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Today I'm in Kent | 0:00:21 | 0:00:22 | |
exploring the green and glorious Garden of England. | 0:00:22 | 0:00:26 | |
From its shingle beaches in Dungeness, all the way to the outskirts of London. | 0:00:26 | 0:00:31 | |
I'm starting my journey in Dungeness. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:40 | |
Then I'll head to Flatropers Wood, | 0:00:40 | 0:00:43 | |
in Beckley, before a visit to a fruit farm at Ticehurst. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:46 | |
I'll stroll through the hot fields of Golden Green | 0:00:46 | 0:00:50 | |
before my Kent travels comes to an end | 0:00:50 | 0:00:52 | |
in the skies over Biggin Hill's famous airfield. | 0:00:52 | 0:00:55 | |
And along the way I'll be looking back at the very best | 0:00:57 | 0:01:00 | |
of the BBC's rural programmes from this part of the world. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:03 | |
This is Country Tracks. | 0:01:03 | 0:01:05 | |
From here, you can see the famous expanse of shingle that characterises Dungeness. | 0:01:15 | 0:01:21 | |
The shingle has built up over the century and has formed a kind of Peninsular that has proved deadly | 0:01:21 | 0:01:26 | |
to ships and their cargo, not to mention the thousands of lives lost. | 0:01:26 | 0:01:30 | |
By the 17th century, as the shipping lanes around the South Coast became increasingly crowded, | 0:01:32 | 0:01:38 | |
Dungeness was in desperate need of a lighthouse. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:41 | |
There have been five lighthouses in the last 400 years. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:48 | |
Each new structure had to be built bigger and closer to the shore, | 0:01:48 | 0:01:52 | |
as the shingle beaches grew and the sea continued to retreat. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:55 | |
The first was built in 1615. | 0:01:57 | 0:02:01 | |
It was a simple, wooden structure with a fire on top. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:04 | |
A second brick lighthouse, much taller at 110 ft, was built in 1635. | 0:02:04 | 0:02:11 | |
It lasted over 100 years | 0:02:11 | 0:02:12 | |
but it, too, fell victim to the increasing shingle bank. | 0:02:12 | 0:02:16 | |
After complaints at sea of poor light visibility, | 0:02:16 | 0:02:18 | |
a third lighthouse was demanded and eventually built in 1790. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:24 | |
The third lighthouse was similar in height and design. | 0:02:24 | 0:02:28 | |
It was lit by 17 argon lamps, | 0:02:28 | 0:02:30 | |
fuelled first by oil and later by petroleum. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:34 | |
Electricity first came to Dungeness in 1862. | 0:02:34 | 0:02:38 | |
The fourth lighthouse came in 1904 | 0:02:38 | 0:02:40 | |
after a grand opening ceremony by his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, | 0:02:40 | 0:02:45 | |
later King George V. | 0:02:45 | 0:02:47 | |
At 150 ft, its lights flashed every 10 seconds and it could be seen for 18 miles. | 0:02:47 | 0:02:53 | |
The fourth lighthouse still stands proud on the landscape here today. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:59 | |
For 56 years it provided a welcome light to local fishermen | 0:02:59 | 0:03:04 | |
and other mariners negotiating the perils of the English Channel. | 0:03:04 | 0:03:07 | |
It was decommissioned in 1960. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:10 | |
It wasn't the shingle that prompted the building of the fifth lighthouse | 0:03:12 | 0:03:17 | |
but the arrival of Dungeness power station in the late 1950s. | 0:03:17 | 0:03:21 | |
The building was so high that it obscured the light from the sea, | 0:03:21 | 0:03:24 | |
so a new automatic lighthouse was built closer to the water's edge. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:27 | |
It's still in use to this day. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:30 | |
Kent's coastline stretches for around 350 miles, making it one of the longest in the country. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:40 | |
Some of its bays and sandy beaches are renowned for their beauty. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:44 | |
Some are known for their perfusion of fossils. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:48 | |
One such place is Botany Bay. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:51 | |
This landscape of chalk and sand is a rich hunting ground | 0:03:54 | 0:03:58 | |
for geologists searching for evidence | 0:03:58 | 0:04:01 | |
of life many millions of years ago. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:03 | |
These cliffs are a natural storehouse of fossils. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:07 | |
They are a treasure trove. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:08 | |
We are very privileged that we have one of the longest stretches of unbroken chalk cliff in Britain. | 0:04:08 | 0:04:14 | |
It's also particularly soft. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:15 | |
That's one of the key factors in determining the preservation level we find in the fossils here. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:21 | |
What are you carrying there? | 0:04:21 | 0:04:23 | |
This is a portion of a large ammonite | 0:04:23 | 0:04:25 | |
that lived here in the seas about 80 million years ago. | 0:04:25 | 0:04:27 | |
These are a relatively common fossil we find here. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:30 | |
And just a portion - it's huge. | 0:04:30 | 0:04:32 | |
This is tiny, the full-size would have been a metre and a half across. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:36 | |
Are you still finding them here? | 0:04:36 | 0:04:38 | |
Yes, we've got one in the cliffs above us here. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:41 | |
With it being chalk you must get a lot of erosion. | 0:04:41 | 0:04:44 | |
Yes, these clips are quite soft. | 0:04:44 | 0:04:46 | |
Although the island itself is girdled mainly by a concrete promenade, | 0:04:46 | 0:04:50 | |
this is one of the few bays that's actually completely wild. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:53 | |
We can see erosion happening on a day-to-day basis. | 0:04:53 | 0:04:56 | |
After that storm we had yesterday afternoon, | 0:04:56 | 0:04:58 | |
I noticed there's a cliff fall round the corner. | 0:04:58 | 0:05:00 | |
It would be wise to have a look at that, you never know what we might find. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:04 | |
-Here we are. -Isn't it amazing? A relatively fresh fall. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:08 | |
We need to be careful not to climb too close to it. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:13 | |
It is a fantastic place to start looking. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:16 | |
-There's some here, loads of material. -What's that? | 0:05:16 | 0:05:21 | |
This is a fossil sea urchin. | 0:05:21 | 0:05:23 | |
All of the spines have come off. | 0:05:23 | 0:05:25 | |
This is another one. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:28 | |
It's quite a common fossil. None the less, every fossil is unique. | 0:05:28 | 0:05:31 | |
There is a lump here which I know from looking at it | 0:05:31 | 0:05:34 | |
has a very nice heart-shaped fossil urchin in it. | 0:05:34 | 0:05:38 | |
That one will definitely be coming home with me today. | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
Along the coastline of Thanet | 0:05:41 | 0:05:43 | |
you'll also find plant life that can't have changed much | 0:05:43 | 0:05:47 | |
since flying dinosaurs feasted on giant ammonites. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:50 | |
It's seaweed in huge variety. | 0:05:50 | 0:05:53 | |
On the rocks that we can see towards low tide here, | 0:05:53 | 0:05:57 | |
we have a combination of species that makes it unusual. | 0:05:57 | 0:06:01 | |
This is also the last outcrop of rock on the east coast of England | 0:06:01 | 0:06:07 | |
before we get to Yorkshire. It's the last spot where there's hard rock. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:10 | |
Seaweeds like hard rock to attach to and grow on. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:14 | |
What have you been finding? | 0:06:14 | 0:06:15 | |
All sorts of things. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:17 | |
Most commonly we see this one, the toothed wrack. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:20 | |
A very common, widespread species. | 0:06:20 | 0:06:23 | |
This red one is called dulse. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:28 | |
It was collected by the Scots. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:31 | |
Dulse is a Gaelic name. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:33 | |
Eaten in Scotland as a kind of salad. | 0:06:33 | 0:06:37 | |
What else can you find around here? | 0:06:37 | 0:06:40 | |
In this pool here, what we have is a large brown seaweed, several seaweeds. This is kelp. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:47 | |
It's anchored to the chalk. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:51 | |
It is. The holes you see in this chalk | 0:06:51 | 0:06:55 | |
are actually bored by a mollusc that actually lives... | 0:06:55 | 0:07:00 | |
You can just about see the shells inside. | 0:07:00 | 0:07:04 | |
It lives inside the chalk and weakens the chalk. | 0:07:04 | 0:07:08 | |
So the effects of waves and tides, and storms | 0:07:08 | 0:07:13 | |
actually call against the seaweed and cause the chalk to break away. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:19 | |
We see the seaweed on a piece of chalk here. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:24 | |
Lots of these beaches along the Kent coast have got blue flags because they are so clean. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
Is that good for the seaweed? | 0:07:28 | 0:07:30 | |
It's very good for seaweed and all marine organisms. | 0:07:30 | 0:07:33 | |
The cleaner the sea, the more growth we will get. | 0:07:33 | 0:07:36 | |
So Thanet's record number of blue flags will benefit | 0:07:36 | 0:07:40 | |
not just holidaymakers but life in the sea as well. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:44 | |
As one of the largest expanses of shingle in the world, | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
this desolate landscape is officially the UK's only desert. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:04 | |
Punctuated by crumbling structures, | 0:08:04 | 0:08:06 | |
this apparent wasteland is a habitat to a unique variety of wildlife | 0:08:06 | 0:08:11 | |
and over 600 different types of plants, | 0:08:11 | 0:08:14 | |
a third of all plants found anywhere in the UK. | 0:08:14 | 0:08:18 | |
Dungeness is also one of the best places in Britain | 0:08:21 | 0:08:23 | |
to find a rare species of moths, butterflies, bees, beetles and spiders. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:30 | |
Many of the insects here cannot be found anywhere else. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:34 | |
It's a really barren landscape in Dungeness, I didn't really instantly warm to it. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:39 | |
But it has, on closer inspection, got a certain type of prettiness. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:43 | |
Having said that, I'm not sure I could live here so I'm intrigued to find out why people would. | 0:08:43 | 0:08:47 | |
I'm off to meet a local resident now. | 0:08:47 | 0:08:50 | |
Each property has its own individual charm. | 0:08:50 | 0:08:54 | |
But, over the years, alterations to some of these dwellings | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
have disguised the signs of their previous life as a fleet of classic Pullman train carriages. | 0:08:57 | 0:09:03 | |
-Wow! -Here is the carriage. -It's beautiful. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:08 | |
-You can really feel how it still has that carriage shape. -Indeed. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:13 | |
What's great about it is because we've got the curved roof then the stove behind you, | 0:09:13 | 0:09:21 | |
the Hunter, that convects the heat all the way round so you can be snug. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:26 | |
How did a railway carriage come to end up on a beach? | 0:09:26 | 0:09:30 | |
The railway workers who work on the gravel extraction | 0:09:30 | 0:09:35 | |
loved it here. | 0:09:35 | 0:09:38 | |
When that was finishing they arranged for the last train to | 0:09:38 | 0:09:45 | |
become holiday chalets. | 0:09:45 | 0:09:46 | |
And this was a first-class carriage? | 0:09:46 | 0:09:48 | |
First class non-smoking. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:51 | |
But I smoke and it because it's my carriage. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:54 | |
You can do what you like. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:56 | |
Dungeness is such a unique landscape, I've never come across anywhere like it. | 0:09:56 | 0:10:00 | |
-What was it that drew you here? -I was born and brought up in Africa. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:04 | |
The majority of the time I was in the Kalahari Desert, | 0:10:06 | 0:10:10 | |
which is not unlike this landscape. | 0:10:10 | 0:10:12 | |
All the plants that you see and the landscape, | 0:10:12 | 0:10:16 | |
they give enough space because nothing will survive | 0:10:16 | 0:10:20 | |
if they don't allow themselves three metres, six metres, eight metres. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:24 | |
That has the effect of making the landscape even larger | 0:10:24 | 0:10:27 | |
because you see these little puffballs receding forever, | 0:10:27 | 0:10:31 | |
so you've got this sense of vastness. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:34 | |
Already a successful artist, | 0:10:36 | 0:10:38 | |
Paddy escaped London ten years ago to settle here in Dungeness. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:43 | |
He's offered me a personal tour of his studios. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:47 | |
What is it about Dungeness that gets your creative juices flowing as an artist? | 0:10:47 | 0:10:52 | |
I basically wander around looking at the same things | 0:10:52 | 0:10:56 | |
and then one day I look at them and make a small connection | 0:10:56 | 0:10:59 | |
between something that's there, | 0:10:59 | 0:11:01 | |
something that might be over there and find a meaning. | 0:11:01 | 0:11:06 | |
Or I see something so remarkable | 0:11:06 | 0:11:08 | |
that I drop whatever else I'm doing | 0:11:08 | 0:11:11 | |
and immediately come back and paint something like this. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:15 | |
Talk me through this, it's an amazing piece. | 0:11:15 | 0:11:21 | |
It's the THV Patricia, which is the Trinity House vessel | 0:11:21 | 0:11:26 | |
that services the buoys all around the coast. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:30 | |
This ship is perpetually making its way around the British coastline. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:36 | |
Looking at this picture doesn't look like a particularly bright day. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:41 | |
It was, it was a day almost exactly like this. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:44 | |
The boat was as close as it could be and then this strange mist, | 0:11:44 | 0:11:51 | |
fog mixture, took me over, | 0:11:51 | 0:11:53 | |
and I couldn't believe what had just happened because the bright sun, | 0:11:53 | 0:11:58 | |
that was still going through the mist | 0:11:58 | 0:12:03 | |
and lighting the ship in the most beautiful way. | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
I couldn't have imagined it. There was nothing I could do but come back. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:12 | |
I stopped what I was doing and got to work. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:17 | |
It's a technical painting but it works. | 0:12:17 | 0:12:20 | |
I can imagine looking out towards the sea there's some really obvious beauty there. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:25 | |
But looking over towards the power station, does that ever give you any inspiration? | 0:12:25 | 0:12:29 | |
Oh, yes! It's Las Vegas at night. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:34 | |
It's a grey hill in the day, you need a hill. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:39 | |
We call it The Beast. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:42 | |
It has its own beauty because the walkways are lit up at night. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:45 | |
You can see people walking, these tiny people walking along these gantries. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:51 | |
It's a happy place. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:53 | |
The people who work there whistle, smile. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:56 | |
The Tannoys are interesting, banal but sometimes slightly scary. | 0:12:56 | 0:13:03 | |
Bing-bong-bong, bing-bong-bong, you don't expect it. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:07 | |
"Reg, can you call your wife, please?" | 0:13:07 | 0:13:10 | |
It's hard to be indifferent about Dungeness. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:16 | |
It has an intoxicating effect. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:19 | |
Paddy has certainly made an intimate connection with the landscape, as both his subject and his home. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:25 | |
Kent is a county of varying vistas, and my journey takes me through some of the finest it has to offer. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:36 | |
Flat horizons at its beaches. | 0:13:36 | 0:13:39 | |
Bountiful orchards Inland and, not far from here, | 0:13:39 | 0:13:42 | |
dense woodland that provides the perfect hiding place for an elusive animal. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:48 | |
This positively medieval mammal had been extinct in Britain for centuries. | 0:13:48 | 0:13:53 | |
Then wild boar farms to provide meat with a difference were set up in Kent. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:58 | |
And, yes, some animals escaped. | 0:13:58 | 0:14:00 | |
They avoid contact with human beings | 0:14:00 | 0:14:02 | |
if at all possible. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:04 | |
Derek Harman, a former agricultural worker, | 0:14:04 | 0:14:07 | |
has been on the trail of the wild boar for more than a decade. | 0:14:07 | 0:14:10 | |
He knows all the signs. | 0:14:10 | 0:14:11 | |
There's definitely something going on here. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:14 | |
This is a typical example of wild boar. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:17 | |
The whole place has been turned over. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:19 | |
The whole wood is all chestnuts. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:22 | |
They are looking for the remains of last year's chestnut crop. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:25 | |
Bluebells and grubs, and worms. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:27 | |
The evidence for the bluebells is there, tiny shoots where they've uprooted the main bulbs. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:32 | |
So they have literally turned all the soil over looking for anything they can eat. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:36 | |
Anything edible. | 0:14:36 | 0:14:38 | |
What have we got here, Derek? | 0:14:38 | 0:14:40 | |
We have an actual boar run. | 0:14:40 | 0:14:43 | |
They come through every night and into the patch of forest on the other side. | 0:14:43 | 0:14:47 | |
They use the same route night after night. | 0:14:47 | 0:14:49 | |
Yes, which is why it's smooth. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:51 | |
Similar to a badger. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:54 | |
Since their escape, the shy, largely nocturnal creatures have been breeding and spreading. | 0:14:54 | 0:15:00 | |
From Kent, over the border into East Sussex. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:04 | |
And it seems there's nothing to stop these animals recapturing all their old stomping grounds. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:09 | |
Within five to ten years, the whole of the South of England will have a population of wild boar. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:15 | |
Eventually I would think within ten years, there won't be a large patch of forest in the country | 0:15:15 | 0:15:21 | |
that hasn't got a population of wild boar. | 0:15:21 | 0:15:23 | |
And that could cause nationwide hysteria because when the boars first got loose in Kent, | 0:15:23 | 0:15:28 | |
there were dire warnings. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:30 | |
Watch out for your pets! Keep your children safe! | 0:15:30 | 0:15:32 | |
It was a great over-reaction. | 0:15:32 | 0:15:34 | |
Look what's happened, absolutely nothing. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:36 | |
Wild boar are very shy animals. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:37 | |
I spent a week in a forest in Poland looking for bison, but it was full of wild boar. I only saw them once. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:43 | |
So unless you're unlucky or foolish enough to corner one, you'll be completely safe. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:47 | |
There hasn't been a problem. Animals haven't been attacked, | 0:15:47 | 0:15:50 | |
dogs haven't been attacked, people haven't been attacked | 0:15:50 | 0:15:53 | |
and I think these animals have literally earned their right to stay | 0:15:53 | 0:15:57 | |
in the countryside, providing they're left alone and not confronted. | 0:15:57 | 0:16:01 | |
But on the edge of the wild woods where the wild boar live, there are other problems. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:07 | |
It's harvest time in the hop garden. Hops for British beers. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:11 | |
This year's crop is good but not good enough to remove the bitter taste in Jenny Farrant's mouth. | 0:16:11 | 0:16:17 | |
She's had to come to terms with an advancing army of ravenous boars who'll eat anything. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:23 | |
We have lost half a hop garden because we gave it up after two years of rooting. | 0:16:23 | 0:16:28 | |
They particularly like the young hop as it comes, | 0:16:28 | 0:16:32 | |
looking not unlike an asparagus, | 0:16:32 | 0:16:34 | |
they find that quite delicious so they root up the plant. | 0:16:34 | 0:16:37 | |
Failing finding hops, | 0:16:37 | 0:16:39 | |
they'll move on to maize and also spring wheat, delicious. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:43 | |
We're also on the borders of Romney Marsh and we're famous for our sheep. | 0:16:43 | 0:16:47 | |
Lambs go too. | 0:16:47 | 0:16:49 | |
It's a serious problem to us all. | 0:16:49 | 0:16:52 | |
Given all these worries over the wild boar | 0:16:52 | 0:16:54 | |
and the fact that their numbers are rising and the territories are spreading, | 0:16:54 | 0:16:58 | |
what's amazing is the British government | 0:16:58 | 0:17:00 | |
has no policy on this native British mammal so what's the future for the wild boar? What are the options? | 0:17:00 | 0:17:07 | |
Wild boar will need to be controlled in exactly the same way that deer, | 0:17:07 | 0:17:10 | |
if the population gets too high then you need to take certain animals out of the population | 0:17:10 | 0:17:15 | |
in order to maintain a healthy population of animals left. | 0:17:15 | 0:17:19 | |
The difference with wild boar and deer being that deer will have one fawn a year, | 0:17:19 | 0:17:23 | |
wild boar will have four or five piglets a year, so the numbers will increase dramatically. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:28 | |
Wild boar is a native animal, they do good things in our woods, they root around, they bury seeds, | 0:17:28 | 0:17:33 | |
so I suggest we do nothing. We enjoy the fact they're here. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:36 | |
We might be lucky enough to see one. We can see their hoof prints. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:39 | |
Something else interesting in the countryside. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:41 | |
Wild boar will cause some problems for farmers | 0:17:41 | 0:17:43 | |
but farmers have all sorts of things to worry about, this can be another quite small one. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:47 | |
The accidental reintroduction of wild boar into Britain seems to be unstoppable | 0:17:47 | 0:17:52 | |
and whether they're hunted for their meat or simply ignored, | 0:17:52 | 0:17:55 | |
wherever you are, there are likely to be a lot more of these | 0:17:55 | 0:17:59 | |
in your neck of the woods. | 0:17:59 | 0:18:01 | |
I've left the spare landscape of Dungeness behind and headed for Flatropers Wood in Beckley. | 0:18:08 | 0:18:13 | |
It's been almost ten years since that report, | 0:18:13 | 0:18:17 | |
so have wild boar colonised the forest? | 0:18:17 | 0:18:21 | |
Derek, were your predictions correct about the population of boars exploding? | 0:18:24 | 0:18:29 | |
To a certain extent, no. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:31 | |
The population is governed by the amount of food | 0:18:31 | 0:18:35 | |
available in the autumn. | 0:18:35 | 0:18:36 | |
If there's plenty of food about then the majority of the breeding sows will carry piglets. | 0:18:36 | 0:18:42 | |
If there's very little food about, then probably only one or two, | 0:18:42 | 0:18:46 | |
maybe will produce piglets and the litter sizes will be down | 0:18:46 | 0:18:51 | |
so they are in fact, like most wildlife, | 0:18:51 | 0:18:54 | |
governing their own numbers. | 0:18:54 | 0:18:56 | |
What's happened to the population you were researching? | 0:18:56 | 0:19:01 | |
They don't like disturbance | 0:19:01 | 0:19:02 | |
and the Forestry Commission has been thinning | 0:19:02 | 0:19:05 | |
and clearing areas of woodland, | 0:19:05 | 0:19:07 | |
which has driven the boar out and that's been going on for two years. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:11 | |
What's left of the population? | 0:19:11 | 0:19:14 | |
The odd boar. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:17 | |
One or two left in here | 0:19:17 | 0:19:19 | |
but most of them, due to the disturbance, moved out. | 0:19:19 | 0:19:23 | |
Flatropers Wood is managed by the local Wildlife Trust | 0:19:23 | 0:19:26 | |
but the Beckley and Bixley Forests that enclose it | 0:19:26 | 0:19:29 | |
are owned and managed by the Forestry Commission | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
and these forests are now being clear-felled for timber. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:35 | |
So this is the disturbance you were talking about? | 0:19:35 | 0:19:39 | |
-My goodness. -Totally clear-felled. | 0:19:39 | 0:19:42 | |
This is where the wild boar would've been seen? | 0:19:42 | 0:19:45 | |
They'd have been laying up because there was enough under story under this to keep them | 0:19:45 | 0:19:51 | |
settled, calm and away from humans. | 0:19:51 | 0:19:54 | |
How do you feel about the Forestry Commission's work here? | 0:19:54 | 0:19:57 | |
Their argument is that this is a commercial forest and it needed to be felled. | 0:19:57 | 0:20:02 | |
It was a bit upsetting, for a start, a bit disturbing, | 0:20:04 | 0:20:08 | |
but it will come back and the boar will come back. | 0:20:08 | 0:20:12 | |
What do you think the wild boar bring to the British countryside? | 0:20:12 | 0:20:15 | |
It does an awful lot of good. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:18 | |
It's turning over the soil and it's planting any seeds | 0:20:18 | 0:20:22 | |
that have fallen on to the surface, like a gardener. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:25 | |
They're nature's gardeners. | 0:20:25 | 0:20:27 | |
Providing we leave it alone, it'll leave us alone. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:32 | |
A representative from Beckley and Bixley Forest said that the Forestry Commission | 0:20:32 | 0:20:37 | |
follows the Government's national policy on wild boar issued in 2008, | 0:20:37 | 0:20:42 | |
which states that while there is no need for complete eradication, | 0:20:42 | 0:20:45 | |
local communities and landowners can manage the populations of wild boar in their area as necessary. | 0:20:45 | 0:20:52 | |
However, they added that no action has been needed in the last 20 years, as the wild boar in this area | 0:20:52 | 0:20:58 | |
have been a stable and peaceful population. | 0:20:58 | 0:21:01 | |
Although they didn't reach the numbers Derek was predicting, | 0:21:04 | 0:21:08 | |
there is still a significant population in the UK. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:13 | |
It's estimated there could be 1,000 wild boar throughout Britain, | 0:21:13 | 0:21:17 | |
with the largest population in the Forest of Dean, where they number well into the hundreds. | 0:21:17 | 0:21:22 | |
Kent's reputation as the Garden of England makes you think of orchards | 0:21:33 | 0:21:37 | |
and rolling grasslands but on the border with East Sussex, | 0:21:37 | 0:21:42 | |
it's densely wooded with shaded walks and towering trees. | 0:21:42 | 0:21:45 | |
Bedgebury Pinetum and Forest here in High Weald combine | 0:21:53 | 0:21:56 | |
two very different types of woodland environment. | 0:21:56 | 0:21:59 | |
There's the Pinetum, which is 320 acres. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:02 | |
It's very quiet and tranquil and you can sit here and soak up | 0:22:02 | 0:22:06 | |
the atmosphere created by thousands of fabulous conifers. | 0:22:06 | 0:22:11 | |
Whilst in the forests surrounding the Pinetum, | 0:22:20 | 0:22:23 | |
they've developed what will be an all-ability outdoor activity site, | 0:22:23 | 0:22:27 | |
although I think I've chosen quite a tricky route to start on! | 0:22:27 | 0:22:31 | |
The Pinetum's been in existence since the early 1920s | 0:22:35 | 0:22:39 | |
and the forest has been there for another 1,000 years | 0:22:39 | 0:22:42 | |
before that but there's not a lot of access into the forest for people, | 0:22:42 | 0:22:46 | |
so what we've tried to do is create new paths, upgrade other paths so we can get people | 0:22:46 | 0:22:53 | |
from all sorts of social backgrounds and people with disabilities into taking some sort of activity. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:58 | |
Fun day, lots of activity. | 0:22:58 | 0:23:01 | |
It's not really important how you do you scores, | 0:23:01 | 0:23:04 | |
it's how you get on with each other. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:06 | |
Now that more of the forest is accessible, | 0:23:06 | 0:23:08 | |
it can welcome schoolchildren who wouldn't normally visit the countryside. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:12 | |
Today the kids are from John Donne Primary School in Peckham, South London, | 0:23:12 | 0:23:16 | |
and after some instructions, they're off. | 0:23:16 | 0:23:18 | |
Go, go, go! | 0:23:18 | 0:23:20 | |
Orienteering. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:21 | |
And after a quick break for lunch, | 0:23:38 | 0:23:40 | |
the kids are taught some basic survival skills, starting with building a shelter. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:44 | |
So what's the best thing you've learnt today so far? | 0:23:47 | 0:23:50 | |
-Work in a team. -To work harder and to listen. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:52 | |
How good do you think today has been for the kids? | 0:23:52 | 0:23:56 | |
It's been wonderful, it's nice to get in the fresh air. It's very different to where we come from in Peckham. | 0:23:56 | 0:24:02 | |
Can you close the door? | 0:24:02 | 0:24:03 | |
# I want to ride my bicycle... # | 0:24:07 | 0:24:11 | |
And she's going off-road! | 0:24:13 | 0:24:17 | |
The Pinetum is in a separate part of the forest. | 0:24:21 | 0:24:24 | |
It was established in 1925 as a result of the London smog, | 0:24:24 | 0:24:29 | |
where air pollution and poor soil made Kew Gardens unsuitable | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
for growing conifers, so they were brought here instead, | 0:24:32 | 0:24:36 | |
but this is where I have to get off my bike because as the sign says, no cycling. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:40 | |
As home to 330 species, the Pinetum is the most complete collection | 0:24:42 | 0:24:47 | |
of conifers on one site in the world. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:50 | |
They're not everybody's favourite tree. | 0:24:54 | 0:24:56 | |
But to me and to a vast number of people | 0:24:56 | 0:24:59 | |
they're just fantastic living organisms. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:02 | |
They are huggable trees, aren't they? | 0:25:02 | 0:25:04 | |
They're like the cuddly bears of the tree world. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:06 | |
You hit the nail on the head there. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:08 | |
They're just huggable. Some of these trees, you look around here, | 0:25:08 | 0:25:12 | |
behind us you've got the coast redwoods. That's the tallest living organism. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:16 | |
That's pretty tall, but they can grow much taller than that, can't they? | 0:25:16 | 0:25:19 | |
They grow to about 376 foot when they grow out in the Californian coast. | 0:25:19 | 0:25:23 | |
That's a very, very large tree. | 0:25:23 | 0:25:25 | |
And if you look behind us, you've got the giant redwood. | 0:25:25 | 0:25:28 | |
And that is the largest living organism, the largest living thing on the planet. | 0:25:28 | 0:25:34 | |
They're only babies here, of course, because in the wild they grow to several thousand years old. | 0:25:34 | 0:25:40 | |
From the shade of Flatropers Wood | 0:25:51 | 0:25:54 | |
I'm travelling on to the fertile fields of Ticehurst. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:57 | |
The south east of England produces 50% of Britain's eating apples, | 0:26:02 | 0:26:06 | |
65% of its cooking apples, | 0:26:06 | 0:26:08 | |
three quarters of its pears and 90% of Britain's cherries. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:13 | |
Many of these orchards are found right here in Kent, | 0:26:15 | 0:26:17 | |
and several offer the chance to go onto the farm and pick your own. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:22 | |
Why did you decide to do pick-your-own rather than growing for supermarkets? | 0:26:27 | 0:26:33 | |
Well, when my parents started doing it back in the '60s, | 0:26:33 | 0:26:36 | |
people were getting their first freezers in the home, | 0:26:36 | 0:26:39 | |
and a lot of families getting their first car loved to come out to the countryside. | 0:26:39 | 0:26:44 | |
It was an economy thing, people would do it because the fruit was cheaper. | 0:26:44 | 0:26:47 | |
But really that's changed now. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:49 | |
People come just because they enjoy being in the countryside. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:52 | |
And so it's quite a good business for us. | 0:26:52 | 0:26:54 | |
What have we got here looking so red and tempting? | 0:26:54 | 0:26:56 | |
These are tayberries. You hardly see them in the supermarket | 0:26:56 | 0:27:00 | |
because they haven't really got a very good punnet life. | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
When you're picking them you have to grasp the whole fruit, | 0:27:03 | 0:27:07 | |
and that tends to squash them and you end up with a bit of juice at the bottom. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:10 | |
No difference in flavour but it does make a difference in the supermarket. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:13 | |
I've got this real hedgerow feeling where you see red berries and you instantly feel like jumping in. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:18 | |
-Would I be allowed to try one? -Of course, yes. | 0:27:18 | 0:27:20 | |
There you go, try that one. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:22 | |
It's a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:25 | |
You can get both of them coming through. | 0:27:25 | 0:27:27 | |
That blackberry flavour's really clear in there. How lovely. | 0:27:27 | 0:27:31 | |
What are these trees here? | 0:27:37 | 0:27:39 | |
-These are apricots. -Apricots in England? | 0:27:39 | 0:27:41 | |
-Yes! -Wow! | 0:27:41 | 0:27:42 | |
Wow, these cherries look amazing, Tom, they look absolutely fabulous. | 0:27:46 | 0:27:50 | |
-They're my favourites! -Me too! And lots of other people. | 0:27:50 | 0:27:54 | |
Hmm... | 0:27:56 | 0:27:58 | |
They're amazing. | 0:27:58 | 0:28:00 | |
How lovely. On the farm you've got such a huge variety of fruit, | 0:28:00 | 0:28:05 | |
you pick your own season - it's actually incredibly long, isn't it? | 0:28:05 | 0:28:09 | |
Yeah, we open the beginning of June and run through till the end of September. | 0:28:09 | 0:28:12 | |
We start off with strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries, then the cherries and cane fruits, | 0:28:12 | 0:28:19 | |
and lots of different sorts of plums, because I'm a great plum fan. | 0:28:19 | 0:28:23 | |
And apples and nuts. But lots of different varieties within that so that I've got a longer season. | 0:28:23 | 0:28:29 | |
For example, we should have cherries from about late June through to late July, early August. | 0:28:29 | 0:28:34 | |
Similarly with the strawberries, I try to have about a five or six-week season with different varieties. | 0:28:34 | 0:28:40 | |
And that also spreads the risk, particularly with cherries, | 0:28:40 | 0:28:43 | |
if you get cold weather during flowering, you don't get a crop. | 0:28:43 | 0:28:46 | |
And so if you've got different flowering dates, you're more likely to get one of them coming up trumps. | 0:28:46 | 0:28:52 | |
There's been a bumper crop of cherries this year, | 0:28:54 | 0:28:57 | |
with over ten tonnes expected to be picked on the farm this season. | 0:28:57 | 0:29:01 | |
But if there's one fruit synonymous with pick-your-own, it's the British strawberry. | 0:29:01 | 0:29:06 | |
The smell of strawberries hits you as you come around the corner. | 0:29:08 | 0:29:12 | |
The air smells so sweet. | 0:29:12 | 0:29:14 | |
-Let's pick a row. -OK. | 0:29:14 | 0:29:16 | |
This is the bit I'm looking forward to - I've even brought a punnet along! | 0:29:16 | 0:29:20 | |
What variety have you got here? | 0:29:20 | 0:29:22 | |
These ones are Amelia, which is a new variety for this year, bred in Kent. | 0:29:22 | 0:29:28 | |
And it's one that comes at the end of the season. | 0:29:28 | 0:29:32 | |
There's quite a lot of green fruit still there, but there's also some nice red ones just starting. | 0:29:32 | 0:29:37 | |
-I'm really pleased with it. -I've just spotted a massive one. | 0:29:37 | 0:29:40 | |
-Can I try before I buy? -Yes! | 0:29:40 | 0:29:42 | |
You certainly can. | 0:29:42 | 0:29:45 | |
Oh, this is a whopper. | 0:29:45 | 0:29:47 | |
-Check that out! -Looks good. -Looks good. | 0:29:48 | 0:29:51 | |
I had supermarket strawberries not so long ago, and the only similarity to strawberries was the texture. | 0:29:54 | 0:30:00 | |
This is a lovely strawberry flavour, just as I remember. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:03 | |
-Lovely background flavour, yeah. -Gorgeous. | 0:30:03 | 0:30:07 | |
Right then, that's the only one I'll try, I promise! | 0:30:09 | 0:30:12 | |
Well, I'll believe you! And I'll leave you to it. | 0:30:12 | 0:30:15 | |
All right, thank you very much. Bye! | 0:30:15 | 0:30:18 | |
Unlike many commercial growers who prioritise supermarket shelf life and high yields, | 0:30:19 | 0:30:24 | |
the traditional pick-your-own farmer grows for taste. | 0:30:24 | 0:30:28 | |
And it's this that keeps people coming back year after year. | 0:30:28 | 0:30:31 | |
From the fruit fields of Ticehurst I'm travelling on to Golden Green, | 0:30:36 | 0:30:40 | |
once at the heart of Kent's hop growing industry. | 0:30:40 | 0:30:44 | |
The county of Kent is particularly famous for producing hops, | 0:30:45 | 0:30:49 | |
and you can't walk too far without | 0:30:49 | 0:30:51 | |
coming across a relic of its once booming brewing industry. | 0:30:51 | 0:30:54 | |
Kent's iconic oast houses | 0:30:54 | 0:30:56 | |
are a lasting symbol of Britain's cultural heritage. | 0:30:56 | 0:31:01 | |
These picturesque buildings were used for drying hops | 0:31:01 | 0:31:05 | |
in preparation for the brewing process. | 0:31:05 | 0:31:08 | |
Freshly picked hops were brought in from the fields, spread out on the | 0:31:08 | 0:31:12 | |
floor and dried by hot air from a wood or charcoal-fired kiln. | 0:31:12 | 0:31:15 | |
They were then left to cool and bagged up for the brewery, ready to make beer. | 0:31:15 | 0:31:20 | |
Oast houses spread up all over Kent | 0:31:20 | 0:31:23 | |
in the Victorian era, the height of Britain's hop industry. | 0:31:23 | 0:31:27 | |
They were carefully constructed and extremely attractive for what was really just a farm building. | 0:31:27 | 0:31:33 | |
Throughout history, well over half the hops produced in the UK | 0:31:33 | 0:31:38 | |
were grown here in Kent. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:40 | |
In recent years the industry has suffered a marked decline. | 0:31:40 | 0:31:44 | |
But at its height hops were grown on 72,000 acres of land, nationwide. | 0:31:44 | 0:31:50 | |
Last year only 2,644 acres of land was used to grow hops in the UK. | 0:31:51 | 0:31:58 | |
And with the number of producers dwindling to only 37, the industry has shrunk dramatically. | 0:31:58 | 0:32:04 | |
Kent is a county that's proud of its farming heritage. | 0:32:05 | 0:32:09 | |
The hop fields may not be quite so abundant, but memories of their heyday are very much still alive. | 0:32:09 | 0:32:15 | |
In its heyday Kent had hundreds of farms growing hops for the brewing industry. | 0:32:17 | 0:32:23 | |
Every September up to 4,000 Londoners, | 0:32:23 | 0:32:26 | |
most of them from the East End, would flock here to pick the crop. | 0:32:26 | 0:32:30 | |
Here at Paddock Wood, this was once the largest hop farm in the county. | 0:32:30 | 0:32:35 | |
Now it's the Hop Farm Country Park. | 0:32:35 | 0:32:37 | |
And it's coach parties, not pickers, | 0:32:37 | 0:32:40 | |
who come here for the annual Hop Festival. | 0:32:40 | 0:32:43 | |
When the hops got taller... | 0:32:43 | 0:32:46 | |
Colin Felton dresses as an old-time picker to lead the tours. | 0:32:46 | 0:32:49 | |
Fifty years ago he was one of six children in a family | 0:32:49 | 0:32:53 | |
that combined hop picking with a bit of a holiday away from the smoke. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:57 | |
We always started first week in September, | 0:32:59 | 0:33:02 | |
and then it was four weeks, maybe five, | 0:33:02 | 0:33:04 | |
which we used to lose a lot of school. | 0:33:04 | 0:33:07 | |
But no one worried because we earned money for the family to get clothes to go back to school. | 0:33:07 | 0:33:11 | |
So at the age of four and five you were earning money? | 0:33:11 | 0:33:14 | |
Even younger. As soon as you could walk. | 0:33:14 | 0:33:18 | |
If you couldn't reach the bin, you'd pick into an umbrella. | 0:33:18 | 0:33:21 | |
Or you'd go behind the bin and pick up the loose hops in a box, so you was earning money. | 0:33:21 | 0:33:25 | |
-It wasn't much of a holiday then? -Oh, it was for us. | 0:33:25 | 0:33:28 | |
We didn't want to go down the coast. | 0:33:28 | 0:33:30 | |
Every year we got the letter from the farmer to say that we | 0:33:30 | 0:33:33 | |
could come, and we knew we was going on holiday. | 0:33:33 | 0:33:35 | |
The farmers provided some rough accommodation, didn't they? | 0:33:35 | 0:33:38 | |
Yeah, the huts, the famous huts. | 0:33:38 | 0:33:40 | |
They was about eight foot by eight foot. | 0:33:40 | 0:33:44 | |
Sometimes they were made of corrugated iron, and as we couldn't leave anything here for the winter, | 0:33:44 | 0:33:48 | |
cos it was so damp, and we used to hire a lorry with the other families, | 0:33:48 | 0:33:52 | |
we had to fetch all the bedding, me mum used to fetch curtains, and most times we even | 0:33:52 | 0:33:58 | |
papered the corrugated iron - and you can imagine how it was getting round the corrugated iron with paper! | 0:33:58 | 0:34:03 | |
Trying to make it home from home. | 0:34:03 | 0:34:05 | |
Me brothers and sisters and me mum used to come down here. | 0:34:05 | 0:34:08 | |
We'd have two beds. | 0:34:08 | 0:34:10 | |
The boys would be in one bed, and and all the girls would be with me mum in the other one. | 0:34:10 | 0:34:14 | |
-A bit noisy I should think, wasn't it? -It was. | 0:34:14 | 0:34:16 | |
When me dad and that would come down, they'd all go off to the pub. | 0:34:16 | 0:34:20 | |
Me mum would give us our tea, then she'd go off to the pub. | 0:34:20 | 0:34:23 | |
And these huts, there was only the walls, they didn't have no apex walls, so the whole huts was joined. | 0:34:23 | 0:34:29 | |
And when they come back from the pub, usually late at night, | 0:34:29 | 0:34:33 | |
worse for wear, some of them, | 0:34:33 | 0:34:35 | |
you could hear everything that was going on. | 0:34:35 | 0:34:38 | |
The rows...more. Everything that was going on. | 0:34:38 | 0:34:41 | |
And the kids used to be all there giggling because we could hear everything that was going on. | 0:34:41 | 0:34:46 | |
Nowadays children come here to glimpse into bygone days. | 0:34:48 | 0:34:51 | |
But for some visitors this place brings back memories. | 0:34:51 | 0:34:54 | |
I had three children and it was hard work getting them out for the field for seven in the morning. | 0:34:54 | 0:35:00 | |
You'd put 'em in the pram and you'd go across the fields till you got to the hop field. | 0:35:00 | 0:35:04 | |
It was hard work but it was good, it was lovely. | 0:35:04 | 0:35:07 | |
It was great fun, really. | 0:35:07 | 0:35:10 | |
-Yeah. -I believe I earned £7.14. -That was a lot of money then. | 0:35:10 | 0:35:14 | |
-Oh, it was, yeah. -A lot of money. | 0:35:14 | 0:35:15 | |
In the 1960s, crop picking machinery changed everything, | 0:35:15 | 0:35:19 | |
and Londoners were more prosperous anyway. | 0:35:19 | 0:35:23 | |
So the annual hop down to Kent came to an end. | 0:35:23 | 0:35:26 | |
Today they are fully mechanised you do need people do help out. | 0:35:26 | 0:35:30 | |
Where do they come from nowadays? | 0:35:30 | 0:35:32 | |
They're still from the east, but instead of the East End of London, it's Eastern Europe. | 0:35:32 | 0:35:36 | |
They're still living in temporary accommodation, | 0:35:36 | 0:35:40 | |
but it's far superior to what the Londoners had in the old days. | 0:35:40 | 0:35:45 | |
Now the toilets flush and there are showers. | 0:35:45 | 0:35:48 | |
-So the golden days have gone, really? -The romance is still there. | 0:35:49 | 0:35:52 | |
As far as I'm concerned it still will be and ever will be, although at times it drives me mad! | 0:35:52 | 0:35:58 | |
When you look back now on those days, what are your thoughts? | 0:36:00 | 0:36:04 | |
I do regret it all finishing and going onto machines. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:07 | |
And a lot of Londoners, that was it. | 0:36:07 | 0:36:09 | |
They never went on holiday after that, all the older people. | 0:36:09 | 0:36:13 | |
It was just a fabulous time down here. | 0:36:13 | 0:36:15 | |
Following the spiralling fall in demand for British hops, | 0:36:23 | 0:36:26 | |
the market now seems to have stabilised, | 0:36:26 | 0:36:28 | |
with the renewed call for traditional ales and the increase of micro breweries. | 0:36:28 | 0:36:33 | |
I'm continuing my journey through Kent, from its vast empty coastline | 0:36:35 | 0:36:40 | |
towards the increasingly urban fringes of London. | 0:36:40 | 0:36:43 | |
My next stop is Biggin Hill. | 0:36:43 | 0:36:45 | |
Kent is blessed with some of the most fertile and productive fields and orchards in Britain. | 0:36:48 | 0:36:52 | |
Even though the South East is densely populated, | 0:36:52 | 0:36:56 | |
70% of Kent's land is farmed. | 0:36:56 | 0:36:58 | |
But this agricultural heartland has a long-standing bond with another institution - the armed forces. | 0:37:02 | 0:37:09 | |
I've come to Biggin Hill to get a taste of life in the forces | 0:37:15 | 0:37:18 | |
with the Air Training Corps. | 0:37:18 | 0:37:20 | |
MARCHING INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN, WHISTLE SOUNDS | 0:37:21 | 0:37:24 | |
Squadron 2427 is one of 36 cadet squadrons based here in Kent. | 0:37:29 | 0:37:35 | |
Their headquarters is the legendary Battle of Britain fighting station just behind me. | 0:37:35 | 0:37:40 | |
And they are the last uniformed unit to be stationed here at Biggin Hill. | 0:37:40 | 0:37:45 | |
It's a very disciplined environment of uniforms, drills and parades. | 0:37:45 | 0:37:50 | |
It's only fair that I have a go and see how I fare in comparison. | 0:37:50 | 0:37:53 | |
-Would you like to fall in there, please? -Yes. I look so scruffy! | 0:37:55 | 0:37:58 | |
You're all right. Stand to attention with your heels together. | 0:37:58 | 0:38:01 | |
Your left foot goes from there up to the bend the knee position, | 0:38:01 | 0:38:05 | |
which is thigh parallel to the ground and out to shoulder width. | 0:38:05 | 0:38:08 | |
Squad! Attention! | 0:38:08 | 0:38:11 | |
Squad, stand at ease! | 0:38:11 | 0:38:13 | |
Oh, wrong foot! | 0:38:13 | 0:38:15 | |
Squad, move to the right! | 0:38:17 | 0:38:19 | |
Right, turn! | 0:38:19 | 0:38:22 | |
'I feel Corporal Jones from Dad's Army!' | 0:38:22 | 0:38:24 | |
March! Left, right, left, right, left, right... | 0:38:24 | 0:38:30 | |
'Actually this is a real insight into the emphasis on discipline | 0:38:30 | 0:38:34 | |
'which starts early in the armed forces.' | 0:38:34 | 0:38:36 | |
-Very well done. -A bit better! | 0:38:38 | 0:38:40 | |
When I say, "Squad halt", they're gonna stop. Squad, halt! | 0:38:41 | 0:38:45 | |
-Thank you for being so patient with me! -You're welcome. -Fantastic. | 0:38:47 | 0:38:51 | |
Seventy cadets meet twice a week | 0:38:51 | 0:38:54 | |
and take part in a huge range of activities, | 0:38:54 | 0:38:56 | |
such as drill practice, kayaking and go-kart building. | 0:38:56 | 0:39:01 | |
A lot of it is fun, but the programme is designed | 0:39:01 | 0:39:04 | |
to discipline the mind | 0:39:04 | 0:39:05 | |
and create a unit who act to orders, as one body of people. | 0:39:05 | 0:39:09 | |
And I get to try out the squadron's flight simulator. Jump in? | 0:39:11 | 0:39:14 | |
-Yeah, jump in. -This is extraordinary. | 0:39:14 | 0:39:17 | |
This feels very real. It's all metal. | 0:39:17 | 0:39:20 | |
It used to be a real air frame. | 0:39:20 | 0:39:22 | |
-It did? -OK, you see this flap on the right-hand side? | 0:39:22 | 0:39:25 | |
-This? -Yeah. Pull it down for me. | 0:39:25 | 0:39:27 | |
OK, and push the little red button. | 0:39:27 | 0:39:30 | |
That'll start the aircraft underneath the flap. There we go. | 0:39:30 | 0:39:33 | |
OK, so we reached our safe height of 3,000 feet. | 0:39:40 | 0:39:43 | |
So, what we're going to do is do our first manoeuvre, | 0:39:43 | 0:39:46 | |
-which is a barrel roll. -This is normal practice, is it, for a cadet? | 0:39:46 | 0:39:49 | |
Yes, this is normal practice. | 0:39:49 | 0:39:51 | |
-I'm teaching you the same thing that everybody else does. -OK. | 0:39:51 | 0:39:54 | |
-So, we reach a safe speed of 120 knots. -There's the ground. | 0:39:54 | 0:39:56 | |
Pull the stick back. | 0:39:56 | 0:39:59 | |
Feet touching horizon. We pull the stick back and left and left foot. | 0:39:59 | 0:40:03 | |
Horizon rolls. | 0:40:05 | 0:40:07 | |
As we straighten up again, feet and stick level. | 0:40:07 | 0:40:10 | |
And pull back up until we see the horizon as it was before. | 0:40:10 | 0:40:14 | |
-I'm sure I'm going to crash this thing. -OK, you happy with that? -No! But yeah. | 0:40:14 | 0:40:18 | |
-No? -No, I will, I'll have a go. -OK, pull the stick back. | 0:40:18 | 0:40:22 | |
Back a little bit. | 0:40:22 | 0:40:24 | |
A little bit more. A little bit more. | 0:40:24 | 0:40:26 | |
There we go. | 0:40:26 | 0:40:27 | |
Pull the stick back to left, and feet to the left. All the way. | 0:40:27 | 0:40:32 | |
There we go. As we're coming round, stick it into the middle. | 0:40:32 | 0:40:37 | |
Oh, I'm going a funny place. | 0:40:37 | 0:40:39 | |
There we go. There we go. | 0:40:39 | 0:40:41 | |
-I've seen worse first times. -You've assisted me very kindly there. | 0:40:41 | 0:40:45 | |
One other thing you can do in this aircraft is explore its envelope and do a stall. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:50 | |
Its basically where the aircraft falls out of the sky. | 0:40:50 | 0:40:53 | |
It's completely safe. | 0:40:53 | 0:40:54 | |
It's completely controlled. | 0:40:54 | 0:40:56 | |
What we do is, we cut off the power and let the aircraft rise. | 0:40:56 | 0:41:00 | |
Why would it rise if the power went off? | 0:41:00 | 0:41:02 | |
-Sorry? -Why would the plane rise if the power went off? | 0:41:02 | 0:41:05 | |
What I'm doing is, I'm pulling the stick back, just to let the air speed bleed off. | 0:41:05 | 0:41:09 | |
-It's gone quiet. -And it'll go very quiet. | 0:41:11 | 0:41:14 | |
Then, all of a sudden you hear a very loud warning telling us that we're falling out of the sky. | 0:41:14 | 0:41:18 | |
-ALARM SOUNDS -And you see the ground racing towards you. -Yeah. | 0:41:18 | 0:41:22 | |
What you'd do is just power on. | 0:41:24 | 0:41:26 | |
Stick down. Get a load of airspeed back up. | 0:41:29 | 0:41:32 | |
-Resume straight to level flight. -Shall we take it in to land? | 0:41:32 | 0:41:35 | |
-Yes, that's what we're turning round to do. -OK. | 0:41:35 | 0:41:38 | |
-So, as you can see, the airfield is in front of us. -Is that Battersea Power Station? | 0:41:38 | 0:41:42 | |
Yeah, that's Battersea Power Station over there. | 0:41:42 | 0:41:45 | |
You can also see the Millennium Wheel. | 0:41:45 | 0:41:48 | |
Gently, gently. | 0:41:51 | 0:41:53 | |
That's incredible. | 0:41:53 | 0:41:55 | |
OK, and we're down. | 0:41:57 | 0:41:59 | |
Look at that. Perfect. | 0:41:59 | 0:42:00 | |
Barely bounced. All in a day's flying. | 0:42:00 | 0:42:04 | |
Thousands of soldiers, sailors and pilots have passed through | 0:42:06 | 0:42:09 | |
the airfields and barracks of Kent. | 0:42:09 | 0:42:11 | |
I'm sure that many of these guys will one day find themselves as new recruits, | 0:42:11 | 0:42:16 | |
continuing that proud, military heritage. | 0:42:16 | 0:42:18 | |
But there are some people who have a totally different take | 0:42:20 | 0:42:23 | |
on celebrating our armed forces. | 0:42:23 | 0:42:26 | |
UP-TEMPO '40's-STYLE MUSIC PLAYS | 0:42:32 | 0:42:34 | |
Hello, my name is Joanne Bater. | 0:42:41 | 0:42:43 | |
I live here on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. | 0:42:43 | 0:42:45 | |
During the week, I'm a mother of two and a housewife, but during the weekend, I go back to the 1940s. | 0:42:45 | 0:42:51 | |
Right, today, we're off to Whitstable Castle. It's a big 1940s event. | 0:42:55 | 0:42:59 | |
'Everyone will be there with their 1940s vehicles, all re-enacting, and we're taking a along the NAAFI wagon. | 0:42:59 | 0:43:05 | |
'It's quite the star of the show. | 0:43:05 | 0:43:07 | |
'My father was into it, and he said, come along to a big show, and we just fell in love with everything. | 0:43:10 | 0:43:15 | |
'We absolutely loved it. | 0:43:15 | 0:43:17 | |
'We didn't own a vehicle at that time, | 0:43:17 | 0:43:18 | |
'but everything escalated and now, we've got our vehicles | 0:43:18 | 0:43:21 | |
'and we just go to a show most weekends throughout the summer.' | 0:43:21 | 0:43:24 | |
When I first got into this, I said to my husband, there's no way I was going to dress up, | 0:43:26 | 0:43:30 | |
but when you've got the vehicles, you really do have to look the part, | 0:43:30 | 0:43:34 | |
so I've got the NAAFI overalls that go with the NAAFI wagon. | 0:43:34 | 0:43:37 | |
I roll my hair every morning. | 0:43:37 | 0:43:38 | |
Now this obviously takes quite a bit to do, and I have to tell my | 0:43:38 | 0:43:42 | |
hairdresser not to cut the layers in too much so I can get it in, so that's what takes over my life a bit. | 0:43:42 | 0:43:48 | |
The shoes that I wear goes with the overalls, and then you have to think | 0:43:48 | 0:43:51 | |
about your make-up, the jewellery that you've got on, that will look in time, that will look 1940s. | 0:43:51 | 0:43:58 | |
We're inside the mobile canteen which was more affectionately calls a NAAFI wagon. | 0:44:02 | 0:44:07 | |
This would have followed the fire service around during the Second World War. | 0:44:07 | 0:44:11 | |
If the firemen went out to a house that had been bombed, it would go behind them and | 0:44:11 | 0:44:14 | |
would be there providing tea and other things for the firemen. | 0:44:14 | 0:44:18 | |
We were so lucky when we got this NAAFI wagon that it did have a lot of the cups with it. | 0:44:18 | 0:44:23 | |
We do, obviously collect them if we're out and about | 0:44:23 | 0:44:26 | |
but everyone loves having a cup of tea out of these enamel cups, | 0:44:26 | 0:44:29 | |
and when we got it we couldn't believe that they were all here. | 0:44:29 | 0:44:32 | |
Also, we've collected between us, lots of these tins to go inside, cos everyone loves seeing the | 0:44:32 | 0:44:37 | |
tins, perhaps remembering what their nan and granddads had, and every | 0:44:37 | 0:44:40 | |
time we see one, we have to buy it to put it on display, because this is what everyone really enjoys. | 0:44:40 | 0:44:46 | |
As we all know, the British love a cup of tea. | 0:44:46 | 0:44:49 | |
If there's a crisis, we all have a cuppa tea. So, when in doubt, | 0:44:49 | 0:44:52 | |
brew up. | 0:44:52 | 0:44:55 | |
# Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me | 0:44:55 | 0:44:59 | |
# Anyone else but me | 0:44:59 | 0:45:02 | |
# Anyone else but me... # | 0:45:02 | 0:45:04 | |
We belong to a society which is the Invicta Military Vehicle Preservation Society. | 0:45:04 | 0:45:09 | |
IMPS, for short. We just love the atmosphere of it. | 0:45:09 | 0:45:12 | |
There's a lot of vehicles on the parade today. | 0:45:12 | 0:45:15 | |
My husband and my son are in the parade, and this is what we like to do. | 0:45:15 | 0:45:19 | |
We must remember that there was a lot of lives lost during World War Two. | 0:45:25 | 0:45:29 | |
We like to keep the memory alive, | 0:45:29 | 0:45:31 | |
not that the Second World War was something | 0:45:31 | 0:45:33 | |
that perhaps was to be celebrated, of course it's not, but the memory, we can't forget, we can't forget | 0:45:33 | 0:45:39 | |
those people and we haven't got many veterans alive from the Second World War anymore, and it's nice that the | 0:45:39 | 0:45:44 | |
younger people and especially younger than me, my son and my daughter, will come and keep the memory alive. | 0:45:44 | 0:45:50 | |
Right, it's the end of the day, I've had a fabulous show here at Whitstable Castle. | 0:46:02 | 0:46:07 | |
It's a shame to go back to real life, but I do miss my lip-gloss and my high heels, so, never mind! | 0:46:07 | 0:46:13 | |
I've just arrived at the last stop on my journey, | 0:46:28 | 0:46:31 | |
Biggin Hill International Air Fair. | 0:46:31 | 0:46:33 | |
Before I go and explore, I'm getting to go up in this amazing biplane, | 0:46:33 | 0:46:37 | |
exposed like this, hence the warm jacket, | 0:46:37 | 0:46:40 | |
and see from above, some of the countryside that I'd been roaming through on my journey so far. | 0:46:40 | 0:46:46 | |
I started my journey through Kent on the shingle banks of Dungeness. | 0:46:46 | 0:46:50 | |
I visited Flatropers Wood in Beckley | 0:46:50 | 0:46:53 | |
and stopped to sample fruit in Ticehurst. | 0:46:53 | 0:46:57 | |
I travelled through the fields of Golden Green | 0:46:57 | 0:46:59 | |
and then went on parade with Biggin Hill's 2427 Air Cadet Squadron. | 0:46:59 | 0:47:05 | |
My last stop is going to be at the Biggin Hill International Air Fair, but first, I've got to land. | 0:47:05 | 0:47:12 | |
'I'm in a modern biplane usually used for wing walking stunts. | 0:47:16 | 0:47:19 | |
'I'm safely in the co-pilot's seat, but I still feel very exposed.' | 0:47:19 | 0:47:24 | |
I've certainly flown before, but I've never felt this connected. | 0:47:28 | 0:47:32 | |
To the skies, to the wind. | 0:47:32 | 0:47:34 | |
If you took away the noise, this would be the closest to flying like a bird. | 0:47:36 | 0:47:41 | |
This area has a long and historic association with the Royal Air Force. | 0:47:41 | 0:47:46 | |
It was from Kent airfields like Biggin Hill below me that fighter planes | 0:47:46 | 0:47:51 | |
flew to the beaches of Dunkirk, and it was in the skies over this | 0:47:51 | 0:47:55 | |
great county that one of the Second World War's most famous battles took place, the Battle of Britain. | 0:47:55 | 0:48:02 | |
It really gives you a sense of how early flying was very risky, | 0:48:02 | 0:48:07 | |
very brave. | 0:48:07 | 0:48:09 | |
You can imagine all of that in amongst warfare. | 0:48:09 | 0:48:13 | |
It becomes quite imaginable. | 0:48:14 | 0:48:17 | |
Spitfires, Lancaster Bombers and Hurricanes all landed at Biggin Hill. | 0:48:35 | 0:48:41 | |
And the rich history of this golden era is celebrated every year at the | 0:48:41 | 0:48:46 | |
Biggin Hill National Air Fair just down there. | 0:48:46 | 0:48:49 | |
Woo! Ha ha! | 0:48:51 | 0:48:53 | |
Oh. | 0:48:54 | 0:48:56 | |
That's amazing. | 0:48:57 | 0:48:59 | |
This year's show is expecting 120,000 visitors to flood through | 0:49:12 | 0:49:16 | |
the gates, but today is reserved for a more exclusive group, the potential pilots of the future. | 0:49:16 | 0:49:21 | |
Today, it's Youth Day. | 0:49:21 | 0:49:24 | |
Invited from local schools and colleges, the boys and girls will have a unique opportunity to sample | 0:49:24 | 0:49:29 | |
the latest equipment on site and talk to career experts from across the armed services. | 0:49:29 | 0:49:35 | |
The day is set to inspire and excite the next generation. | 0:49:35 | 0:49:39 | |
A truly hands-on opportunity for young people to pursue their ambition. | 0:49:39 | 0:49:44 | |
In its 46th year, the Biggin Hill Air Show has been an inspiration to many. | 0:49:45 | 0:49:50 | |
One of those who've turned that inspiration into the ultimate dream is Red Arrow's number seven. | 0:49:50 | 0:49:55 | |
Local man and ex-Biggin Hill Squadron Air Cadet, Mike Ling, discovered his dream as a child | 0:49:57 | 0:50:03 | |
after seeing the Red Arrows display for the first time at this very show. | 0:50:03 | 0:50:08 | |
Now, he's part of this elite group, renowned throughout the world as | 0:50:08 | 0:50:11 | |
ambassadors for both the Royal Air Force and the United Kingdom. | 0:50:11 | 0:50:16 | |
The Red Arrows were officially formed in 1965 and have completed over 4,000 displays in 53 countries. | 0:50:16 | 0:50:24 | |
I'm so, so excited about being this close to a Red Arrow. | 0:50:25 | 0:50:29 | |
-Can you hop out to show me around? -Yes, sure. -That would be fantastic. | 0:50:29 | 0:50:33 | |
-This is amazing. -This is my aeroplane. We get issued or allocated an aeroplane for the season. | 0:50:35 | 0:50:40 | |
So, how long have you been in the Red Arrows? | 0:50:40 | 0:50:43 | |
This is my second year with the Red Arrows, so I've been doing the job for just over 18 months. | 0:50:43 | 0:50:48 | |
I've got another year. We all do three years as the pilots. | 0:50:48 | 0:50:50 | |
We're here at Youth Day, is it important for you to inspire young people here, | 0:50:50 | 0:50:54 | |
-cos that's what inspired you? -Absolutely. | 0:50:54 | 0:50:56 | |
I came as an air cadet and I remember seeing the teams performing, not just the Red Arrows, | 0:50:56 | 0:51:00 | |
performing on Youth Days and meeting the pilot and talking to them, and asking them | 0:51:00 | 0:51:04 | |
what's required of me at school and what I have to do to be able to do this job. So, it's important to me. | 0:51:04 | 0:51:09 | |
How did you feel from being a small boy, seeing the Red Arrows | 0:51:09 | 0:51:13 | |
to now being in the Red Arrows. | 0:51:13 | 0:51:14 | |
-How was that? -Amazing. I never thought it would happen. | 0:51:14 | 0:51:17 | |
I didn't think that was possible for me to be able to do that, | 0:51:17 | 0:51:20 | |
but when I got told I'd got the job, I was over the moon. | 0:51:20 | 0:51:23 | |
I didn't cry, but I was close. | 0:51:23 | 0:51:25 | |
-My wife cried! -Did she?! | 0:51:25 | 0:51:26 | |
Today's event is filled with excitement and expectation, but the past is never forgotten. | 0:51:26 | 0:51:33 | |
This show, and so much more, exists thanks to the courage | 0:51:33 | 0:51:36 | |
and skill shown by those who flew over this county | 0:51:36 | 0:51:40 | |
defending Britain when so much was at stake. | 0:51:40 | 0:51:43 | |
One of those heroes is here today. | 0:51:43 | 0:51:45 | |
Wing Commander Peter Ayerst joined the RAF in 1938 when he was just 18 years-old. | 0:51:45 | 0:51:52 | |
How long after you arrived before you actually got up in the air, on your first flight? | 0:51:54 | 0:51:59 | |
-About half a day. -Is that all?! Half a day! | 0:51:59 | 0:52:02 | |
I arrived about midday, | 0:52:02 | 0:52:06 | |
-by 4 o'clock I was airborne. -That's extraordinary. | 0:52:06 | 0:52:09 | |
-Were you nervous? -No! | 0:52:09 | 0:52:11 | |
But I already had some experience with this friend of mine, so I knew a little bit about it. | 0:52:11 | 0:52:16 | |
Clocking up 975 Spitfire flights in his career, Peter flew a staggering | 0:52:17 | 0:52:22 | |
four operational campaigns during the Second World War. | 0:52:22 | 0:52:26 | |
This was a rarity. Many brave pilots were killed during their first. | 0:52:26 | 0:52:31 | |
With such an outstanding record, Peter has become one of the most celebrated pilots of his time. | 0:52:31 | 0:52:36 | |
From his early days as the face of an RAF recruitment campaign, | 0:52:36 | 0:52:39 | |
to his place at today's event here at Biggin Hill, | 0:52:39 | 0:52:42 | |
he's still inspiring the pilots of tomorrow. | 0:52:42 | 0:52:45 | |
You've had the most extraordinary career, | 0:52:47 | 0:52:49 | |
what are your most memorable and proudest moments from flying? | 0:52:49 | 0:52:52 | |
We'd been patrolling over our front lines, protecting our troops, | 0:52:52 | 0:52:58 | |
and we got mixed up with some German fighters. | 0:52:58 | 0:53:03 | |
I shot two down. | 0:53:03 | 0:53:05 | |
And I was going after another one when there were a lot of anti-aircraft fire coming up. | 0:53:05 | 0:53:11 | |
I was hit by the anti-aircraft fire and I saw a track ahead of me | 0:53:13 | 0:53:17 | |
and I thought, "I've got to land there, come what may." | 0:53:17 | 0:53:20 | |
So I made a wheels up crash-landing on that track. | 0:53:20 | 0:53:24 | |
I leapt out of the aircraft and lay flat on the ground, because the Germans were still firing at me. | 0:53:24 | 0:53:31 | |
So, I just let them think they'd got me, and I didn't move, I lay flat on the ground. | 0:53:31 | 0:53:36 | |
I was going to start walking off in an easterly direction | 0:53:36 | 0:53:38 | |
and I heard a motor vehicle coming up and I thought, | 0:53:38 | 0:53:41 | |
"Oh, my God, here come the Germans," instead of which an Australian voice called out, "Anybody there?!" So... | 0:53:41 | 0:53:48 | |
I said, "Yes," he said, "Jump in quick." | 0:53:48 | 0:53:52 | |
So, I jumped in quick and we tore off at a terrific speed in an easterly direction | 0:53:52 | 0:53:57 | |
across the desert, and after about 25 minutes, half-an-hour, when we got into a safe area, | 0:53:57 | 0:54:03 | |
the major said to me, "You know that track you crash-landed on?" I said, "Yes." | 0:54:03 | 0:54:07 | |
He said, "You couldn't have landed anywhere else, it was all mined!" | 0:54:07 | 0:54:11 | |
Goodness! What luck! | 0:54:11 | 0:54:13 | |
ENGINES ROAR OVERHEAD | 0:54:13 | 0:54:16 | |
Pretty spectacular. | 0:54:16 | 0:54:18 | |
-What you think of the Red Arrows display? -Very good. | 0:54:18 | 0:54:21 | |
-It's a remarkable sight. -Very good. -Never get tired of seeing that. | 0:54:21 | 0:54:25 | |
Kent beaches have long been on the front line of defence. | 0:54:36 | 0:54:39 | |
Its skies have witnessed bitter battles. | 0:54:39 | 0:54:42 | |
Its fields and orchards have produced food for millions. | 0:54:42 | 0:54:46 | |
All this makes it a quintessential and today, a really quite perfect image of England. | 0:54:46 | 0:54:52 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:55:05 | 0:55:08 |