best.

0:35:460:35:52

-TANNOY:

-OK, folks, you've got one minute now

0:35:520:35:56

to get your crabs down to the table.

0:35:560:35:59

The winners of our Net Class are Hannah and Olivia with 102 crabs.

0:36:000:36:07

APPLAUSE

0:36:070:36:09

Past bustling harbours and bright beach huts to reach a border.

0:36:110:36:16

Benacre Ness, where north meets south.

0:36:180:36:21

The start of the Suffolk Heritage Coast.

0:36:210:36:24

And, like its Norfolk neighbour, it's eroding fast.

0:36:240:36:27

Covehithe, inhabited since Roman times,

0:36:290:36:33

was almost three miles inland when first built.

0:36:330:36:37

It's now less than half a mile from the sea.

0:36:370:36:39

Further on, the weirdest village in Britain.

0:36:440:36:47

Thorpeness, a 1930s vision of English eccentricity.

0:36:470:36:53

Further down, picture-perfect gives way to industrial superhub.

0:36:560:37:02

Felixstowe, still the UK's largest container port.

0:37:020:37:06

And still growing, with a £300-million extension.

0:37:100:37:14

Our whistle-stop tour ends in the Essex town of Harwich,

0:37:190:37:22

the largest harbour on the River Stour.

0:37:220:37:26

And one of Britain's busiest ferry ports.

0:37:260:37:28

But if you only do the unmissable,

0:37:320:37:33

you might just miss some hidden gems.

0:37:330:37:37

Coast can complete the bigger picture.

0:37:370:37:40

This is our Great Guide to East Anglia.

0:37:440:37:47

I'm making my way to Orford Ness in Suffolk,

0:37:500:37:53

but my next port of call is the port of Great Yarmouth.

0:37:530:37:57

Where the broads meet the sea.

0:38:000:38:03

Mentioned in the Domesday Book, this port has a long history.

0:38:030:38:07

And, more recently, a dark history.

0:38:070:38:11

A First World War threat from the skies.

0:38:130:38:16

In 1915, Great Yarmouth was the first town in Britain

0:38:190:38:23

to be bombed from the air.

0:38:230:38:24

Tessa Dunlop investigated that fateful night.

0:38:280:38:33

A brilliant flash appeared in the sky.

0:38:330:38:36

A searchlight from a flying machine illuminated the streets,

0:38:360:38:41

followed by a string of bomb blasts.

0:38:410:38:43

A Zeppelin air raid.

0:38:440:38:47

The first on British shores.

0:38:470:38:49

With that attack on Great Yarmouth,

0:38:490:38:52

the Germans unleashed three years of terror.

0:38:520:38:55

Aerial warfare was invented as the invaders outsmarted

0:38:550:38:59

Britain's defenders.

0:38:590:39:02

Suddenly, the nation's streets had become the front line.

0:39:020:39:06

Bombs rained down with fatal consequences.

0:39:060:39:10

Martha Taylor, a 72-year-old spinster, was killed here.

0:39:100:39:14

She died instantly.

0:39:140:39:16

Martha and fellow casualty, Samuel Smith,

0:39:160:39:19

were the first Britons to die in an air raid.

0:39:190:39:22

But it's not for the Zeppelins that Great Yarmouth is in our guide.

0:39:320:39:37

Here, it's all about the herring.

0:39:370:39:40

The herring industry has a history

0:39:400:39:43

stretching back to the Norman conquest.

0:39:430:39:45

At its 20th-century peak,

0:39:470:39:49

this harbour would have been flooded with fishing vessels.

0:39:490:39:53

In just four record-breaking months in 1913,

0:39:530:39:57

380,000 tonnes of herring

0:39:570:40:00

were landed at Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft.

0:40:000:40:03

Steamers had replaced sailboats.

0:40:040:40:06

Fleets of boats from all around Scotland's coast

0:40:060:40:10

chased the silver darlings down south.

0:40:100:40:13

Great Yarmouth witnessed the rise and fall of an industry.

0:40:130:40:16

It's nine years since I first came here on the herring trail.

0:40:200:40:24

There were so many boats in Yarmouth that they couldn't lay flat

0:40:240:40:27

to the cane, so they had to put their noses to the cane.

0:40:270:40:30

And Yarmouth boats were more or less company-owned, but the Scotchmen,

0:40:300:40:33

they were family boats, so their boats were precious to the crew.

0:40:330:40:37

And if you damaged them, sort of trying to push yourself in...

0:40:370:40:41

Would there be a frank exchange of views?

0:40:410:40:43

That pub used to be like John Wayne, you know.

0:40:430:40:46

They used to have swinging doors there

0:40:460:40:48

and they used to be flying out of the doors.

0:40:480:40:50

Scotswomen got a warmer reception.

0:40:520:40:55

For a century, a seasonal army of 10,000 herring lasses

0:40:550:41:00

descended on the coastal communities here

0:41:000:41:03

to gut, pickle and pack the herring.

0:41:030:41:06

Paid per cran, or 28st of fish packed in a barrel,

0:41:060:41:10

it was claimed they could gut 60 herring a minute.

0:41:100:41:15

This is where the lorry would have come along, or a horse and cart,

0:41:150:41:19

with the fish on it, straight from the fish wharf to here.

0:41:190:41:23

Tipped in and the girls would be gutting and packing them away

0:41:230:41:27

in barrels all ready for pickling.

0:41:270:41:30

# But ye rise at five with the sleep still in your eye

0:41:300:41:34

# You're awake to find the gutting yards along the Yarmouth quay...#

0:41:340:41:38

The girls were dressed up in the oilies. They were tough old girls.

0:41:380:41:42

But you used to see them on Sundays going to church

0:41:420:41:44

and they'd be dressed in their Sunday clothes

0:41:440:41:46

and they'd be different people again.

0:41:460:41:48

# And you greet like a wean when you put them in the bree

0:41:480:41:50

# And you wish you were a thousand miles away from Yarmouth quay. #

0:41:500:41:53

But one precious relic of the herring industry is still afloat.

0:41:570:42:01

She's called the Lydia Eva and she's an absolute beauty.

0:42:030:42:06

The last steam drifter in the world.

0:42:060:42:09

And a definite must-see on our Great Guide.

0:42:090:42:11

In one outing, this boat could snare a quarter-of-a-million herring.

0:42:140:42:19

Double the catch of your average steam drifter.

0:42:190:42:22

To find out more about this unique boat, I'm meeting Morris Jackman.

0:42:250:42:29

So tell me about the Lydia Eva.

0:42:310:42:33

She was built as a drifter trawler in 1930.

0:42:330:42:37

She was designed to catch herring.

0:42:370:42:40

I know that she's the last steam drifter.

0:42:400:42:41

-The last steam drifter left.

-In the world?

-Yes.

-How come?

0:42:410:42:45

How did she survive?

0:42:450:42:46

She was bought by something called the Maritime Trust.

0:42:460:42:50

How much has it cost to get her back to looking like she was

0:42:520:42:55

-supposed to be?

-Um...cost the thick end of a million pounds.

-Oh, wow!

0:42:550:42:59

-And can I see the wheelhouse?

-Yeah, surely, if you come this way, sir.

0:42:590:43:03

Equipped with wireless and electric light,

0:43:050:43:08

the Lydia Eva was a state-of-the-art ship for her time.

0:43:080:43:12

-There's almost a reassuring absence of modern technology.

-Oh, yes.

0:43:120:43:17

-Well, the hi-tech centre is behind you.

-Right.

0:43:170:43:20

Basically, all it is is just a barometer and a clock. That's it.

0:43:200:43:25

-So much for sat nav!

-Yeah.

0:43:250:43:27

Where else could you come and work on something that's unique

0:43:270:43:31

in every sense, really?

0:43:310:43:33

There'll never be another one anything like it, so...

0:43:330:43:37

It's a big lump of Yarmouth history that's got to be preserved.

0:43:370:43:41

This is a low-lying coastline. Ideal for boats.

0:43:490:43:52

Working craft have long plied their trade, and still are.

0:43:590:44:03

From fenland barges to historic ships.

0:44:030:44:07

But there's one particular workhorse of this coast

0:44:090:44:12

that's sailing into our Great Guide.

0:44:120:44:15

The traditional fishing smack.

0:44:170:44:20

This is Excelsior.

0:44:260:44:29

The only authentically-restored Lowestoft smack in the world

0:44:310:44:35

that can still trawl under sail.

0:44:350:44:37

She dates to 1921. A working piece of history.

0:44:390:44:43

As I sail to Orford Ness, our guide searched out a smack in Essex.

0:44:470:44:52

Mark Horton uncovered a boat

0:44:520:44:54

somewhat battered and bruised, left to languish in the mud.

0:44:540:44:59

This is the remains of the Xanthe,

0:45:030:45:04

an Essex fishing smack around 100 years old.

0:45:040:45:08

Look, you can see the rims perfectly preserved

0:45:160:45:20

under all this seaweed.

0:45:200:45:22

This must be the stem.

0:45:220:45:23

You can see it's all...

0:45:230:45:25

Take the seaweed off, there she is!

0:45:250:45:28

Smacks were titans of the fishing trade,

0:45:360:45:39

used for dredging and trawling.

0:45:390:45:41

At their peak, there were 500 working from this stretch of coast.

0:45:450:45:50

Excelsior, 100 tonnes of oak and hemp,

0:45:520:45:56

designed to withstand the wildest weather.

0:45:560:45:59

Boats like this have plied these waters since time immemorial.

0:46:000:46:05

Carrying warriors, carrying treasure and sometimes,

0:46:050:46:10

still shrouded in mystery centuries after their passing.

0:46:100:46:14

One of the most enigmatic ships in the entire world

0:46:170:46:20

made this coast its final resting place.

0:46:200:46:24

A personal favourite of mine.

0:46:240:46:26

Six years ago, I visited Sutton Hoo.

0:46:310:46:35

A royal Anglo-Saxon burial ground of awe-inspiring proportions.

0:46:350:46:40

Around 1,300 years old,

0:46:410:46:44

it's one of the greatest archaeological finds of all-time.

0:46:440:46:48

This astonishing discovery simply had to go into our Great Guide.

0:46:510:46:56

Inside this mound was buried a huge boat and a great treasure.

0:46:580:47:04

The posts either end mark the position of the stem and then the bow of the boat.

0:47:040:47:09

Now, this roped-off area

0:47:090:47:11

marks the position of the burial chamber itself,

0:47:110:47:14

deep below where I'm standing.

0:47:140:47:16

Now, the king, the body of the king was placed into the hull of the boat

0:47:160:47:20

and then he was surrounded with his treasures.

0:47:200:47:23

The beauty and age of the finds was immediately apparent,

0:47:230:47:26

but what they tell us about the culture

0:47:260:47:28

of the mysterious Anglo-Saxons makes these artefacts priceless.

0:47:280:47:33

Most precious of all of the treasures

0:47:330:47:35

to come out of the king's grave was a helmet.

0:47:350:47:38

This is a brilliant replica of it

0:47:380:47:40

and it's extremely heavy. It's made of silver and gold.

0:47:400:47:44

Every inch of it symbolises power and conquest.

0:47:440:47:48

But obviously, the most stunning element of the whole piece

0:47:480:47:52

is the gold ornamentation of the face.

0:47:520:47:55

This is Britain's Tutankhamen's mask.

0:47:550:47:59

The ancestors of the people who buried their king in this mound

0:48:010:48:04

around 1,300 years ago had come across the sea from foreign shores.

0:48:040:48:09

They called their new home England, Land of the Angles.

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This is Coast's Great Guide to East Anglia.

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I've left Norfolk behind,

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crossed into Suffolk and reached my final destination.

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Orford Ness, an extraordinary spit full of extraordinary stories.

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This spit of shingle, bleak, isolated and 10-miles long,

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is home to 280 species of birds and a rare floral treasure, the sea pea.

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But it's not in our Great Guide for its wild beauty,

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it's in for its mysterious past.

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A sight so top secret, not even the locals knew what went on.

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A covert experiment right here led to a great military invention.

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Alice tracked down the story.

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On 12th February 1935, scientist Robert Watson-Watt

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sent this memo to the Air Ministry.

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It's been called the birth certificate of radar.

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"I enclose herewith a memorandum

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"on the Detection of Aircraft by Radio Methods.

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"It turns out so favourably that I am still nervous as to whether

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"we've not got a power of ten wrong,

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"but I thought it desirable to send you the memorandum immediately

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"rather than to wait for close rechecking."

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It was this memo that started the race for radar.

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Watson-Watt could barely believe his calculations.

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In theory, by measuring radio waves bouncing off a plane,

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they might be able to detect enemy bombers over 100 miles away

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day and night and in any weather.

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Watson-Watt tested his theory on this very spit of land.

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His astonishing invention helped us win the Battle of Britain.

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This is a special place. A sliver of land between the sea and the sky.

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And to add to the dreamlike quality, the strangeness,

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it's where we as a nation have kept certain things out of sight.

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Secret things, forgotten things.

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The Ness, testing ground for military innovations.

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Parachutes, aerial photography

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and something more sinister and secret.

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Nick sniffed for the truth behind the rumours for our Great Guide.

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These massive concrete structures are a relic of the time

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when Orford Ness was used to develop a far more sinister military device,

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Britain's atomic bomb.

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These places are even more bizarre on the inside than they are on the outside.

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Test laboratories like these were built to withstand

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accidental explosions.

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The walls are three-metres thick

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and the roofs are designed to absorb the energy

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and contain the debris of any blasts.

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No-one was aware that the bombs being dropped on Orford were

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the casings and mechanisms of atom bombs.

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By the 1970s, Orford Ness had entered the Cold War.

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On my last visit, I secured special access.

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-MEDIA BROADCAST:

-The only official entrance

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is via an RAF ferry from the tiny village of Orford.

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And when you get there, the men in charge aren't giving much away.

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This is a joint Royal Air Force and United States Air Force

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research programme into the problems of long-range HF communications.

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-Has it anything to do with early warning defences systems?

-It could.

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And, in fact, it did.

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The masts on the 700-acre site are as high as 180 feet.

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The RAF were happy for them to be filmed.

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The control building was something else, though.

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Everything about it is secret.

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Oh, good grief, what's in there?

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There would have been operators sitting at terminals with displays

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showing them possible positions and sightings of

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signals back from the radar.

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It's the sort of place James Bond gets brought, isn't it,

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-when he's been caught?

-That's right.

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But on this journey, I'm bypassing Orford's military secrets.

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I'm heading to the front line of a battle that's still raging.

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This is a coast where the land is constantly at war with the sea,

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and it's about to claim a much-loved victim.

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This majestic lighthouse has stood proud for more than 200 years.

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Since 1792, it's been the fisherman's friend.

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Now it's in need of a saviour.

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Perched here, on this pebbled kingdom,

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it's perilously close to the sea.

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In the past four years, that distance has halved.

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Ironic that a beacon warning ships of danger is now in danger itself.

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# The shingle is shifting Shifting, shifting

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# The shingle is shifting Always shifting

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# The shingle is shifting Always shifting

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# Moving down the coast...#

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For local, Liz Ferretti, it's the end of an era.

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# ..off Orford Ness no-one could see...#

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We've been used to the light coming into our houses at night for years.

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People have grown up with the light.

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And it feels as though they've lost a friend.

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And I think people will miss it.

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We decided we wanted to mark its passing as a community.

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And it might seem a bit strange in a way because it's just a building,

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but actually, because it's such a symbol of hope

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and all that a lighthouse brings with it,

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we've done an exhibition to bring together

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the history of the lighthouse,

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we had a concert. We've had a really good celebration of its service.

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# Moving down the coast. #

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This is the last summer the lighthouse will be open to the public.

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But the good folk of Orford Ness

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are still carrying a torch for the local landmark.

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-Hi.

-How are you?

-Very good to meet you.

-You, too. Looking good today.

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Nick Gold is at the forefront of the campaign.

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So, how long have you been connected to the lighthouse in this way?

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Well, I acquired it three years ago,

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but I was the son of a local parson

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and I've been coming over here since a teenager.

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And I have a place in Orford and looking up at it,

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over at the horizon day after day,

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it's a pretty magnificent creature.

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What does it mean to you and what does it mean to this place?

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Well, two things, really.

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One, I love eccentric buildings and this couldn't get more eccentric.

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But to the community, it means much more.

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It's their Taj Mahal.

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Why was it switched off? I mean, why do you turn out a lighthouse?

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Well, you've only got to see how close the sea is.

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When it was originally built,

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the sea was a kilometre or more further out.

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What have you done to try and, you know, hold back the tide?

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Well, you'll see what we've done.

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We've put in these bags, which are filled with shingle.

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And they've been fantastic in making it now promontory.

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But if you look at the natural line of the beach,

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the lighthouse would have gone last year, last winter...

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-Really?

-..if we hadn't have done this.

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Can't you move it? Can't you just take it apart

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and give it an extra mile of ground?

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Well, that's what we are going to try and do,

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but it's 100-foot high, it's made out of 400,000 bricks,

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which, if we tried to shift it, it would fall apart.

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But what we're trying to do is save all the main artefacts from it.

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The top in particular,

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which absolutely can't be repeated, it would cost a fortune to do so,

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if we can get that off and then further inland

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and then we could replicate the lower half

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and then it can be appreciated on the horizon for another 100 years.

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This is a coast of contradictions.

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It once joined us to Europe, now it's edging away, beaten by the sea.

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A wildlife paradise.

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Shores where our ancestors once walked.

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A beauty.

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Come quickly, before this stretch of coast vanishes forever.

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Our Great Guide has revealed shores where people work

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with and against the sea, adapting, conquering, overcoming.

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Along this ever-changing stretch,

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you're guaranteed a different story every time.

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