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Today, I'm on a journey under the big skies of Kent. | 0:00:20 | 0:00:24 | |
Starting in its most remote corner | 0:00:24 | 0:00:26 | |
and finishing a little bit further to the north, in search of gorillas. | 0:00:26 | 0:00:30 | |
I kick-off at Lydd, on the south-easterly tip of the UK, | 0:00:39 | 0:00:42 | |
where I'll test my skills at go-karting. | 0:00:42 | 0:00:45 | |
Then, it's up to the Aeronautical Museum at Brenzett, | 0:00:47 | 0:00:50 | |
where memories of the World War II, both in the air and on land, | 0:00:50 | 0:00:53 | |
are very much alive. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:55 | |
Somebody once said if it hadn't been for the Merchant Navy | 0:00:55 | 0:00:57 | |
and the Land Army, England would have starved. | 0:00:57 | 0:01:00 | |
Pressing northwards to Canterbury, | 0:01:01 | 0:01:03 | |
I'll get my ears around a psychedelic sound | 0:01:03 | 0:01:05 | |
that swept through the city in the Sixties. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:09 | |
It's amazing that, 40 years later, it is still all happening, | 0:01:09 | 0:01:12 | |
people are continuing that tradition. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:14 | |
My journey comes to an end near Bekesbourne, | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
among the animals, | 0:01:17 | 0:01:19 | |
where I'll step very carefully into the territory | 0:01:19 | 0:01:21 | |
'of a clouded leopard.' Now, look at that. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:25 | |
One of the rarest cats in the world. | 0:01:26 | 0:01:29 | |
And I'll be finding out how lowland guerrillas, | 0:01:29 | 0:01:32 | |
born and bred in Kent, are going back to the wild. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:35 | |
We are repopulating a part of Africa | 0:01:35 | 0:01:37 | |
that hasn't seen gorillas for 200 years. | 0:01:37 | 0:01:39 | |
And along the way, I'll be looking back at the very best | 0:01:39 | 0:01:42 | |
of the BBC's rural programmes from this part of the world. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:45 | |
Welcome to Country Tracks. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:47 | |
Despite being one of our more densely-populated counties, | 0:01:52 | 0:01:55 | |
Kent boasts more than 1,000 square miles of open countryside | 0:01:55 | 0:01:59 | |
and 350 miles of unspoilt coastline. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:02 | |
Having mainland Europe on the doorstep means Kent enjoys | 0:02:05 | 0:02:08 | |
a warmer, drier climate than much of the UK. | 0:02:08 | 0:02:10 | |
That in turn supports agriculture and, of course, | 0:02:10 | 0:02:13 | |
it's renowned reputation as the Garden of England. | 0:02:13 | 0:02:16 | |
When I think of Kent, I picture orchards, | 0:02:20 | 0:02:23 | |
hops, meadows, white cliffs...but go-karts? | 0:02:23 | 0:02:26 | |
There's been a track here for nearly 20 years, | 0:02:36 | 0:02:39 | |
part of it made from reclaimed marshland. | 0:02:39 | 0:02:42 | |
It sits within the boundaries of Dungeness, Bromley Marsh | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
and the site of special scientific interest at Rye Bay. | 0:02:45 | 0:02:48 | |
And, somehow, all that co-exists | 0:02:48 | 0:02:51 | |
rather nicely with the local wildlife. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:54 | |
You might think we're shattering the peace and quiet | 0:02:54 | 0:02:56 | |
of the Kent countryside, but hold on to those assumptions | 0:02:56 | 0:02:59 | |
because Lydd has never been a stranger to noise. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:02 | |
In 1888, they tested high explosives here, | 0:03:02 | 0:03:04 | |
which led to the invention of Lyddite, a deadly substance | 0:03:04 | 0:03:08 | |
used to fill shells in World War One and the Boer War, | 0:03:08 | 0:03:10 | |
and these days, its neighbours include two power stations, | 0:03:10 | 0:03:14 | |
an army firing range you can just about hear... | 0:03:14 | 0:03:16 | |
DISTANT GUNSHOTS | 0:03:16 | 0:03:18 | |
and an airport, so a few go-karts are hardly noticed. | 0:03:18 | 0:03:21 | |
The circuit was recently bought by property developer | 0:03:25 | 0:03:28 | |
and well-known go-kart champ, Andy Scott, | 0:03:28 | 0:03:30 | |
and all-round record-breaking racer, James Clark. | 0:03:30 | 0:03:33 | |
Between them, they've won 140 trophies. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:36 | |
I couldn't help but spot a few trophies. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:42 | |
Where'd you buy all them? | 0:03:42 | 0:03:44 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:03:44 | 0:03:45 | |
Local charity shop! | 0:03:45 | 0:03:47 | |
You guys are pretty good at your sport, aren't you? | 0:03:47 | 0:03:50 | |
You've both driven at a high level, is that right? | 0:03:50 | 0:03:53 | |
Yeah, it's all down to just living and breathing it and passion. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
Andy, how big is go-karting in this country, is it very popular? | 0:03:56 | 0:04:01 | |
It's very popular, it's the grass roots of motorsport. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:05 | |
Ages from four years old can start, right up to 60, 70 years old. | 0:04:05 | 0:04:10 | |
There is not a Formula One driver today that didn't start in karting. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
MUSIC: BBC Formula One theme | 0:04:15 | 0:04:19 | |
So, it looks like I'm about to join the likes of Hamilton and Button. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:23 | |
MUSIC: "Steptoe And Son" theme | 0:04:34 | 0:04:37 | |
Gently round the corner. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:41 | |
I think he's getting the hang of this. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:45 | |
Yeah. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:48 | |
He's got to be doing...15-20 mph? | 0:04:50 | 0:04:53 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:04:53 | 0:04:54 | |
I think six out of ten for effort. | 0:04:55 | 0:04:57 | |
Yeah. | 0:04:57 | 0:04:59 | |
I think our trophies are safe. | 0:05:07 | 0:05:09 | |
Well, that felt absolutely brilliant, it's so fast, | 0:05:13 | 0:05:16 | |
it's so low to the ground. | 0:05:16 | 0:05:19 | |
My driving was a bit horrendous, really, but all great fun. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:23 | |
Exhilarating experience. | 0:05:23 | 0:05:24 | |
OK, so maybe I wasn't as fast as I thought. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:29 | |
So, guys, first time, what do you think? | 0:05:29 | 0:05:32 | |
First time novice, very good. | 0:05:32 | 0:05:35 | |
Yeah, we only managed to boil one egg in that time. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:38 | |
Look me in the eye and say that. | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
Thanks, guys, very much. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:44 | |
Yeah, whatever. | 0:05:45 | 0:05:47 | |
Anyway, as much as I've enjoyed plodding around the track, | 0:05:47 | 0:05:50 | |
it's not what I'd expect of rural Kent. | 0:05:50 | 0:05:52 | |
Matt Baker explored a quieter and wilder part of the county. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:57 | |
This is Dungeness. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:02 | |
A bleak, remote wilderness | 0:06:05 | 0:06:07 | |
clinging to the very edge of our island. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:10 | |
Few other places can boast both a steam railway | 0:06:12 | 0:06:15 | |
and a nuclear power station. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:17 | |
Arriving here feels like stepping through the looking-glass. | 0:06:20 | 0:06:25 | |
This is the largest pebble beach in Europe, | 0:06:28 | 0:06:32 | |
and it is on the move - expanding out into the Channel | 0:06:32 | 0:06:36 | |
at a rate of up to eight and a half feet a year. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:39 | |
Dilapidated sheds and decaying boats dot the landscape. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:44 | |
Abandoned in a world of constantly-shifting shingle. | 0:06:46 | 0:06:49 | |
This arid place is the closest thing we have in Britain to a desert. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:56 | |
It rains as little here as it does on the Rock of Gibraltar. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:00 | |
Ecologist Owen Leyshon is my guide to its harsh beauty. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:05 | |
So, Owen it is an extraordinary landscape. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
It is very, very tough for any plants | 0:07:10 | 0:07:13 | |
and humans to survive on Dungeness. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:16 | |
Cold in the winter, really hot and dry in the summer. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:20 | |
-As close an environment as you can get to a desert? -Yes. | 0:07:20 | 0:07:24 | |
So there's no soil or anything. How deep is the shingle? | 0:07:24 | 0:07:27 | |
It's about 17 to 20 metres deep, the shingle. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:30 | |
If it's that deep, then the plants are certainly determined. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:36 | |
Their roots searching the shingle for every nutrient, | 0:07:37 | 0:07:41 | |
every drop of salt-free moisture. | 0:07:41 | 0:07:44 | |
There seemed to be a lot of these white-flowered plants here, Owen. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:49 | |
-What have we got here? -This is sea kale. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:53 | |
Nice good old tough seaside plant, nice juicy leaves, | 0:07:53 | 0:07:56 | |
with a lovely big white pom-pom display of flowers on it. | 0:07:56 | 0:08:00 | |
A characteristic seaside plant, but on Dungeness you could | 0:08:00 | 0:08:04 | |
probably say the biggest collection of sea kale in this country. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
Look closer and more than one third of all the plant species in the UK | 0:08:09 | 0:08:14 | |
manage to grow amongst these pebbles. | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
But they're not the only form of life here. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:20 | |
Further inland, | 0:08:20 | 0:08:21 | |
fresh water collects in craters left by gravel extraction, | 0:08:21 | 0:08:24 | |
and in the fresh water, | 0:08:24 | 0:08:26 | |
live something that was once declared extinct in Britain. | 0:08:26 | 0:08:30 | |
Oh, my word! | 0:08:32 | 0:08:33 | |
They're leeches? | 0:08:33 | 0:08:34 | |
These are medicinal leeches. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:36 | |
In Europe, Dungeness is one of the best places for this species. | 0:08:36 | 0:08:41 | |
This has come from a gravel pit, so the water quality's excellent. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:45 | |
Lots of food for them, frogs and birds for them to feed on, | 0:08:45 | 0:08:49 | |
because they need blood. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:50 | |
And you need a special licence... | 0:08:50 | 0:08:52 | |
You need a licence to handle these, | 0:08:52 | 0:08:54 | |
as they're quite rare in this country. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:56 | |
What do you have to do? Keep moving them. | 0:08:56 | 0:08:58 | |
I have got to keep holding these a bit like a hot potato. | 0:08:58 | 0:09:01 | |
There we go, let's get this one out here. | 0:09:03 | 0:09:06 | |
Oh, wow. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:07 | |
I've got to keep moving him around, | 0:09:07 | 0:09:09 | |
because he's looking for a place to bite me, now. | 0:09:09 | 0:09:12 | |
Which end is the teeth? | 0:09:12 | 0:09:14 | |
That's it, there's 300 teeth on it, | 0:09:14 | 0:09:16 | |
and they expand about two or three times their size | 0:09:16 | 0:09:19 | |
when they've had their meal, | 0:09:19 | 0:09:20 | |
and that'll be it for the rest of the season. | 0:09:20 | 0:09:23 | |
This is the largest leech in this country. | 0:09:23 | 0:09:26 | |
You'll not mistake this for anything else. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:28 | |
Leeches have long been used in medicine. | 0:09:29 | 0:09:32 | |
and in the 19th century, their popularity reached its peak. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:36 | |
Over-harvesting lead to dramatic shortages, | 0:09:36 | 0:09:39 | |
but here in this corner of Kent, the leech somehow hung on. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:44 | |
It all adds to the atmosphere - an alien storybook world, | 0:09:47 | 0:09:53 | |
lost somewhere in time. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:55 | |
Coming as I have from the heart of England's | 0:09:59 | 0:10:01 | |
green and pleasant land, Dungeness is a startling sight. | 0:10:01 | 0:10:06 | |
It's strangely alluring, it's dreamlike, | 0:10:06 | 0:10:11 | |
it's almost in slow motion, this place. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:14 | |
Totally unexpected, but unforgettable. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:17 | |
Matt Baker, swept away with the beauty of Dungeness. | 0:10:23 | 0:10:28 | |
I've left the go-karting track at Lydd and headed north to Brenzett. | 0:10:32 | 0:10:38 | |
It's definitely a more peaceful spot - | 0:10:38 | 0:10:40 | |
green fields stretching into the distance, | 0:10:40 | 0:10:42 | |
and only birdsong to break the silence. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:45 | |
It couldn't be more different to the scene here | 0:10:45 | 0:10:48 | |
nearly 70 years ago, during the Second World War. | 0:10:48 | 0:10:52 | |
Well, it looks just like any other field today, | 0:11:02 | 0:11:05 | |
but in the summer of 1944, Brenzett Airfield was here. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:09 | |
It was an ALG - an Advanced Landing Ground - | 0:11:09 | 0:11:11 | |
specially chosen and strategically positioned to be as close to the coast as possible - | 0:11:11 | 0:11:16 | |
that is, as close to France as possible. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:18 | |
As D-Day approached, | 0:11:22 | 0:11:24 | |
these ALGs were vital fuel stations for allied aircraft. | 0:11:24 | 0:11:28 | |
It meant their tanks were full as they fought in the skies | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
above France, and for those returning from combat, | 0:11:31 | 0:11:34 | |
it was the first sign of a safe landing spot. | 0:11:34 | 0:11:37 | |
There were 12 ALGs in Kent. | 0:11:37 | 0:11:39 | |
If you just passed by here today, you'd have no idea | 0:11:42 | 0:11:45 | |
of the significance of this place | 0:11:45 | 0:11:47 | |
towards the end of the Second World War, | 0:11:47 | 0:11:49 | |
but luckily, its memory is kept alive just up the road. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:53 | |
The Brenzett Aeronautical Museum has a staggering collection | 0:12:04 | 0:12:08 | |
of wartime relics and memorabilia, including many precious photographs. | 0:12:08 | 0:12:13 | |
It also displays items recovered from aircraft crash sites | 0:12:13 | 0:12:17 | |
during the Battle of Britain. | 0:12:17 | 0:12:19 | |
At first glance, it might be difficult to identify with | 0:12:22 | 0:12:26 | |
these large lumps of twisted metal, but when you remember | 0:12:26 | 0:12:29 | |
these were engines from downed aircraft flown by young men, | 0:12:29 | 0:12:33 | |
so many of whom lost their lives, it really makes you think, | 0:12:33 | 0:12:38 | |
actually, just how poignant these artefacts are. | 0:12:38 | 0:12:42 | |
By 1944, there were three squadrons based here in Brenzett, | 0:12:47 | 0:12:51 | |
and part of their role was to intercept the flying bombs, | 0:12:51 | 0:12:54 | |
the infamous doodlebugs. | 0:12:54 | 0:12:55 | |
Look at this - it's the tip of a Spitfire wing. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:57 | |
It's completely bent out of shape | 0:12:57 | 0:13:00 | |
because on one occasion a Spitfire pilot managed to get his wing | 0:13:00 | 0:13:04 | |
under that of a doodlebug, flip it off course | 0:13:04 | 0:13:07 | |
so it crashed in the fields of Kent | 0:13:07 | 0:13:09 | |
rather than its intended target, which was London. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:12 | |
Absolutely incredible skill and bravery. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:15 | |
The airfield closed in December 1944. | 0:13:21 | 0:13:24 | |
The land was returned to agricultural use | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
and Brenzett's planes and pilots melted into the history books. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:32 | |
But this building survived. | 0:13:36 | 0:13:38 | |
It's been an Aeronautical Museum since 1972, | 0:13:38 | 0:13:41 | |
but during the war it had nothing to do with the aviation. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
In fact, you couldn't get much more down-to-earth. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:47 | |
It was a Land Army hostel, and every year a group | 0:13:51 | 0:13:53 | |
of former land girls come back for a trip down memory lane. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:58 | |
In a moment, I'll be hearing some of their stories, | 0:14:03 | 0:14:06 | |
but first to Dover, | 0:14:06 | 0:14:07 | |
where Neil Oliver explored our determination over the centuries | 0:14:07 | 0:14:10 | |
to link the British Isles with the rest of Europe. | 0:14:10 | 0:14:13 | |
The nearest part of France, Cap Gris Nez, is 21 miles away over there. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:27 | |
And every year, 15 million of us make the crossing. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:30 | |
For a nation of islanders, | 0:14:30 | 0:14:32 | |
we're very keen to get away from the place every once in a while. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:36 | |
While ships have been making that escape possible | 0:14:38 | 0:14:40 | |
for thousands of years, | 0:14:40 | 0:14:42 | |
since 1994, trains have been making the journey, too. | 0:14:42 | 0:14:46 | |
The Channel Tunnel is one of Britain's | 0:14:49 | 0:14:51 | |
most complex engineering projects. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:54 | |
The secret of its success is the layer of chalk below the seabed - | 0:14:54 | 0:14:58 | |
ideal for tunnelling. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
Having a direct line to the Continent still feels like a bit of a novelty. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:08 | |
But actually, the idea is nothing new. | 0:15:08 | 0:15:11 | |
More than 100 years ago, there was already a tunnel under the Channel, | 0:15:11 | 0:15:16 | |
but that audacious plan to connect us to France was never finished. | 0:15:16 | 0:15:20 | |
'Richard Storer has offered to help me | 0:15:21 | 0:15:23 | |
'uncover the history of the Victorian Channel Tunnel.' | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
-Going to do some tunnelling? -Yes, we are. | 0:15:26 | 0:15:29 | |
It all starts with a French engineer, Thome de Gamond. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:35 | |
He knew that chalk was good for tunnelling, but in the 19th century, | 0:15:35 | 0:15:40 | |
no-one knew if there was chalk under the Channel or not. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:43 | |
In 1833, Thome decided that he had to know for sure, | 0:15:44 | 0:15:48 | |
and the only way to find out | 0:15:48 | 0:15:50 | |
was to dive to the sea bed and collect samples. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:54 | |
I've got a sense of trepidation now! | 0:15:54 | 0:15:57 | |
With Richard's help, I want to find out | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
just how hard Thome's task must have been | 0:16:00 | 0:16:02 | |
in the days before any proper diving equipment. | 0:16:02 | 0:16:06 | |
It was dive in and hope that he could pick something up. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:09 | |
What practical difficulties did Thome de Gamond face? | 0:16:09 | 0:16:13 | |
He prepared himself with lint | 0:16:13 | 0:16:16 | |
soaked in lard or butter, for his ears, and nostrils. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:19 | |
-Why? -That was to keep out the water. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:22 | |
Because at the lower depths, | 0:16:22 | 0:16:23 | |
the pressure of the water would affect his ears and nose. | 0:16:23 | 0:16:27 | |
Just before he jumped overboard, he took a mouthful of olive oil, | 0:16:27 | 0:16:31 | |
which he'd seen done in the Mediterranean by pearl divers. | 0:16:31 | 0:16:36 | |
-Like a partial seal? -That's right. -What depths did he go to? | 0:16:36 | 0:16:40 | |
About 30 metres, about 100 feet, | 0:16:40 | 0:16:43 | |
-the deepest part of the Channel. -Just holding his breath? -Yeah. | 0:16:43 | 0:16:46 | |
'There's no way I'm going that deep. | 0:16:46 | 0:16:48 | |
'But just as Gamond did on his search for the signs of chalk, | 0:16:48 | 0:16:52 | |
'I'm going to dive without an air supply. | 0:16:52 | 0:16:55 | |
'Dive master Richard Bull and his team are here to help.' | 0:16:55 | 0:16:58 | |
-I've never donned one of these. -Get that arm in, pulled right up, | 0:17:02 | 0:17:05 | |
done like an expert. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:08 | |
-Perfect. Made-to-measure, sir. -All set. | 0:17:10 | 0:17:13 | |
It doesn't really help when they look so worried, though. | 0:17:14 | 0:17:18 | |
Thome de Gamond needed bandages and olive oil and butter. I don't. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:23 | |
All I'm taking is my gardening trowel and my bag. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:27 | |
'Like Thome de Gamond, I'm holding my breath.' | 0:17:37 | 0:17:39 | |
'Digging for evidence of the chalk beneath the seabed. | 0:17:41 | 0:17:45 | |
'Gamond dived up to ten times deeper than I am, | 0:17:45 | 0:17:48 | |
'and it's all the more extraordinary, | 0:17:48 | 0:17:50 | |
'because like me, Thome was not a professional diver.' | 0:17:50 | 0:17:54 | |
'After only 30 seconds, my lungs are burning. | 0:17:59 | 0:18:03 | |
'It must have been a nightmare for Gamond.' | 0:18:03 | 0:18:06 | |
That is extremely difficult. And all I've got... | 0:18:13 | 0:18:17 | |
is a beach pebble! | 0:18:17 | 0:18:19 | |
'Thankfully, Gamond was a lot more successful.' | 0:18:19 | 0:18:23 | |
His dives confirmed there was a continuous layer of chalk | 0:18:23 | 0:18:28 | |
between Britain and France. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:30 | |
But sadly for him, he could never raise the money to start tunnelling. | 0:18:32 | 0:18:36 | |
By the late 1870s, a British railway magnate, Sir Edward Watkin, | 0:18:40 | 0:18:44 | |
had taken up the challenge. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:46 | |
Using Gamond's discovery, Watkin's then-revolutionary plan | 0:18:48 | 0:18:53 | |
was to link London to Paris direct, and for that he needed a tunnel. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:58 | |
At the base of this cliff | 0:18:59 | 0:19:01 | |
is the first ever trial tunnel for Watkin's scheme. | 0:19:01 | 0:19:04 | |
Very forensic. Very Crime Scene! | 0:19:07 | 0:19:09 | |
'It's hidden away at the end of a ventilation shaft, | 0:19:09 | 0:19:13 | |
'and we need all this protective gear just to get in there.' | 0:19:13 | 0:19:17 | |
All right. | 0:19:17 | 0:19:19 | |
Mind the floor. Right, so, this is it. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:31 | |
-Amazing, isn't it? -Unbelievable. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:33 | |
Considering it's been here for about 130 years. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:36 | |
It's perfect, it looks like a modern job. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:39 | |
For some reason, I was expecting it to look hand-cut. | 0:19:39 | 0:19:43 | |
Oh, no, no, it was cut with a machine, like a big drill. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
And the beauty of it is it's unlined, | 0:19:46 | 0:19:49 | |
it's just the bare rock that you can see. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:52 | |
Just shows the strength of the chalk, the integrity of the chalk. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:56 | |
Have a look at this. A bit of original graffiti. | 0:19:58 | 0:20:02 | |
-Oh, that's fantastic. -This tunnel was... -Was begun? | 0:20:02 | 0:20:06 | |
I think he had difficulty spelling "begun". | 0:20:06 | 0:20:09 | |
Spelling is not his strong suit! | 0:20:09 | 0:20:11 | |
-In 1880. -A date! -And a name, William Sharp. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:15 | |
How much better is that than a brass plaque? | 0:20:15 | 0:20:19 | |
It is wonderful, absolutely amazing. | 0:20:19 | 0:20:21 | |
'The newly developed drilling technology worked brilliantly, | 0:20:21 | 0:20:25 | |
'which made it all the more frustrating for Watkin | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
'that in 1882, after getting more than a mile out to sea, | 0:20:28 | 0:20:32 | |
'the project was halted.' | 0:20:32 | 0:20:33 | |
'Looking at these newspapers, | 0:20:40 | 0:20:42 | |
'it turns out that not everyone was happy about the idea | 0:20:42 | 0:20:45 | |
'of joining our island to the rest of Europe.' | 0:20:45 | 0:20:48 | |
This letter to The Times is a classic. | 0:20:48 | 0:20:51 | |
"Providence has given us the sea as our safeguard," it says. | 0:20:51 | 0:20:55 | |
"Why should we fly in the face of Providence | 0:20:55 | 0:20:57 | |
"and throw our safety away for what, after all, | 0:20:57 | 0:21:00 | |
"is a mercantile speculation | 0:21:00 | 0:21:02 | |
"and certainly cannot be called a necessity?" | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
All of the public disquiet became an unstoppable force. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
The project was pulled, and Watkin's dream was over. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:13 | |
His tunnel was dead in the water. | 0:21:14 | 0:21:17 | |
Not because it was too difficult to build, | 0:21:17 | 0:21:20 | |
but simply because the government refused to take the political risk. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:24 | |
Neil Oliver and the fascinating history of Channel tunnelling. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:29 | |
I'm at the Brenzett Aeronautical Museum. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:36 | |
It's a former Land Army hostel, | 0:21:36 | 0:21:38 | |
and during the war, 36 land girls lived here. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:42 | |
The Women's Land Army was set up in 1939, as war loomed. | 0:21:42 | 0:21:45 | |
The government wanted to produce more food at home | 0:21:45 | 0:21:48 | |
and that meant more help was needed on the farms. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:52 | |
By 1943, more than 80,000 women called themselves land girls. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:57 | |
They came from all backgrounds to work in a man's world, | 0:21:57 | 0:22:00 | |
ploughing, hedging, threshing and harvesting. | 0:22:00 | 0:22:04 | |
Doris Silk, Eve Light and Doris Bradley | 0:22:06 | 0:22:08 | |
all joined the Land Army as teenagers between 1940 and 1944. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:14 | |
And they worked right here in Kent. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:16 | |
While they didn't live at this particular hostel, | 0:22:16 | 0:22:18 | |
they meet here every year to reminisce | 0:22:18 | 0:22:22 | |
and share some of their stories. | 0:22:22 | 0:22:23 | |
You were all in the Land Army. Were you all based here in Kent? | 0:22:24 | 0:22:28 | |
I was stationed at the Eastbourne research station, | 0:22:28 | 0:22:31 | |
where I was trained to be a mobile fruit sprayer. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:33 | |
So I used to go around parts of Kent spraying fruit orchards. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:37 | |
Did you have a sense of the importance of your work? | 0:22:37 | 0:22:40 | |
I suppose as a teenager, | 0:22:40 | 0:22:42 | |
you took everything that was put in front of you, | 0:22:42 | 0:22:45 | |
you did as you were told, and just got on with it. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:50 | |
This work wasn't fully mechanised. You could take it, | 0:22:50 | 0:22:53 | |
but people forget how hard this was. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:55 | |
Yes, it was. It was hard. No doubt about it, it was hard. | 0:22:55 | 0:22:58 | |
In the summer, when it's harvest time, | 0:22:58 | 0:23:01 | |
you would start at 5:30am | 0:23:01 | 0:23:03 | |
and you would finish at 11pm when it got too dark | 0:23:03 | 0:23:06 | |
to bring the harvest in. You worked all those hours. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:08 | |
It was while I was there, I called my friend and said, | 0:23:08 | 0:23:11 | |
"Come and have a look. I don't know what this is." | 0:23:11 | 0:23:14 | |
We looked and we saw something going across the sky, | 0:23:14 | 0:23:17 | |
with all the flames coming out of it. | 0:23:17 | 0:23:19 | |
When we went home we heard the first doodlebug had come over England. | 0:23:19 | 0:23:23 | |
-Wow, you saw the first one? -Yes. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:25 | |
Where would we have been without the Land Army | 0:23:25 | 0:23:27 | |
as a fighting nation? | 0:23:27 | 0:23:29 | |
Somebody once said if it hadn't been for the Merchant Navy | 0:23:29 | 0:23:32 | |
and the Land Army, England would have starved. | 0:23:32 | 0:23:34 | |
It's an honour to hear these memories first hand. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
The green jerseys of the Land Army have become | 0:23:41 | 0:23:44 | |
as synonymous with the Second World War as any military uniform, | 0:23:44 | 0:23:47 | |
and it's wonderful to see them worn with pride to this day. | 0:23:47 | 0:23:51 | |
The land girls were charged with cultivated land and producing food, | 0:23:53 | 0:23:57 | |
but there's more to the Garden of England than farming. | 0:23:57 | 0:24:00 | |
Alan Titchmarsh visited Sissinghurst, | 0:24:00 | 0:24:03 | |
the Kent home of the writer and gardener, Vita Sackville-West, | 0:24:03 | 0:24:07 | |
and her husband, Harold Nicolson. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:09 | |
Many of us like to be adventurous with our gardens | 0:24:11 | 0:24:15 | |
when it comes to colour. | 0:24:15 | 0:24:16 | |
This desire to experiment and take risks | 0:24:16 | 0:24:20 | |
began with pioneers like Vita. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:22 | |
Always one for flouting convention, at Sissinghurst, | 0:24:22 | 0:24:26 | |
she ripped up the rule book on colour. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:28 | |
The Edwardians before her championed the use of subtle pastel shades. | 0:24:30 | 0:24:34 | |
Nothing clashed as they strived for harmonious colour combinations. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:39 | |
Purple was deemed difficult, | 0:24:40 | 0:24:42 | |
and white flowers were to be used sparingly. | 0:24:42 | 0:24:46 | |
It was their reaction to the garish blocks of colour | 0:24:46 | 0:24:49 | |
so beloved of the Victorians. | 0:24:49 | 0:24:51 | |
Vita embraced all colours. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:55 | |
Her palette was sophisticated and cutting-edge. | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
You know, there's nothing more contentious than colour in a garden. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:03 | |
I have friends who won't have yellow or orange flowers. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:06 | |
I think it's a rebellion against that | 0:25:06 | 0:25:08 | |
Sixties movement, when it was blue and white alyssum, | 0:25:08 | 0:25:11 | |
orange French marigolds, scarlet salvias. | 0:25:11 | 0:25:14 | |
So we all became pastel-orientated in the '70s, '80s and '90s. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:18 | |
But now it seems to me there's a movement back | 0:25:18 | 0:25:21 | |
towards those strident colours. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:23 | |
It's been picked up from the fashion catwalks of Paris | 0:25:23 | 0:25:26 | |
and making its way into our gardens. | 0:25:26 | 0:25:28 | |
But Vita was one of the very first to break the mould | 0:25:28 | 0:25:32 | |
of being careful with colour. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:34 | |
One of Vita's ideas was to create a single colour border. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:42 | |
Potentially dull and uninspiring, | 0:25:42 | 0:25:45 | |
but her technique was to combine a host of shades | 0:25:45 | 0:25:47 | |
that would create a single hue. | 0:25:47 | 0:25:49 | |
Here in the purple border, we've knocked in a stake, | 0:25:58 | 0:26:02 | |
which is coloured at the top with the shade of flower | 0:26:02 | 0:26:06 | |
which sits underneath it. | 0:26:06 | 0:26:09 | |
Vita was very clever. | 0:26:14 | 0:26:16 | |
She's taken the spectrum all the way through | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
from the bluest shades of purple and lilac to the pale pinks. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:24 | |
Lilac here. Here's a slightly darker one. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:31 | |
This one is almost verging on the red. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:34 | |
And instead of it being a flat, one-dimensional border, | 0:26:34 | 0:26:38 | |
just look at all those colours which combine to make it | 0:26:38 | 0:26:41 | |
wonderfully three-dimensional. | 0:26:41 | 0:26:44 | |
Not only did it look good, | 0:26:44 | 0:26:46 | |
but the choice of plants meant it had year-round interest as well. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:50 | |
But Vita's most dramatic use of single colour | 0:26:54 | 0:26:57 | |
can be found in the legendary white garden. | 0:26:57 | 0:27:00 | |
At the time, the white garden was completely radical. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:10 | |
White was a colour more commonly associated with stark, concrete, | 0:27:10 | 0:27:14 | |
modernist architecture, not a traditional garden. | 0:27:14 | 0:27:18 | |
White flowers and silvery foliage had rarely been used on their own. | 0:27:18 | 0:27:23 | |
The white garden was actually a bit of a publicity stunt. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:28 | |
It was created in 1951 for the Festival of Britain, | 0:27:28 | 0:27:32 | |
and Vita and Harold hoped that swarms of foreign visitors | 0:27:32 | 0:27:35 | |
would come to Sissinghurst and pay to see it. | 0:27:35 | 0:27:38 | |
The white garden was to become one of the most celebrated | 0:27:41 | 0:27:44 | |
and influential gardens of the 20th century. | 0:27:44 | 0:27:47 | |
Copied thousands of times, all over the world. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:51 | |
Course, you could say, well, anybody could create a white garden. | 0:27:57 | 0:28:01 | |
Just get a bit of ground and fill it with white flowers, | 0:28:01 | 0:28:04 | |
but it's not as simple as that. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:07 | |
Fill a bed or a border with white flowers, | 0:28:07 | 0:28:09 | |
it can be very dull, very monochromatic. | 0:28:09 | 0:28:13 | |
You need to be a bit more cunning. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:15 | |
What sets this white garden apart from the common herd is three things. | 0:28:15 | 0:28:21 | |
Structure, form, and texture. | 0:28:21 | 0:28:24 | |
The structure is provided by this path network, | 0:28:24 | 0:28:27 | |
and the strictly-clipped box hedges which give wonderful shadow. | 0:28:27 | 0:28:31 | |
The form is the shape of these plants in drifts, and their heights. | 0:28:31 | 0:28:36 | |
And the texture, by the foliage. | 0:28:36 | 0:28:39 | |
Some of it soft and fluffy, some of it big and bold. | 0:28:39 | 0:28:44 | |
This is plantsmanship at its most masterful. | 0:28:44 | 0:28:47 | |
After the white garden had been created, | 0:28:55 | 0:28:57 | |
Vita wrote about her ideas on planting for a radio broadcast in 1954. | 0:28:57 | 0:29:04 | |
"I believe in exaggeration in gardening. | 0:29:06 | 0:29:10 | |
"I believe in big groups, big masses. | 0:29:10 | 0:29:13 | |
"I believe it's far more effective | 0:29:13 | 0:29:15 | |
"to concentrate delphiniums into one big bed, | 0:29:15 | 0:29:18 | |
"than to dot them about at intervals, in twos and threes." | 0:29:18 | 0:29:23 | |
What isn't generally known, | 0:29:31 | 0:29:32 | |
is that this garden was designed to be just as dramatic | 0:29:32 | 0:29:36 | |
at night time. | 0:29:36 | 0:29:38 | |
As daylight fades into moonlight, | 0:29:43 | 0:29:46 | |
this garden takes on a natural, luminous quality. | 0:29:46 | 0:29:49 | |
Vita and Harold would dine here in the evening, | 0:29:49 | 0:29:53 | |
so they wanted to enjoy their garden under the stars. | 0:29:53 | 0:29:57 | |
The arbour of Rosa mulliganii glows under the moonlight | 0:30:00 | 0:30:04 | |
and the silver-grey foliage all round seems to sparkle. | 0:30:04 | 0:30:09 | |
The garden's illuminated without the need for artificial light. | 0:30:09 | 0:30:14 | |
Alan Titchmarsh enjoying a ghostly garden of white. | 0:30:18 | 0:30:22 | |
I've travelled north to the outskirts of Canterbury | 0:30:25 | 0:30:28 | |
on my Kentish journey. | 0:30:28 | 0:30:30 | |
For many, the countryside is a place of quiet repose, | 0:30:31 | 0:30:34 | |
a pastoral idyll. | 0:30:34 | 0:30:35 | |
For others, the summer months mean they rush to fields like this | 0:30:35 | 0:30:38 | |
all across the UK | 0:30:38 | 0:30:41 | |
which are turned into venues for very loud music festivals. | 0:30:41 | 0:30:45 | |
# I look to the sky with sunken eyes... # | 0:30:50 | 0:30:56 | |
In 2009, two million people defied the recession | 0:30:56 | 0:31:01 | |
and flocked to British music festivals, | 0:31:01 | 0:31:03 | |
generating £450 million for the economy. | 0:31:03 | 0:31:07 | |
The biggest chunk of live music revenue | 0:31:13 | 0:31:16 | |
comes out of London and the south-east. | 0:31:16 | 0:31:19 | |
It's big business. | 0:31:19 | 0:31:20 | |
Every July, music fans head to this site near Canterbury | 0:31:20 | 0:31:24 | |
for the Lounge On The Farm Festival. | 0:31:24 | 0:31:27 | |
Sean Baker is the organiser. | 0:31:27 | 0:31:29 | |
How did Lounge On The Farm, the festival, get started here. | 0:31:29 | 0:31:33 | |
It was a chance meeting with the farmer's son. | 0:31:33 | 0:31:37 | |
I said I was looking for a place for a festival, | 0:31:38 | 0:31:41 | |
and he said, "Come on to my farm and give it a go." | 0:31:41 | 0:31:43 | |
It's grown, hasn't it? | 0:31:43 | 0:31:46 | |
-This has been something that's just built up and built up. -Yes. | 0:31:46 | 0:31:50 | |
It started off with 1,200 people, and now we hit about 10,000. | 0:31:50 | 0:31:55 | |
Why in the last five-ten years has there been this surge | 0:31:55 | 0:31:59 | |
in smaller, medium-sized festivals? Why is it so popular? | 0:31:59 | 0:32:03 | |
I think British people just love to have a good party. | 0:32:03 | 0:32:07 | |
There's nothing better than a big open field. | 0:32:07 | 0:32:09 | |
We're so close to Canterbury, you can almost see the cathedral. | 0:32:09 | 0:32:13 | |
I've been hearing about the Canterbury scene, | 0:32:13 | 0:32:15 | |
but don't really know what it is or how it relates to music. | 0:32:15 | 0:32:20 | |
It's sort of late-'60s, really. | 0:32:20 | 0:32:22 | |
It's like the early sort of prog rock music. | 0:32:22 | 0:32:26 | |
A group of musicians from the Canterbury area | 0:32:26 | 0:32:29 | |
who produced this mixture of jazz and rock. | 0:32:29 | 0:32:33 | |
It was a great sound and it's still around today. | 0:32:41 | 0:32:44 | |
It's a sound that influenced prog rock across the globe. | 0:32:48 | 0:32:51 | |
I'm off into town to trace its roots | 0:32:51 | 0:32:53 | |
and find out why Canterbury has such a unique impact on music. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:57 | |
Today you might pick up a Chinese takeaway here, | 0:33:02 | 0:33:05 | |
but this used to be a live music venue called the Beehive. | 0:33:05 | 0:33:08 | |
One night, in 1964 a new band called the Wild Flowers took to the stage | 0:33:08 | 0:33:12 | |
and unleashed a totally different sound. | 0:33:12 | 0:33:16 | |
A fusion - part rock, part folk, part jazz. | 0:33:16 | 0:33:20 | |
It was the birth of the Canterbury scene. | 0:33:20 | 0:33:23 | |
Unlike the Beatles, or the Rolling Stones, | 0:33:28 | 0:33:30 | |
which had a rock 'n' roll and blues influence, | 0:33:30 | 0:33:33 | |
the Canterbury scene combined choral sounds and a church organs | 0:33:33 | 0:33:36 | |
with a healthy dose of a far-out psychedelia. | 0:33:36 | 0:33:39 | |
After the Wild Flowers came bands like Caravan, | 0:33:39 | 0:33:43 | |
and these guys, Soft Machine. | 0:33:43 | 0:33:45 | |
As the '60s turned to the '70s, | 0:33:45 | 0:33:48 | |
these bands found themselves at the cutting edge of prog rock | 0:33:48 | 0:33:51 | |
gathering a following on both sides of the Atlantic. | 0:33:51 | 0:33:55 | |
Brian Hopper is an original member of the Wild Flowers. | 0:33:57 | 0:34:01 | |
He played guitar and saxophone in the band from 1964 | 0:34:03 | 0:34:07 | |
until they split up in 1967. | 0:34:07 | 0:34:09 | |
Two years later, he joined Soft Machine. | 0:34:09 | 0:34:13 | |
Brian, why here? Why the Canterbury scene? | 0:34:13 | 0:34:16 | |
Well, it's a cathedral city, | 0:34:16 | 0:34:18 | |
a lot of choral music goes on here. | 0:34:18 | 0:34:21 | |
When were at school we used to sing in the cathedral | 0:34:21 | 0:34:24 | |
in choirs and things. | 0:34:24 | 0:34:25 | |
As much as that, it was a group of people | 0:34:25 | 0:34:28 | |
who were all at school together. | 0:34:28 | 0:34:31 | |
We all had common influences of culture, | 0:34:31 | 0:34:33 | |
music art and everything else. | 0:34:33 | 0:34:35 | |
That contributed to our influences, I think, | 0:34:35 | 0:34:37 | |
which is what kicked it off as far as the Wild Flowers were concerned. | 0:34:37 | 0:34:41 | |
-A shared outlook. -Yeah. | 0:34:41 | 0:34:43 | |
How was it received? It was a very new music. | 0:34:43 | 0:34:46 | |
-What was the atmosphere like at gigs? -Yeah, it was mixed. | 0:34:46 | 0:34:50 | |
We had to play covers and things to keep people... | 0:34:50 | 0:34:53 | |
Some of the gigs where they wanted to dance. | 0:34:53 | 0:34:56 | |
The unique thing about us was we wrote a lot of our own material | 0:34:56 | 0:35:00 | |
which was unique at that time for a local, provincial band. | 0:35:00 | 0:35:04 | |
Other places we played, like the Beehive for example, | 0:35:04 | 0:35:08 | |
it was a much more listening audience. | 0:35:08 | 0:35:10 | |
People used to sit on the floor and it was a bit hippy-ish, | 0:35:10 | 0:35:14 | |
a bit psychedelic. | 0:35:14 | 0:35:15 | |
We had different audiences, depending on where we were playing. | 0:35:15 | 0:35:18 | |
# Grey skies are forming in the winds | 0:35:24 | 0:35:28 | |
# To the east in the morning light... # | 0:35:28 | 0:35:34 | |
Back on the festival site, | 0:35:34 | 0:35:35 | |
upcoming band Syd Arthur are playing an impromptu set | 0:35:35 | 0:35:39 | |
in preparation for their appearance on the line up this year. | 0:35:39 | 0:35:43 | |
They claim to be keeping the flame of the Canterbury scene alive. | 0:35:43 | 0:35:46 | |
I brought Brian along to see if they are. | 0:35:46 | 0:35:49 | |
-Very good. -Yes, great. | 0:35:57 | 0:36:00 | |
Brian, what do you make of that, up to your high standards? | 0:36:00 | 0:36:03 | |
I think so. It's a great little band. | 0:36:03 | 0:36:05 | |
Certainly continuing in the tradition of the Canterbury sound. | 0:36:05 | 0:36:08 | |
With the unusual time signatures and interesting musical forms. | 0:36:08 | 0:36:14 | |
-I think they're great. -There's devices, things you look out for, | 0:36:14 | 0:36:18 | |
time signatures, instrumentation, | 0:36:18 | 0:36:20 | |
but to the layman, to the basic music fan, | 0:36:20 | 0:36:23 | |
what does it make you feel? How would you sum up the music? | 0:36:23 | 0:36:27 | |
I think you're right. That's the mechanical side of it, | 0:36:27 | 0:36:30 | |
but it's the emotional response to the music itself. | 0:36:30 | 0:36:34 | |
What does it make you feel? | 0:36:34 | 0:36:37 | |
I think one of the things with the Canterbury sound | 0:36:37 | 0:36:40 | |
and a lot of the bands involved in that | 0:36:40 | 0:36:42 | |
was a whimsical approach to the music. Slight eccentricity. | 0:36:42 | 0:36:46 | |
Listening to that, you'd say it had energy, | 0:36:46 | 0:36:50 | |
but it was also quite reflective and thoughtful. | 0:36:50 | 0:36:53 | |
Definitely, that's exactly right. A good way of summing it. | 0:36:53 | 0:36:57 | |
Would you have thought in the '60s that here you'd be | 0:36:57 | 0:37:00 | |
in 2011 and it would be carried on? | 0:37:00 | 0:37:03 | |
Never. Never, no. | 0:37:03 | 0:37:05 | |
I don't think in the '60s | 0:37:05 | 0:37:07 | |
we really thought that far ahead anyway. | 0:37:07 | 0:37:10 | |
It's amazing that 40 years later it's still all happening | 0:37:10 | 0:37:14 | |
and people are continuing with that tradition. | 0:37:14 | 0:37:17 | |
There's nothing quite like sitting in the sunshine | 0:37:19 | 0:37:22 | |
enjoying live music in the countryside. | 0:37:22 | 0:37:24 | |
A little taste of that festival vibe. | 0:37:24 | 0:37:26 | |
As for the Canterbury scene, it continues to inspire | 0:37:26 | 0:37:30 | |
and push musical boundaries. | 0:37:30 | 0:37:32 | |
The fields of Kent throw up | 0:37:33 | 0:37:35 | |
many archaeological riches as well as musical ones. | 0:37:35 | 0:37:38 | |
Dr Alice Roberts has been tracking down the Anglo-Saxons. | 0:37:38 | 0:37:42 | |
You might wonder what I'm doing | 0:37:47 | 0:37:48 | |
in a car park outside a shopping centre in Sittingbourne. | 0:37:48 | 0:37:51 | |
But if you come with me through these doors there's evidence | 0:37:51 | 0:37:54 | |
of Anglo-Saxon Kent at the height of its powers. | 0:37:54 | 0:37:58 | |
Archaeologists have recovered 2,500 objects | 0:37:59 | 0:38:03 | |
from around 230 graves at a site called the Meads. | 0:38:03 | 0:38:07 | |
It's an enormous collection of clues dating back nearly 1,500 years. | 0:38:07 | 0:38:12 | |
And processing this volume of material | 0:38:14 | 0:38:18 | |
demands a unique approach. | 0:38:18 | 0:38:20 | |
Right. I think this must be it. | 0:38:22 | 0:38:24 | |
Dana Goodburn-Brown is an archaeological conservator. | 0:38:30 | 0:38:34 | |
A year ago, she pioneered a radical new scheme | 0:38:34 | 0:38:37 | |
encouraging local volunteers to get involved with conserving the grave goods | 0:38:37 | 0:38:41 | |
of people who may have been their ancestors. | 0:38:41 | 0:38:44 | |
Have you got people coming in who've never done anything like this before? | 0:38:47 | 0:38:51 | |
Yes. No-one's done anything exactly like this. | 0:38:51 | 0:38:54 | |
They go through a training session, | 0:38:54 | 0:38:55 | |
we have some practice pieces, then they work on the real thing. | 0:38:55 | 0:38:59 | |
What are the artefacts that you're working on? | 0:38:59 | 0:39:02 | |
This is a side view of this block | 0:39:02 | 0:39:04 | |
which seems to have this enormous brooch that's gilded. | 0:39:04 | 0:39:11 | |
You can see a little bit of gilt and gold coming out. | 0:39:11 | 0:39:13 | |
There's quite an intricate design going on there. | 0:39:13 | 0:39:16 | |
They could see rings. If they lifted them out individually, | 0:39:16 | 0:39:19 | |
you'd have a series of rings and you wouldn't know what it was. | 0:39:19 | 0:39:22 | |
If you X-ray it as a block, | 0:39:22 | 0:39:24 | |
you can see the relationship between one and the other. | 0:39:24 | 0:39:27 | |
This was something that went around the waist | 0:39:27 | 0:39:29 | |
and probably keys or things might have hung off of it. | 0:39:29 | 0:39:32 | |
Dana's innovative project is opening up archaeology to everyone. | 0:39:34 | 0:39:37 | |
It's already proving popular. | 0:39:37 | 0:39:39 | |
We've had almost 10,000 people. | 0:39:42 | 0:39:44 | |
You get people dropping by, | 0:39:44 | 0:39:47 | |
some people come back again and again. | 0:39:47 | 0:39:49 | |
We've been open several months | 0:39:49 | 0:39:52 | |
and people are still just discovering us new. | 0:39:52 | 0:39:54 | |
Don't you think it's great? | 0:39:56 | 0:39:58 | |
Loads of people can see it. | 0:39:58 | 0:40:00 | |
Normally conservation work goes on behind closed doors in a museum. | 0:40:00 | 0:40:04 | |
I love what I do and it's really nice to share it with other people. | 0:40:04 | 0:40:07 | |
I do have to stop myself sometimes and think, "This is 1,400 years old. | 0:40:07 | 0:40:11 | |
"Some craftsmen made this. Someone wore it." | 0:40:11 | 0:40:15 | |
It's quite special. | 0:40:15 | 0:40:17 | |
This is such a great example of community engagement. | 0:40:19 | 0:40:22 | |
Anybody in this shopping mall, they might be coming for their weekly shop, | 0:40:22 | 0:40:27 | |
or a cup of tea, they can pop in | 0:40:27 | 0:40:28 | |
and find out more about conservation, | 0:40:28 | 0:40:31 | |
archaeology and local history. | 0:40:31 | 0:40:33 | |
If they are really interested, they can also volunteer. | 0:40:33 | 0:40:36 | |
Right now, I want to find out more | 0:40:36 | 0:40:38 | |
about the artefacts from those graves. | 0:40:38 | 0:40:41 | |
Once they've been cleaned, you get a sense | 0:40:43 | 0:40:46 | |
of the incredible craftsmanship | 0:40:46 | 0:40:48 | |
that's gone into making these stunning objects. | 0:40:48 | 0:40:51 | |
But what can they tell us about Anglo-Saxon life? | 0:40:52 | 0:40:55 | |
Dr Andrew Richardson of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust | 0:40:58 | 0:41:01 | |
has been interpreting these finds for over two years. | 0:41:01 | 0:41:05 | |
-These are wonderful objects, are they brooches? -Yes. | 0:41:05 | 0:41:09 | |
If you look at this one, this is a plated disc brooch. | 0:41:09 | 0:41:13 | |
A silver back plate with a gold front plate then gold cell work, | 0:41:13 | 0:41:19 | |
and then inlaid with garnets | 0:41:19 | 0:41:22 | |
of very, very fine gold filigree wire. | 0:41:22 | 0:41:24 | |
It's also very delicately made. | 0:41:24 | 0:41:27 | |
It is. | 0:41:27 | 0:41:28 | |
It is highly skilled craft-working | 0:41:28 | 0:41:32 | |
and when you show this sort of thing to modern jewellers, | 0:41:32 | 0:41:35 | |
they say that they would have to charge an enormous amount of money | 0:41:35 | 0:41:39 | |
to make a copy of this. | 0:41:39 | 0:41:41 | |
The woman who owned this, who wore this, | 0:41:43 | 0:41:46 | |
would probably have been at the top of the social scale in this community. | 0:41:46 | 0:41:51 | |
-Incredibly high status, possibly even royal connections. -Definitely. | 0:41:51 | 0:41:55 | |
Many of the people buried here by their grieving loved ones | 0:41:55 | 0:41:59 | |
were adorned with magnificent pieces of jewellery, | 0:41:59 | 0:42:03 | |
but the whole community is here. | 0:42:03 | 0:42:05 | |
Some buried with ordinary, everyday items like this iron knife. | 0:42:05 | 0:42:09 | |
If you think about the full range of objects we've got from this site, | 0:42:09 | 0:42:14 | |
it's a huge investment in wealth in the ground. | 0:42:14 | 0:42:17 | |
It isn't recovered by them, it's only | 0:42:17 | 0:42:19 | |
when we excavate it that it emerges into the light again. | 0:42:19 | 0:42:23 | |
The people interred here were part of a wave of settlers | 0:42:23 | 0:42:26 | |
who'd come to make their mark. | 0:42:26 | 0:42:29 | |
Nearly 1,500 years on, this cemetery is allowing us | 0:42:29 | 0:42:33 | |
to glimpse how their society functioned. | 0:42:33 | 0:42:36 | |
A member of a powerful family dies, the family have to reaffirm | 0:42:36 | 0:42:41 | |
that that family still has power and status. | 0:42:41 | 0:42:45 | |
This certainly isn't costume jewellery, it is it? | 0:42:45 | 0:42:48 | |
This is the real thing. These are incredibly prized items. | 0:42:48 | 0:42:52 | |
This is the real thing. | 0:42:52 | 0:42:54 | |
For their time, these are the top of the range jewellery | 0:42:54 | 0:42:57 | |
that Anglo-Saxon England can produce. | 0:42:57 | 0:43:00 | |
We can suppose that these settlers were seen by the people already living here as invaders. | 0:43:00 | 0:43:06 | |
And power in these times was wielded at the end of a sword. | 0:43:06 | 0:43:10 | |
The cemetery bears witness to the importance of these weapons. | 0:43:10 | 0:43:13 | |
These are iron weapons. | 0:43:13 | 0:43:15 | |
You've got spearheads. Some of these spearheads inlaid with gold. | 0:43:15 | 0:43:21 | |
You've got some decorated pyramid mounts from a sword belt. | 0:43:21 | 0:43:27 | |
They're amazing. Can I pick that up on its face? | 0:43:27 | 0:43:29 | |
These exquisite items are over 1,000 years old, | 0:43:29 | 0:43:34 | |
shaped in silver inlaid with gold and topped with garnet. | 0:43:34 | 0:43:38 | |
An extraordinary amount of effort has gone into crafting them. | 0:43:38 | 0:43:42 | |
I think they're real, functional weapons. | 0:43:43 | 0:43:47 | |
But they have a symbolic role. | 0:43:47 | 0:43:49 | |
Young children, people who were severely disabled, | 0:43:50 | 0:43:54 | |
have been found buried with weapons, | 0:43:54 | 0:43:56 | |
people who could never have used them in battle. | 0:43:56 | 0:43:58 | |
But they still see themselves as warriors? | 0:43:58 | 0:44:01 | |
They do, they do. | 0:44:01 | 0:44:02 | |
I think Anglo-Saxon culture, if you look at their poetry, | 0:44:02 | 0:44:06 | |
their artwork, | 0:44:06 | 0:44:08 | |
is very, very centred on warfare. | 0:44:08 | 0:44:11 | |
It's about communicating a message about how they see themselves, | 0:44:11 | 0:44:15 | |
how their families see the deceased in the funeral rite. | 0:44:15 | 0:44:20 | |
There is so little documentary evidence | 0:44:23 | 0:44:26 | |
of early Anglo-Saxon society, | 0:44:26 | 0:44:28 | |
so cemeteries like this and those amazing grave goods | 0:44:28 | 0:44:32 | |
offer us a really precious insight into that culture. | 0:44:32 | 0:44:36 | |
We start to be able to really focus on those people in the forgotten cemetery, | 0:44:36 | 0:44:41 | |
who themselves have long since faded from memory. | 0:44:41 | 0:44:45 | |
Dr Alice Roberts exploring Kent's ancient past. | 0:44:46 | 0:44:50 | |
I've reached the last stop on my journey. | 0:44:52 | 0:44:55 | |
I'm at Howletts Wild Animal Park near the village of Bekesbourne. | 0:44:55 | 0:44:59 | |
These 100 acres of English parkland | 0:44:59 | 0:45:02 | |
are home to some of the world's most rare and endangered animals. | 0:45:02 | 0:45:05 | |
Not exactly what you'd expect to see in the Kent countryside. | 0:45:05 | 0:45:09 | |
There's the UK's largest herd of African elephants. | 0:45:11 | 0:45:15 | |
There's black rhino. There's tigers. There's even snow leopards. | 0:45:15 | 0:45:18 | |
But the one thing that you really can't miss if you come here | 0:45:18 | 0:45:22 | |
is the world's biggest captive group of Western lowland gorillas. | 0:45:22 | 0:45:26 | |
It's feeding time for this group, | 0:45:44 | 0:45:46 | |
and it's a great opportunity to get a closer look | 0:45:46 | 0:45:49 | |
with head gorilla keeper Lorna Wanless. | 0:45:49 | 0:45:51 | |
Wow, look at this. I had no idea you'd be coming up on the roof like this. | 0:45:58 | 0:46:02 | |
So what benefit is there to be feeding them from above? | 0:46:02 | 0:46:05 | |
It's really important that they climb. | 0:46:05 | 0:46:08 | |
They would naturally, in the wild. | 0:46:08 | 0:46:10 | |
So what we're going to do is throw the celery all over | 0:46:10 | 0:46:12 | |
so that it's widespread so the gorillas don't fight over a small area of food. | 0:46:12 | 0:46:16 | |
Then we'll watch them climb up. | 0:46:16 | 0:46:18 | |
We've got a load of celery here. What do you feed them and how often? | 0:46:18 | 0:46:21 | |
Pretty much any fruit and vegetable you can think of they get at some point during the year - | 0:46:21 | 0:46:26 | |
it's very seasonal - and between five and seven times a day. | 0:46:26 | 0:46:29 | |
And browse as well, obviously they love the browse, | 0:46:29 | 0:46:32 | |
you know, the trees, all the UK trees they pretty much eat. | 0:46:32 | 0:46:35 | |
And they pre-empt this. | 0:46:35 | 0:46:37 | |
I can see a few of them coming closer. | 0:46:37 | 0:46:39 | |
-They are. -Always eating? They're big beasts, aren't they? | 0:46:39 | 0:46:42 | |
Pretty much, yeah. They're browsers. They have a little snooze in the afternoon. | 0:46:42 | 0:46:46 | |
Apart from that they eat pretty much all day! | 0:46:46 | 0:46:49 | |
-So are we ready to feed? -Yep, that's fine. | 0:46:49 | 0:46:51 | |
If you do this area, don't get too near the mesh. | 0:46:51 | 0:46:53 | |
All the way on that side. I'll do this side. | 0:46:53 | 0:46:56 | |
Great, all right. Ring the dinner bell. Here we go. | 0:46:56 | 0:46:59 | |
Not as ravenous as I thought. | 0:47:15 | 0:47:17 | |
I thought they'd be devouring that in seconds. | 0:47:17 | 0:47:20 | |
There's a healthy salad snack there throughout the afternoon, I think. | 0:47:20 | 0:47:23 | |
Lots of crunching going on. | 0:47:23 | 0:47:25 | |
Lots of crunching, that's what I can hear. | 0:47:25 | 0:47:28 | |
Yeah. | 0:47:26 | 0:47:28 | |
Maybe not everyone's a celery fan. There's no dips or anything. | 0:47:28 | 0:47:31 | |
True. Would be better, wouldn't it? | 0:47:31 | 0:47:33 | |
Doesn't suit all tastes, perhaps. | 0:47:33 | 0:47:35 | |
The story of this park started in 1956 | 0:47:36 | 0:47:40 | |
when it was bought by the club and casino owner John Aspinall. | 0:47:40 | 0:47:43 | |
It's now been passed on to his son Damian. | 0:47:44 | 0:47:47 | |
He's got his father's head for business, as well as his passion for wildlife. | 0:47:47 | 0:47:52 | |
In fact he's been called a real life Mowgli | 0:47:52 | 0:47:54 | |
because of his remarkable relationship with the gorillas here. | 0:47:54 | 0:47:57 | |
He's the only person allowed to enter their enclosure and interact with them. | 0:47:57 | 0:48:03 | |
That's not just for insurance reasons. | 0:48:03 | 0:48:05 | |
He's the only person the gorillas will tolerate. | 0:48:05 | 0:48:08 | |
I want to find out if there's more to Howletts than just a wildlife spectacle. | 0:48:09 | 0:48:14 | |
Though your father started this as a private park, | 0:48:14 | 0:48:18 | |
you've opened it up to the public. | 0:48:18 | 0:48:20 | |
Where does conservation come into what you do here? | 0:48:20 | 0:48:22 | |
Conservation is at the heart of everything we do. | 0:48:23 | 0:48:26 | |
The idea that a wildlife park or an animal collection or zoo | 0:48:26 | 0:48:30 | |
is there for human exhibit is abhorrent to us. | 0:48:30 | 0:48:34 | |
Everything we do here is for the animal and everything we do | 0:48:34 | 0:48:37 | |
is to try to breed these animals and then, wherever we can, | 0:48:37 | 0:48:40 | |
try and return them to the wild. | 0:48:40 | 0:48:42 | |
So it's at the very core of what we're about. | 0:48:42 | 0:48:46 | |
How is it gorillas born and raised in Kent | 0:48:46 | 0:48:49 | |
can be taken back to Africa and released successfully there? | 0:48:49 | 0:48:54 | |
Well, I think you have to be very ambitious | 0:48:54 | 0:48:58 | |
and you have to be willing to accept a lot of challenges | 0:48:58 | 0:49:01 | |
cos it's not easy, which is why we're the only people in the world that do this. | 0:49:01 | 0:49:05 | |
But we're very proud we've introduced over 50 gorillas back into the wild. | 0:49:05 | 0:49:09 | |
There's all types of problems when you make these types of decisions. | 0:49:09 | 0:49:13 | |
But it's worthwhile. | 0:49:13 | 0:49:15 | |
We're repopulating a part of Africa that hasn't seen gorillas for 200 years. | 0:49:15 | 0:49:19 | |
Which part of Africa do they go to? | 0:49:19 | 0:49:21 | |
They go to the Congo and the Gambon. | 0:49:21 | 0:49:23 | |
We protect in Africa 1.2 million acres of land, | 0:49:23 | 0:49:27 | |
so within this land we put the gorillas back, | 0:49:27 | 0:49:31 | |
but also we protect the land from poaching, | 0:49:31 | 0:49:34 | |
and all our animal numbers have increased by 50-60% | 0:49:34 | 0:49:38 | |
over the last five years. Five, six years ago there were no crocodiles in the rivers. | 0:49:38 | 0:49:42 | |
Now teeming with crocodiles. | 0:49:42 | 0:49:44 | |
Chimps have been seen there for the first time in 50 years. | 0:49:44 | 0:49:47 | |
So it's not just about returning gorillas, it's about protecting the land. | 0:49:47 | 0:49:52 | |
You have a very close relationship. | 0:49:52 | 0:49:54 | |
Famously, you go in, they accept you. | 0:49:54 | 0:49:57 | |
First of all, I consider it a huge compliment and a great honour. | 0:49:57 | 0:50:01 | |
I think I'm the only person in the world, actually, | 0:50:01 | 0:50:03 | |
who goes in with silverback gorillas. | 0:50:03 | 0:50:05 | |
But honestly, it sounds strange | 0:50:05 | 0:50:07 | |
but actually it's no different from me going out for dinner with a friend. | 0:50:07 | 0:50:11 | |
I'm considered an old family friend | 0:50:11 | 0:50:13 | |
and they respect me as such. | 0:50:13 | 0:50:16 | |
The young ones come up and play | 0:50:16 | 0:50:18 | |
just like if Uncle Damian was coming round to see his nieces and nephews. | 0:50:18 | 0:50:23 | |
It's a real thrill. It's not dangerous at all. | 0:50:23 | 0:50:26 | |
I think what you see at Howletts with gorillas | 0:50:26 | 0:50:28 | |
is the closest you'll ever see them to act like they do in the wild. | 0:50:28 | 0:50:32 | |
In a moment I'm going to be on the other side of the fence | 0:50:44 | 0:50:47 | |
getting a close-up look at one of the most secretive and elusive predators in the world. | 0:50:47 | 0:50:52 | |
But first, the Country Tracks weather for the week ahead. | 0:50:52 | 0:50:55 | |
. | 0:52:50 | 0:52:57 | |
I've been on a journey through Kent, from its southern tip at Lydd | 0:53:07 | 0:53:12 | |
over to the Brenzett Aeronautical Museum, | 0:53:12 | 0:53:14 | |
north to Canterbury and ending here | 0:53:14 | 0:53:17 | |
at the Howletts Wild Animal Park near Bekesbourne. | 0:53:17 | 0:53:21 | |
Howletts opened to the public in 1975. | 0:53:25 | 0:53:30 | |
The conservation charity, the Aspinall Foundation, was set up in 1984. | 0:53:30 | 0:53:35 | |
It aims to protect threatened species by reintroducing animals to the wild. | 0:53:35 | 0:53:39 | |
A lot of captive breeding work is done here, | 0:53:39 | 0:53:42 | |
and today I'm getting a rare insight behind the scenes. | 0:53:42 | 0:53:46 | |
My guide is Ben Warren, | 0:53:46 | 0:53:48 | |
and his job title gives a bit of a clue as to what's in store. | 0:53:48 | 0:53:52 | |
He's the Deputy Head of Carnivores. | 0:53:52 | 0:53:55 | |
Ben, this is a particularly handsome chap. What's he? | 0:53:56 | 0:53:59 | |
This is a male clouded leopard. He's come from South East Asia. | 0:53:59 | 0:54:02 | |
He came to us from a park in the States for our breeding programme here. | 0:54:02 | 0:54:07 | |
How hard are they to breed? | 0:54:07 | 0:54:09 | |
Very hard to breed. | 0:54:09 | 0:54:10 | |
The hardest part is actually putting the cats together. | 0:54:10 | 0:54:13 | |
There's a high chance of the males killing the females | 0:54:13 | 0:54:17 | |
when you're trying to mix them for breeding. It used to be very difficult. | 0:54:17 | 0:54:21 | |
Now he we've worked out how to do it | 0:54:21 | 0:54:22 | |
and probably around a ten-year span | 0:54:22 | 0:54:24 | |
we've bred around 60 cubs in that period. | 0:54:24 | 0:54:26 | |
-60? That's phenomenal. Can I go and say hello? -Yeah, definitely. | 0:54:26 | 0:54:31 | |
If he wants to say hello to you he tends to wrap his legs around your legs or something. | 0:54:31 | 0:54:35 | |
Don't back off, just stay there. | 0:54:35 | 0:54:39 | |
The things to watch out for, obviously, are the teeth. | 0:54:39 | 0:54:42 | |
They're the biggest teeth in comparison to their size within the cat family. | 0:54:42 | 0:54:46 | |
They're meant to be the closest relatives to the sabre-toothed tiger. | 0:54:46 | 0:54:50 | |
OK, despite the teeth, sharp claws, just stand there, | 0:54:50 | 0:54:53 | |
let him come up to you, let him inspect me, I suppose, and try not to back off? | 0:54:53 | 0:54:58 | |
Yeah, let him do his thing. | 0:54:58 | 0:54:59 | |
-Great. -Hello, big fella. | 0:54:59 | 0:55:01 | |
Nearly trod on a very big tail there. Not a great start. | 0:55:09 | 0:55:12 | |
-Hello. -Hello, fella. | 0:55:14 | 0:55:18 | |
Hello. You OK? Are you going to jump on me? Yep. There we go. | 0:55:19 | 0:55:24 | |
Now look at that. | 0:55:24 | 0:55:26 | |
One of the rarest cats in the world just playing with us here. | 0:55:26 | 0:55:30 | |
And he likes his boots. | 0:55:32 | 0:55:33 | |
Isn't that incredible? | 0:55:36 | 0:55:37 | |
'Clouded leopards are arboreal, | 0:55:37 | 0:55:40 | |
'meaning they spend most of their time in trees, | 0:55:40 | 0:55:43 | |
'hence that amazing balance.' | 0:55:43 | 0:55:45 | |
So soft when he jumps up, just big, soft paws padding on your shoulders. | 0:55:45 | 0:55:50 | |
He's very good at not using claws. | 0:55:50 | 0:55:51 | |
If he gets a little bit worked up | 0:55:51 | 0:55:53 | |
and the play gets a bit more serious, | 0:55:53 | 0:55:55 | |
the claws come out a little bit then, but nothing too drastic. | 0:55:55 | 0:55:59 | |
-I think he's a bit of a poser here as well. -Yeah, he loves it, doesn't he? | 0:55:59 | 0:56:03 | |
'These beautiful cats are notoriously difficult to study in the wild. | 0:56:03 | 0:56:07 | |
'No one knows how many live in the rainforests of south-east Asia, | 0:56:07 | 0:56:11 | |
'but their numbers are thought to be in decline. | 0:56:11 | 0:56:14 | |
'Tawada is one of 18 clouded leopards here. | 0:56:15 | 0:56:18 | |
'The breeding programme ensures strong bloodlines for the future. | 0:56:18 | 0:56:21 | |
He always wants to do what he can't quite get to. | 0:56:23 | 0:56:25 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:56:27 | 0:56:30 | |
There's a good boy. Gently. There's a good boy, yes. | 0:56:33 | 0:56:35 | |
'I'd never even heard of clouded leopard before meeting Tawada. | 0:56:35 | 0:56:40 | |
'And here we are in his territory.' | 0:56:40 | 0:56:43 | |
Such a rare cat. | 0:56:43 | 0:56:44 | |
Very seldom seen in the wild. | 0:56:44 | 0:56:48 | |
And here he is, just letting me play with him almost like he's a pet cat. | 0:56:48 | 0:56:52 | |
Absolutely wonderful experience. | 0:56:52 | 0:56:54 | |
This has been an eclectic journey. | 0:56:59 | 0:57:01 | |
From go-karts to land girls. From prog rock to gorillas. | 0:57:01 | 0:57:08 | |
And in keeping with such a rich medley of adventures, | 0:57:08 | 0:57:10 | |
my journey ends gazing at elephants | 0:57:10 | 0:57:12 | |
right here in the Garden of England. | 0:57:12 | 0:57:15 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:57:26 | 0:57:31 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:57:31 | 0:57:35 |