Bristol Channel Country Tracks

Today, I'm on a journey along the Bristol Channel,

starting here, shaded by trees, and ending on a Somerset beach.

I'll stick to the English side of the channel,

walking from Culbone, tucked away on the northern edge

of Exmoor National Park, to the nearby village of Porlock Weir.

I'll be finding out why this pretty place is destined to disappear.

Sea levels are rising.

It could happen tomorrow, it could happen next year, 50 years.

I'll head over to Dunster Castle, where the National Trust

has found a novel way to green up a Grade I listed building.

Pushing eastwards along the coast, I'll come to Highbridge,

where injured and abandoned wild animals

are getting a new lease of life.

-Oh, she's tiny!

-Hello! She's only four weeks old.

Come in, have your breakfast.

My journey ends on the vast sands at Burnham-on-Sea,

where I'll be helping release herring gulls back into the wild.

Go, go, go! Wow! Hey-hey!

Along the way, I'll be looking back at the best

of the BBC's rural archive from this part of the world.

Welcome to Country Tracks.

The Bristol Channel stretches from the Severn Estuary

to the North Atlantic Ocean, separating England and Wales.

It's an immensely powerful body of water,

with the second highest tidal range in the world.

Matt Baker will be experiencing its full force later in the programme.

This is unbelievable! Wow!

I'll stay on dry land, exploring the Somerset coast

and the southern shores of the Bristol Channel.

I'm on Britain's longest footpath.

It follows the coast for 630 miles, finishing up in Dorset.

Now, I'm not walking the entire length

of the South West Coast Path - that would take about eight weeks.

I am, however, walking the section that leads me

to one of Somerset's best-kept secrets.

I'm joined by Graeme McVittie, Woodland Officer

here in the Exmoor National Park.

Tell me about this woodland.

there are several miles of these pretty steep coastal woods.

The National Park Authority owns this piece,

but they cascade right the way down these steep slopes,

right the way down to the high tide mark,

and extending for several miles along the coast.

They're pretty unique, special woods.

One of the particularly interesting things about this woodland

is this rather unassuming little tree here,

which is actually one of the rarest trees in the world.

Although this is just a sapling, they do grow into huge trees.

This is found nowhere else but along these coastal woods of north Exmoor.

What's it called?

The botanical name, this one is Sorbus vexans.

We refer to it as the Exmoor whitebeam,

or one of the endemic whitebeams.

-Why do they only grow here?

-It's a bit of a mystery, really,

but they're the result of a complicated hybridisation

between the mountain ash, the common whitebeam and the service tree.

That happened sometime in history.

What do they bring to the wood?

Are they good for insects or butterflies?

I think the most important thing is their intrinsic rarity.

That's the most interesting thing about them.

I've got to ask... We've stepped off the path

and I've seen signs warning people about ticks -

are they a big issue around here?

I think it's always worth being aware of ticks.

They're quite nasty little biting insects.

They do carry Lyme disease, which is a pretty hazardous thing.

If it's undetected and then untreated, it can be fatal.

-So you need to check yourself.

-Check yourself for ticks.

If you're aware of any,

if there's a skin rash around the area of the tick,

and any flu-like symptoms that develop,

consult your doctor immediately.

-Have you ever had ticks?

-Unusually, no.

I've been here for 13-odd years and I don't get them.

I've got too much red wine and garlic in my system!

-You get flies, though!

-I get flies.

I've been here with colleagues who are brushing them off

and at the end of the day, 20 or 30 attach to them.

But I never get them. I don't know why.

Despite the ticks, this really is a magical woodland.

It feels like somewhere straight from the pages of a story book.

But it isn't just a pretty walk.

I'm on the trail of a village lost in time.

It's a little place called Culbone, hidden away in the woods,

and I've heard all sorts of stories and rumours about it.

This path leads to Culbone,

and it has quite a spooky reputation, doesn't it?

You might be referring

to the fact that there's the remains of leper colony here.

There's evidence of the old platforms

where the lepers' dwellings would have been.

-How would they survive?

-Well, looking at these woods today,

it's hard to imagine that these would have been actively managed.

There was a healthy charcoal industry -

these woods would have been coppiced.

I think the lepers, the residents there,

would have been involved in that industry.

They would have had to work to survive.

And people say there were smugglers in these woods?

Well, these are pretty inaccessible coastlines,

little isolated coves and things.

I think there must always have been some kind of illicit activities

going on over the centuries.

I'm sure it happened here,

but we don't have any specific evidence for it here,

apart from the odd anecdote.

Smugglers or no smugglers,

it certainly adds to the atmosphere of this place.

And this is it. This is Culbone.

It's so peaceful here, you really don't feel you can be loud.

There's no access by public road, so there's no traffic noise.

All you can hear are the sounds of birds and the stream.

It's a village, but there are just two houses

and the smallest complete parish church in England.

People have worshipped at the church here for more than 1,000 years.

And it is still very much a living church, with fortnightly services.

This really is cosy.

You can see from the outside that it's a small church,

but inside, it feels absolutely tiny.

It's 35 feet long, and you can fit about 30 people in here,

but that is at a bit of a push.

This is one of the things I came to see.

This little window is called the leper window,

because the story goes

that people who had leprosy and weren't allowed inside the church

had to stand outside, and so they could see what was going on

and be part of the service,

they used to stand and peer through this window.

Which really is quite heartbreaking, when you think about it.

Culbone is stunningly pretty and incredibly peaceful,

but it's time for me to continue my journey by heading

back along the South West Coast Path towards Porlock Weir.

Matt Baker was further upstream at the Severn Estuary

to experience the tidal power of the Bristol Channel,

and one of the wonders of the natural world.

At the moment, it's calm, it's tranquil -

all you can hear is the sound of the birds.

But it is six o'clock in the morning and I'm in a wetsuit

as I'm about to embark on an experience

that I will never ever forget.

And it's all thanks to that.

It's the Earth's incredible relationship with the moon

and the sun that helps create one of the natural wonders of the world.

Here comes the science bit!

The moon and the Earth

are constantly rotating around each other.

As they spin, both the moon and the sun

exert a powerful gravitational force

on the Earth, physically pulling the oceans back and forth,

creating high and low tides.

But when the sun, the moon and the Earth line up together,

something truly remarkable happens.

Their combined force creates extra-high, or spring, tides.

The effect on the River Severn at certain times of the year

is so astonishing that people are prepared to get up

at the crack of dawn to experience it.

Like most of the planet's miracles, if you want to see it,

you've got to put a bit of effort in.

Steve and I are going to meet it where it starts, way out there.

Known as the Severn bore,

it's a tidal wave which sweeps up the river,

and this month, it's expected to be the biggest in five years.

But why does the spring tide create a tidal wave here?

One of my guides today has lived alongside this bizarre phenomenon

all his life, and if anyone can explain it, it's him.

It's going to be a lot of water.

That's the thing

that people don't understand.

The whole of this area that you can see is going to rise

by about ten metres in the space of 40 minutes.

As it comes into this channel, it's funnelled

between Wales and Land's End, and it just gets squeezed and squeezed

and it'll build into a big tidal wave.

It's freezing, and the sun's only just up,

but we're not the only ones mad enough to be out.

There's a couple of surfers here we're just zipping alongside now,

all waiting for the ominous arrival of the bore.

But I'm very privileged -

I'm meeting the bore at its source.

Constantly shifting sandbanks

makes this one of the UK's most dangerous rivers...

and I've never even surfed before.

There's a real feeling of anticipation,

especially for us here, and the surfers -

everybody's waiting for this moment.

We're minutes away from the bore now,

and it's time for me to get into the water.

Luckily, I'm not doing this alone. I'm with Steve King.

He's the record-holder

for the longest unbroken surf on the bore - 7.5 miles non-stop -

so he's definitely the right person.

What you want to do is just try and let the tide take you,

rather than you fighting against it.

And suddenly, it's on us.

-Oh, my word, I can see it! That is absolutely...

-It's coming now.

-It's coming now!

-If you get in now...just pop in.

Oh, it's fresh!

-Paddle as hard as you can.

-And we're up and on it!

Oh, I missed it! I'm going for the second one!

That was it - and it's gone!

MATT LAUGHS

What happened, the wave's broken, but it's broken onto the sandbank,

cos it'll only break in shallow water.

-Right.

-So where we were was a bit too deep.

-OK.

Cos obviously I'm not that brilliant at paddling

and keeping up with the wave.

We have a little rib that'll take us

a little further upriver, so we can catch it again.

It's a race to overtake the wave.

I'm determined to have another go,

but unless we get ahead of the tide, I've got no chance.

One, two, three...

now!

Perfect!

MATT WHOOPS

That's it!

-All right?

-Woo-hoo!

That's it.

Come over this way.

This is unbelievable! Wow!

So frustrating - just as I hit my stride, I was off the wave!

What a feeling that is!

Honestly, it's so high, even though the wave looked really quite small.

When you're up, there's a brilliant view right across.

Right, let's get back in the boat and catch her up.

We're in pursuit of the wave, and we're not the only ones here,

as this is one of the best access points.

The surfers are flocking -

there must be 150 people in the water, and 1,000 on the bank.

Ye-e-e-es! Go on, lads! Wicked!

At last, after travelling 13 miles, we're past the wave

and ready to try again.

Look how calm everything is on this side.

It's just carnage on the other side of the wave!

The pressure's on -

we're nearly at the spot where the wave is at its biggest.

But this is my last chance.

After this, the river gets too narrow and we'll have to stop.

YAY!

Yay-hey-hey!

I'm on such a high!

I managed to surf it for over a minute,

but the nearest I get to standing up...

is this.

'And as quickly as it began, it's all over.'

Oh, yes! That was a massive wave.

It felt so splendid to be up on top of it!

I'll tell you what... Oh, yes!

It was the last one as well, I'm just made up that I got it.

An elated Matt Baker, surfing the awesome Severn Bore.

I'm on a journey along the Bristol Channel.

I've headed back along the South West coast path

to Porlock Weir, once a busy port

and now a picture-perfect tourist trap on the Somerset coast.

200 years ago, this harbour was rammed with boats

exporting oysters to Bristol

or wooden poles to prop up Welsh coal mines.

Today, the area attracts holiday makers and ramblers,

who come to enjoy the coastal views, the sea air

and Porlock Weir's pretty, pebbly beach.

But the water here has a fierce side.

In 1607, thousands of people were drowned

and entire villages were swept away when a massive flood,

now thought to have been caused by a tsunami,

hit the shores of the Bristol Channel.

In the late 1700s, at least half a dozen houses

and a road were washed away by sea floods, here at Porlock Weir.

In 1996, the sea breached a 20-foot bank of shingle

and forged a channel inland.

Porlock Weir won't be here forever.

This stretch of coastline is constantly changing,

constantly moving.

What's more, it's been decided that nature should take its course.

A shoreline management plan has concluded

there will be no active intervention to protect Porlock Weir.

That means no Government funding to build or maintain flood defences.

The bottom line is it's down to the landowner

and local residents to defend their homes.

Paul Jones is project officer

for the Coastal Change Pathfinder project.

That IS funded by the Government and it's to help people understand

and adapt to coastal change.

Why no active intervention, then, Paul?

Firstly, if you take a look at Porlock Weir,

it's a very picturesque village

and if we were to put a sea wall in place,

you're talking about two or three metres of cement wall,

covering all this beautiful scenery.

It's just not in keeping and fitting with the area.

Is it purely down to aesthetics or is there an argument to say that

they're not building a wall because it's financially not worth it?

To build a sea wall of two or three metres is an expensive undertaking.

There's hundreds of thousands of pounds,

if not millions of pounds which could be spent on a sea wall

and we're protecting what would be 60 properties.

And a sea wall of a similar size

could be protecting acres upon acres of land.

Unfortunately, it's not economically viable

to build a sea wall at Porlock Weir.

But is it a decision that everybody's happy with?

Um... Of course, there are mixed responses,

people who do want to keep it the way it is, they want to protect it,

they want to keep the coastline in the same place, but it's impossible.

The sea levels ARE rising.

We have to adapt to that, we can't just have a King Cnut situation,

where we try and hold back the sea, no matter what the expense.

Well, how DO these guys adapt? Because there's lots of cottages

we can see are metres from the water.

Absolutely, yeah.

It's interesting you should say that, because, at the moment,

these cottages behind us here, they do float on the high tides.

They have the sea water come up through their floor.

That's how low they are at the moment,

so, of course, over time,

if the sea levels do continue to rise, they will be lost.

How do you engage with local people here?

Well, one of the first things we did, we developed a mock newspaper,

which was set in the future, in the year 2014,

which is not too far ahead for people

who might feel a bit apathetic about it.

It was quite immediate.

And that showed an event where there was a high tide

combined with a strong storm event as well.

And what we wanted to do from that

is just trigger that the debate, the discussion.

And what does that include? What do people plan to do?

We asked them to consider things

like how they would escape from their property,

how they would get out of Porlock Weir because, inevitably,

the sea would block the road out of the village.

How would they clear that away from the road?

Who are the vulnerable people in the village?

And make sure that they are cared for.

How long has Porlock Weir got?

It's impossible to say. Um...

It could happen tomorrow, it could happen next year,

50 years, 100 years. It's impossible to say.

One thing the people of Porlock Weir have in their defence is experience.

Like so many coastal communities across Britain,

they've lived with an encroaching sea and shifting shingle

for hundreds of years.

One person who's only too aware of that is landowner Mark Blathwayt.

He's inherited the Porlock Manor estate

and this village from his forefathers.

We met up at the harbour to discuss its future.

Porlock Weir is a settlement where land meets sea

and people have always lived where land meets sea.

But human beings have always learned to be adaptable,

because the sea, the line of the coast, never ever stays the same

and I suspect that there's lots of high ground behind Porlock Weir

and that the settlement can move,

quite sustainably, further up the hill.

What we've got to do as a country

is to recognise that we've got limited resources

and the things that we've got to protect are power stations,

are large settlements, because...they can't adapt.

You can't move a city of 400,000 people up the hill.

You CAN move a small, sustainable village like Porlock up the hill.

As the landowner, is it your responsibility

to move Porlock Weir and rebuild the houses?

I mean, that's going to cost a lot of money.

Is that something you would have to fund?

We couldn't possibly fund it,

but what we have got is the ability to give to rural housing trusts

sites where they will be able to build new houses.

This country needs new houses.

If just a few of those can be built in Porlock Weir

in the woods, that is a contribution to housing need.

In the absence, then, of a huge sea defence,

are there smaller things that you can put in place?

The cottages behind us there

will have to change from being ground and first floor cottages

to a maisonette on a single level

with the basement filled with concrete, just used for storage.

Resources are very, very short.

Where you've got a limited amount of income,

there are always difficult choices.

Do you think this place will still be here in 200 years time?

I suspect this place where we're standing will be under water.

But the community of Porlock Weir will be looking down on it.

I'm really surprised by the attitude of people in Porlock Weir

but it's not that they're resigned to their fate.

It seems that it's more a case of if you live by the sea,

you learn to live with it and you accept what it does.

Looking out across the channel on a calm day like today,

it's hard to imagine the waters are treacherous.

Nicholas Crane hopped on board a tugboat

to experience the realities of navigating the Bristol Channel.

One of the busiest ports in Britain,

cargo arrives here from all over the world.

Containers full of timber from Scandinavia, fruit from Chile,

televisions from Korea.

And 600,000 cars pass through here every year.

The port's ideally placed for the easy distribution of cargo,

because it cuts deep into the landmass between England and Wales.

But, despite its good location, the way in is fraught with danger.

The Bristol Channel has one of the highest tidal ranges in the world.

Billions of gallons of water surge in and out twice a day.

This makes it a nightmare

for captains unfamiliar with these difficult waters.

They rely on specially-trained local pilots

to help steer their ship into port.

It's very difficult to read the map.

'I'm joining pilot Steve Osbourne. I wished I'd picked a calmer day.'

We're just coming out to board the first ship just here,

just to the west of this buoy.

-Yeah.

-And so, we've got a very well-marked channel then,

following the deep water.

Course you can't map a tide, can you?

It's a totally dynamic, 3D energy force.

It's changing all the time. Yeah.

If you do the same ship on two consecutive days,

there should be more or less identical conditions.

The ship will do completely different things at times.

You have to be ready for that.

But you're actually getting on other people's ships.

They've got crews you've never met before.

-Of every nationality you can think of.

-Yeah.

Don't know about the captain today. He may never have been here before.

He's probably heard stories about Bristol and the horrendous tides.

-Really? You mean Bristol has a reputation?

-Yes.

One of my main jobs is to reassure the captain,

to tell him, "It's OK, your ship is not in any undue risk."

But no matter how well pilots know these waters,

they can still take nothing for granted.

The extreme tides not only push ships forward with enormous momentum,

they also pull them off course.

It doesn't help that the tides churn up thousands of tons of silt,

mud and sand, making depth sounders unreliable.

It's all down to pilots' expertise to guide them safely towards the port.

This is the most dangerous part of the whole operation,

because Steve's now got to leave the deck of his heaving pilot boat

and then somehow make contact

with the sheer metal side of this container ship

and scramble up a very wet rope ladder.

That is not easy to climb.

That was the most amazing journey to work I've ever seen.

He's now going to navigate that container ship

up the Bristol Channel and I'm going to jump ship onto a tug boat.

I've always wanted to travel in a tug boat.

But it's when the pilot gets the ship to within a mile of the port

that it gets really tricky and when he needs all the help he can get.

That's when tug boats, like the one I'm on, really come into their own.

'Steve Dingle is the tug's skipper.'

What are we about to do with this tug, Steve?

The tug now is just going to help this ship dock into Portbury

and tonight, or this evening, we're just allocated to push the ship.

So, how do you stop this huge vessel moving at 20 knots

and get it to slow down

and to the point at which it'll be turned into the dock?

The tug that's aft acts as a brake

and slows him right down, basically, to stop him.

I can't believe this tiny tug is pushing a vessel

so many times bigger than itself.

We're just small and brutal, basically.

NICHOLAS LAUGHS Little tough nut!

After another 40 minutes of gentle pushing,

the entrance to the harbour is in sight

and we can breathe a collective sigh of relief.

Nicholas Crane, arriving safely in port.

I'm travelling along the southern edge of the Bristol Channel.

I've headed slightly inland towards my next stop,

the stunning Dunster Castle.

Perching very regally on a wooded hill, it looks out over the channel.

It's a dramatic sight, nestled among the green,

rolling hills of Somerset.

Dunster Castle stayed in the same family, the Luttrells,

for 600 years, until it was given to the National Trust in 1976.

Maintaining buildings of this age and size is a huge

and expensive task.

Imagine the fuel bills.

Medieval castles don't strike me

as the most energy-efficient buildings

and, with energy prices on the increase,

a place like this must cost an absolute fortune to run.

But what about when it was first built?

I'm meeting volunteer guide Martin Harborne

to find out how the earliest owners kept the place warm.

How would these rooms have initially been heated?

Initially, when the Saxons were here, there would have been

fires in the middle of the halls, but when the Normans arrived, they

transformed all the wooden buildings into big stone buildings

and they would still have

initially had the fires in the middle of the halls.

Then they would gradually move them, towards the end of the 1100s,

towards the outer walls where

they would knock holes in the walls to let smoke out

and slowly the chimneys developed.

It is a big stone castle. I would imagine it would be quite cold.

Because they kept the fires going all the time - you couldn't have got

a box of matches and a cigarette lighter out in those days.

It was important the fires were kept going all the time.

It would warm the entire main hall up. A lot went on in that hall. It was not just for eating.

It was for entertaining, meetings,

and in many cases for sleeping in as well.

So all the stone would have gradually absorbed the heat

so you would be inside one big storage heater.

They must have got through a phenomenal amount of fuel

-because the fires were going all day.

-Yes.

They were going all day, but there were nowhere near

as many people then.

There was lots of woods and forests.

They probably couldn't burn it as fast as it was growing.

It was very eco-friendly from that point of view.

Do a lot of properties like this end up

in the hands of the National Trust

because people cannot afford to heat them?

Yes. It is not only the everyday running. It is the sheer cost of upkeep.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds have to be spent on these buildings

just to retain the fabric.

For an individual to do that is almost impossible.

The National Trust has figured out how to make Dunster Castle

more environmentally friendly

without jeopardising its Grade One listed grandeur.

They have installed solar panels hidden from view

within the rooftop battlements.

I have managed to get behind-the-scenes access

with Stephen Hayes, the property administrator.

-What do you think?

-They are quite discreet.

Yes.

Has anything been done like this before on a listed building?

With National Trust, not on a Grade One listed,

but this is a bit of a test case to see whether it could be done.

It is an example for others if they wanted to do it.

-How is it going?

-Really well.

We have managed to save about 10 percent of our energy

for the castle for the showrooms

and the offices.

Tied in with other energy-saving measures that we are doing,

within the first three years of the installation here we have

probably reduced our energy within the castle by about 30 percent

which is a huge saving for us and these are producing

about 10 percent of that saving.

Do you do this because you need to financially, or you feel you should?

As I see it, it doesn't matter either way, because the outcome is the same,

but yes, as an organisation collectively we will be able

to reduce our carbon footprint,

but we also have to think about the future. Energy prices are going up.

How can we afford to keep these places running?

Whether you look at it from cost or environment,

the outcome is the same regardless.

People have looked out from these castle walls towards

the Bristol Channel for centuries -

a view often peppered with boats.

Neil Oliver and Mark Horton have been exploring some disturbing

coastal history -

stories of plundered ships and tragic wrecks.

Wrecks that were not an accident.

Because booty from wrecked ships has always been

so profitable there are tales up and down this coast of ships being

deliberately lured onto the rocks so their cargo could be plundered.

I have come to meet a man who is convinced that deliberate

wrecking did happen.

Writer Jeremy Seal has got a theory about who might have done it.

I do not think it happened so much in the seafaring communities

-because they would know sailors and have an empathy with seafaring.

-Yes.

But on these cliffs where the life was farming,

or further west where they were miners,

they did not understand seafaring.

They had no empathy with them

and were prepared to do it because of that.

With all the romantic notions it is easy to forget that

if you deliberately wreck a ship you are into murder.

Yes. No question. This was not just malicious damage.

If active wrecking happened people would have died.

They would have died not only in the wreck itself,

but also there is a chance that they would have been

picked off by the wreckers as a way of protecting themselves.

Get rid of the witnesses.

To see how a ship could have been fooled onto rocks by false lights,

Mark and I are going to conduct an experiment.

Mark has gone to the village of Clovelly to enlist

the help of local skipper Mark Myers.

They are going out to sea

and we are going to try and entice them in,

recreating the conditions

under which ships could have been deliberately wrecked.

-What do we need? A dark night and a storm?

-Yes.

-And also a nasty bit of coastline.

-That comes with the territory.

Let's go.

Meanwhile, Jeremy and I have come to a hidden cove further up the coast.

There is the beach. OK?

That looks good. That is like a perfect wreckers' beach.

Mark and his crew are now out to sea.

Night is falling fast.

-Shall we stop the engine?

-Yes, let's do it.

-Right.

OK. We have one candle-power. That is the tool of the wreckers' trade.

That's it. Now you have to have the wind in the right direction.

It's got to be strong. What we're hoping

is that the ship out there has no idea where it is.

It is looking for any help it can find.

It sees a swinging light which it takes,

because it is moving, to be the light of another ship -

rising and falling with the swell.

When it thinks there's another ship there

why does that reassure the skipper? What information does that give him?

It tells the skipper that there is safe water between where he is

and where he is seeing the light.

-So he thinks he has room to manoeuvre.

-Exactly.

He knows that there is nothing that is going to endanger him

between where he is and where the light is.

-We have got nothing but coastline.

-Yes.

-You cannot really see anything.

There is no way of judging these distances.

Are we 100 yards out, or half a mile out? It is completely terrifying.

You are between the devil and the deep blue sea.

-There is a light over there.

-There is.

-Is that a boat? Hang on.

Let's go round.

With Mark's boat approaching us, can they see our lantern?

Although to Mark our candlelight appears far away,

the boat is only 150 metres from the coast.

A ship mistaking this light for another vessel

would believe there was only see between the two ships

and that it was a long way from the rocks -

an error that would lead to tragedy.

That could be, yes. It is a little indistinct. It is yellowish.

Our boat is hardly moving and even so

it is hard to keep an instrument like that steady

to get a good sight on it.

Hello, Neil, it is Mark.

-I think we have caught something.

-'Are you holding the lantern?'

-Ahoy, Mark!

-I think I can just about see you.

This is our very best attempt at a ship at night.

I hope it is convincing.

I am surprised how far that candle carries.

I am so impressed that you can actually see us.

We have only got one candle on the go here.

'We have only got the power output of our first birthday cake

'over here.'

That is excellent.

You can consider yourself on the point of being wrecked.

'Why don't you come a little closer?'

-I don't think so!

-I think not.

We are going back to harbour. See you later. Night.

Bon voyage.

Now I have seen how easy it would be to do,

it is chilling to think how many sailors might have been

deliberately lured to their deaths along this coast.

A fascinating experiment there by Neil Oliver and Mark Horton

on the south-west coast.

My journey along the Bristol Channel has moved east,

away from the shingle beaches and towards

flat sands, big skies and smooth shimmering waters.

But I'm not heading to the beach just yet.

I am off to a unique spot near Highbridge.

This is Secret World - a charity specialising in the rescue,

rehabilitation and eventual release

of orphaned, sick and injured wildlife.

It is the only 24/7 service like this in the south-west

and I have come to lend a hand.

My first job is in here.

I am here to help veterinary nurse Sarah

with her bottle feeding duties.

-Hello.

-She is tiny.

-She is only about four weeks old.

Our thirsty customer is Wispa, a baby fallow deer.

Good morning, Wispa. She is tiny.

-Yeah.

-Is this normal milk?

-That is goats' milk

that she is on that at the moment.

She has been here for about four weeks.

She was found at the side of the road in the gutter soaking wet

and totally collapsed and starving.

What would have happened to her?

We do not know. Probably something happened to Mum in the night.

She has wandered off. These fawns follow their parents all the time.

-She is thirsty.

-Yes.

-We'll give you another!

How many of these will she drink?

She will probably have two or two and a half. You can see she is hungry.

Why did you call her Wispa?

She is quite unusual in that she is a fallow fawn.

They are normally quite orangey coloured with little white spots.

But she is what we call and melanistic one. She is brown.

-We called her Wispa because she is like chocolate.

-She is so cute.

-She is very gentle.

-Yes. She blows raspberries all the time.

She feels very soft. It is not just deer that you get here is it?

What type of animals do you get in?

We deal with every species of British wildlife.

Casualties of absolutely anything with British...

She is a bit frantic there. Do you want your bottle?

Easy, Wispa. What do you see most of?

Probably the most we get is baby birds.

That is about 80 percent of our work through the year.

In terms of mammals we deal with the majority of badgers across the UK.

Do you get quite attached to them? She is a real character.

Very much so. You sort of treat them like your baby.

You get terribly attached to the fawns

because they bond with one person.

You become Mum. She behaves that way.

It is very hard when you know that at some point you have to let them go.

But that is the aim of the game.

-Yes.

-You have to release them back into the wild.

Yes, we have a very strict policy.

If it cannot go back to the wild then we euthanise it.

With these animals that is absolutely the very clear

ending that we are working towards.

-Where will Wispa go?

-She will probably go into a deer park

with another herd of fallow deer

just because she is quite calm and used to people around.

I don't think she'd survive if we put her on Exmoor.

Would it be fair to say you will be making regular visits

to this deer?

Yes. It would be nice to.

The problem is in some ways it is easier to walk away.

It is not necessarily fair on her to keep looking for me all the time.

Don't! It will be all right. It is going to be OK.

They always take my babies away from me!

Originally a dairy farm, Secret World opened to the public in 1984.

It was not long before people started to bring along

sick and injured wildlife.

Most of the animals get brought to treatment rooms like this.

But if it's a tiny defenceless baby that needs constant attention

and care, they go to the cubbyhole.

It has become famous amongst staff and visitors to the centre.

There is even a webcam to let people know what is in the cubbyhole.

It has been a safe place for all sorts of creatures.

Today it is cheeping with ducklings.

They were found on a roof smothered in commercial glue.

It is thought they confused it for water and tried to bathe.

It matted their feathers, even glued their beaks together.

Out of seven ducklings four have survived.

They have since been mixed in with another brood

and are being cared for by Pauline Kidner, creator of Secret World.

These ducks were in a pretty awful way,

but as we can see most of them are doing well now.

What is happening here?

We were trying to see what would get the glue off them.

We tried margarine because you can get tarmac off animals with margarine

or even sometimes light glue, but because this was commercial glue

we had to use white spirits, so it was a tough job.

With these situations I don't think you should give up.

You should always try.

Is this kind of thing typical?

It is. We get all sorts of animals in.

We always try to get pictures for before and after

so that it can show the impact.

One thing I would love to show you if I can get rid of that,

this is amazing footage that we had

where Simon, our operations manager, went out to deer,

and he was able to rescue them and let them go at the same time.

It was quite a dangerous situation because it was two roe bucks.

GRUNTING You can hear the noise

they're making. This one is obviously not happy about being handled.

They are caught in sheep electric fencing

and a farmer came down and told us.

Simon luckily went out with one of the girls from the office,

because he was having real problems controlling the deer.

Poor old Dani, who had only just started in office,

was made to sit on it.

You can see he is cutting the electric fencing off the antlers,

but he's being careful because those antlers

could puncture his thighs very easily.

He has got to look for his own safety as well as the animal.

So I think you'll find Simon here

has actually got the electric fencing off,

he's going to be careful that he doesn't catch himself,

and it'll just give you an idea of how high our fences have to be

when we keep deer.

-Oh, look at it go!

-Now watch the next bit.

-Wow!

-Isn't that fantastic?

And the amazing thing is that the second one has seen what went on,

and is now standing absolutely still to let Simon release it,

and you'll find even when he gets it off the antlers,

it moves back very, very carefully so that it doesn't hurt Simon.

And that's when you really get those sort of tingles,

and you think, "That is just fabulous,

"they know I'm helping them," and therefore they're working with you.

And off it goes. It goes round the corner, but off he goes to freedom.

-But I guess that's the dream scenario.

-Absolutely.

-You can literally set it free and off it goes, happy as Larry.

-Yeah.

But the one thing I will say, when I started to do wildlife,

is that I find British wildlife amazing.

They say about going to Africa to see the big five. We don't need to.

We've got fascinating animals here in British wildlife.

We need to know more about it, excite the youngsters,

make sure that it's going to be here for generations to enjoy.

'Pauline has practically handed over her home to wildlife.

'Even her bathtub has seen an otter cub or two.

'Running a place like this is a real mission, though.

'So I'm going to stick around and lend a hand.

'But first, when John Craven came to the Bristol Channel,

'he went for a whistle-stop tour

'of the little-known island of Flat Holm.'

-Hello!

-Hello, John.

-How are you? Nice to see you.

-Nice to see you.

So you're the islanders?

'Flat Holm is run by Cardiff Council as a wildlife reserve

'and learning centre.'

So the clock's ticking away already, I haven't got much time,

can't get stranded. What should I see on the island?

-Cholera hospital.

-Really?

-It's a great place to go.

Let's to the Victorian fortifications first,

on the other side of the island.

-How far's that?

-500 metres.

-OK! Let's go.

'Though it's been farmed for centuries,

'Flat Holm is surprisingly built-up.

'As well as its lighthouse, it's scattered with remnants of its time

'as a military fortress against the French,

'dating back to early Victorian times.'

They needed an infrastructure to support the soldiers,

so can you actually guess what this thing is?

-Down there?

-Yes.

-I've got no idea. What is it?

It's a large tiled water catchment area.

They use that area to collect the rainwater, and it would go down

into a large underground water tank,

which holds about 80,000 gallons of water.

-Very ingenious, eh?

-Absolutely.

Cos there's no natural water here.

-No natural water at all.

-What you do now?

We use the roofs of the buildings

and we still use the same Victorian underground water tank.

So it comes down from the roof, down the guttering, into the tank?

Yeah. And then we pump it back through ultra-violet filters

and filter it all up so it's safe to drink.

-So this is a whole gun emplacement, isn't it?

-It is.

-Look at this! Wow.

The cannons would have been down inside

on a Moncrieff disappearing carriage, as it was called.

Because of the low terrain, they had to hide the cannons.

-So they were hidden from sight?

-Absolutely.

-And then if it was needed it would be raised up.

-Yeah.

And in the 1860s, how many soldiers would be based on the island?

Well, they planned for about 50, which is why they did

all the water catchment area, but only six were ever stationed here.

-Only six?

-Only six.

-All these defences, and only six soldiers!

Yeah, so not enough men to actually man the defences.

-I suppose the threat had gone away as well by then.

-It had, yeah.

'But afterwards, the island became a defence

'against a totally different type of threat, a deadly disease.'

-So Flat Holm was a quarantine island?

-Yeah, absolutely.

They decided to use Flat Holm to build a cholera hospital

to protect the ports of Cardiff and Bristol.

When would that be?

1896, this hospital was actually built,

and there were two six-bed wards either side,

so they couldn't hold more than a dozen anyway.

And how long did it stay a cholera hospital?

Until 1935, and then it was condemned by the Ministry of Health.

But during World War II,

a couple of hundred soldiers were stationed on Flat Holm,

and girls came over from the mainland to dance here with the troops.

I've just had a very quick history tour of the island.

What's life like here these days?

In the winter it's a lot quieter,

in the summer months it gets a lot busier here

with all of our visitors.

All of the visitors come here to come and look

at all of the wildlife that we have on the island.

-What have you got?

-We've got lots here to see.

We have lots of shelduck,

we obviously are a gull colony for our lesser black-backed gulls.

So how long do you actually stay on the island for?

In the winter it's usually about three weeks.

In the summer we do about a ten-day stint

and we have four days off on the mainland after that.

And when you're on the mainland,

are you looking forward to coming back again?

Yes, very much so.

You kind of miss the island life when you're on the mainland,

and find yourself wanting to come back home, so yes.

We don't really miss the mainland too much.

And have you ever missed the boat? SHE LAUGHS

I haven't, no, but certain people have.

Well, I'm in danger of that now.

I've got about two minutes left, so thank you very much, Wendy.

-That's OK. Thank you.

-Bye-bye.

-Bye.

Well, I've made it, just in time, a couple of minutes to spare.

The tide's going out very quickly, but off to the mainland!

'John Craven on Flat Holm island.

'I'm at a wildlife rescue centre near Highbridge,

'and these young herring gulls were brought here

'after falling out of their nests or sustaining injuries in the wild.'

These herring gulls have been in here for quite a few weeks now,

so they're a lot bigger and stronger than when they first arrived

and they were tiny and fluffy.

Sara told me that they're stretching their wings and trying to fly,

which means they're ready to go home,

they're ready to be re-released into the wild.

'But first we have to catch them.

'These guys are making it look easy,

'but I'm having a bit more trouble netting a gull.'

Ooh!

He's a flyer.

'We can only go for the ones that can fly.

'Some of these birds are still too young to leave.

'It means I have to be really sure before I catch one.'

He's a flyer!

'Although I have to say, they're not too hard to spot

'because they're the fastest ones!'

Calm down! It's all right, birdy-birdy.

Right, put it down on the ground. That's it. Well done.

You're going home. Chill, chill. Chill, chill, chill.

Who's flying? He's flying!

That's right, don't take me in the pond with you.

In a minute we're going to load these guys up

and take them down to the beach

so that they can be re-released into the wild.

While we do that, here's the Country Tracks weather for the week ahead.

.

I've been on a journey

along the southern shores of the Bristol Channel,

starting at the villages of Culbone and Porlock Weir,

east to Dunster, and then pushing along the coast to Highbridge.

I'm now heading for my final stop, the beach at Burnham-On-Sea.

'I'm hitching a ride with the seagulls,

'they're also Burnham-bound, ready to be released into the wild

'after a spell at the wildlife rescue centre.

'This isn't the first time veterinary nurse Sara

'has ferried seagulls to the shore.

'It's a great spot for their first flight.

'I'm, however, not entirely sure what to expect

'when we open the cages.'

Some of them will go up in the air.

Obviously we haven't got much wind today.

Other ones, they will walk around,

strut around, sort of get their feet, and just do what they want, really.

But they're all self-sufficient, so what we do now is just open it up.

-I'm excited!

-Yay!

But I kind of... I'm also a little bit nervous.

I feel like I'm letting my... Oh! Well done! Come on, birdies.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah!

I know everyone calls them seagulls,

but they're herring gulls, aren't they?

Yeah. Some of them are herring gulls,

some of them can be the other common gulls as well.

When they're youngsters like this,

unless you know clear wing patterns, you can't tell them apart.

But nearly all of the gulls that we've got are herring gulls.

-And some people don't like them.

-No, I know.

I think it's just they sort of perceive them

as birds that come down and steal your fish and chips.

That's quite fun, isn't it?

Exactly, and they're just opportunists, really.

Luckily, here, obviously cos we're by the sea,

I think everyone expects to have them around, really.

Come on, you lot!

-Yay!

-Off you go!

THEY LAUGH

Obviously they've been in the centre for a while.

Will they know how to cope in the wild?

Yeah, they'll be absolutely fine.

With herring gulls, they're not birds that when you're rearing them

you have to keep feeding them at all, they'll self-feed anyway.

So we've really just given them somewhere to stay

for a short period of time

while they grow up a little bit, and now their natural instinct,

they're already scurrying around

in the seaweed, picking things up, "Ooh, is that something to eat?"

So they'll be fine.

-This little guy is frantic to get out.

-It's the last lot for today.

OK, I'm going to release you first.

-Go, go, go! Wow!

-Hey-hey!

It's absolutely lovely to see them with huge amounts of space

to really, really get their wings and get up in the air. It's lovely.

Well, it's the end of my journey, but the start of his.

'In some ways, my journey along the Bristol Channel has explored

'the gentler side of this colossal stretch of water,

'famous for treacherous tides and turbulence.

'I've strolled through magical woodland

'and enjoyed postcard views from a picture-perfect castle.

'And yet, the power of the sea is ever-present,

'slowly advancing on coastal communities like Porlock Weir.

'I suppose it's just a reminder

'that we should enjoy these places while we can.'

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