0:00:02 > 0:00:06We are a watery nation. Rivers shape our landscape
0:00:06 > 0:00:11and they made our history. But today they seem like
0:00:11 > 0:00:14forgotten highways into the back garden of Britain.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17'I'm going to find out where they take me,
0:00:17 > 0:00:19'in one of the most rural areas of Britain.'
0:00:19 > 0:00:24It looks natural, but in fact, it's as man-made as our motorways.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27Not just because they wanted a bit more land -
0:00:27 > 0:00:29they wanted to get hold of extra special land.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32'I'll be following in the footsteps of generations of locals.'
0:00:32 > 0:00:33Damn!
0:00:33 > 0:00:36'And paddling into hidden backwaters.'
0:00:36 > 0:00:39I'm in the equivalent of a sort of Venice of East Anglia here.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41I've come to the waterways of the east.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27Yes! You see, that's the way to do it.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31A blazer, perhaps a straw hat
0:01:31 > 0:01:33and a little champagne,
0:01:33 > 0:01:37major pieces of British architecture drifting by.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39Generations of Cambridge students
0:01:39 > 0:01:45have thought they were the last word in river-borne sophistication.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57In fact, a real punt is a shallow, flat-bottomed boat designed
0:01:57 > 0:02:01for working the shallow, flat-bottomed wilderness of mud,
0:02:01 > 0:02:07ooze, reeds and water, and where few undergraduates ever ventured.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11I'm off to explore the rivers of East Anglia.
0:02:12 > 0:02:17I'm going to be crossing three distinct watery worlds.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20From the Fens to the Broads,
0:02:20 > 0:02:23then back to my home in Suffolk, via the Stour.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26The East Anglian river I know best.
0:02:26 > 0:02:31All three show the conflicting demands we make on our waterways.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38I'm making my way now into one of the most extraordinary
0:02:38 > 0:02:40and peculiar river landscapes in Britain.
0:02:40 > 0:02:46These are the Fens, and the water here has been dammed and diverted.
0:02:46 > 0:02:48It has been exploited.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52It has been organised in every conceivable way
0:02:52 > 0:02:54and continues to be so.
0:02:54 > 0:02:59And it's as good a place as any, I think, to ask the question,
0:02:59 > 0:03:02where are we going with our rivers?
0:03:03 > 0:03:10- HE LAUGHS - Or, where am I going on this river?
0:03:11 > 0:03:15The Fens are the flat expanse of land that lies
0:03:15 > 0:03:18between the hills of Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
0:03:18 > 0:03:2370 miles from north to south and 35 miles across -
0:03:23 > 0:03:26that's several hundred square miles,
0:03:26 > 0:03:27much of which is below sea level.
0:03:32 > 0:03:37This is Upwell, and like its sister village,
0:03:37 > 0:03:42Outwell, about two miles up there,
0:03:42 > 0:03:50it derives its name from Welle, which is the Saxon word for stream.
0:03:50 > 0:03:55The river runs right the way through the middle,
0:03:55 > 0:03:57like a watery high street.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01- Hello. Have you caught anything?- No.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05- You must catch them sometimes, don't you?- You've caught one.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08- When?- Today...well, your brother.
0:04:08 > 0:04:14- HE LAUGHS - Sometimes you catch them, sometimes you won't. It depends.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16- It's all these people in canoes, innit?- Yeah.
0:04:16 > 0:04:21It's people come by and they ruin it by paddling through your fishing area. Yes, I can see that.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25- THEY LAUGH - It must be very, very irritating for you. Anyway, very nice to meet you.
0:04:25 > 0:04:27- And you.- It's a lovely evening. - Beautiful.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30What a great evening for ruining somebody's fishing.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32It's all right, they'll be back.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40Rivers like this once teemed with eels.
0:04:40 > 0:04:45Until the Second World War, Fen men, or slodgers, made a living catching them.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48In the winter months, they'd switch to shooting duck.
0:04:49 > 0:04:55'Peter Carter is now the only licensed eel catcher left in the Fens.
0:04:55 > 0:05:01'I've come to help him bait a line of 30 traps on the river, east of Outwell.'
0:05:02 > 0:05:06The fantastic thing about them is they travel 4,000 miles to get here,
0:05:06 > 0:05:09stay here about 20 years, then travels 4,000 miles back again.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13Out into the Atlantic and across to the Sargasso Sea.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15Yeah. They lay their eggs and die.
0:05:15 > 0:05:20While they're here we call them barley eels, because they're a rich brown colour.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24But when they head back across the sea, they change shape and they're a silver colour.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28- Have you noticed a decline in the numbers?- Massive, massive decline.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32I could set traps before, and there'd always be eels in them,
0:05:32 > 0:05:34but I get nights now I don't get nothing at all.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38- It's made a massive difference.- What do you, what do you put that down that down to, then?
0:05:38 > 0:05:42The change in the sluice gates. They took out the old wooden sluice gates
0:05:42 > 0:05:47- and put concrete ones in and so the eels couldn't get through.- In the old days, medieval times,
0:05:47 > 0:05:51- there were thousands of eels here, weren't there?- Oh, millions.
0:05:51 > 0:05:57Every village and town in the Fen had to pay the monasteries about
0:05:57 > 0:06:0180,000 eels a year for their taxes and Ely cathedral
0:06:01 > 0:06:06- was built from stone paid for in eels.- How's that?- Smashing.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09So what time do we have to come back tomorrow, Peter?
0:06:09 > 0:06:12We can come back at about eight in the morning, it'll be fine.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30'Early next morning, before we set off to check the traps,
0:06:30 > 0:06:32'I asked Peter what Fenland life was like today.'
0:06:32 > 0:06:35Tell me about the driving test.
0:06:35 > 0:06:41- Because the Fens are so flat, it's the only area you cannot do a hill start in a driving test.- Really?
0:06:41 > 0:06:46Yes, and it's quite funny, because most people don't use handbrakes
0:06:46 > 0:06:50either, and often occasion you'll see the odd car going in a dyke,
0:06:50 > 0:06:52because they've forgotten the handbrake.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54Quite refreshing to be in a place
0:06:54 > 0:06:57- where you don't have to use your handbrake, really.- It is.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01But it's a pain come the MOT, as most times it's rusted up and doesn't work.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03- HE LAUGHS - But you like it flat, don't you?
0:07:03 > 0:07:05Love it. I think it's gorgeous.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09The landscape, the skies. Fantastic. They're massive.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13You can't believe how big the skies are.
0:07:13 > 0:07:15And when I go down places like Cornwall and that,
0:07:15 > 0:07:17I look forward to coming back to the Fens,
0:07:17 > 0:07:19because I get claustrophobic down there.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37I want to bring this in alongside.
0:07:37 > 0:07:39It doesn't feel very heavy.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43'We worked along the row of traps.'
0:07:43 > 0:07:46No, on to the next one then.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49'Nothing doing.'
0:07:49 > 0:07:54I'm beginning to think I've left my patience at the hotel. Stick with us, viewers!
0:07:54 > 0:07:57- Here we go. Next one here. - Here's another one.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00'We checked all of the traps we set last night
0:08:00 > 0:08:02'and also some that Peter had set.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05'Eventually, we found something.'
0:08:05 > 0:08:09Well, there is definitely something down at the bottom there. How do we get him out?
0:08:09 > 0:08:12Take the bung out the other end and then we'll pour him in here.
0:08:13 > 0:08:19Go! Let's have a look. There he is.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21Not a big one, but it's an eel.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24He's a bit too small to make a snack even.
0:08:24 > 0:08:29Yeah, I think he should be allowed on his journey.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38'The Great River Ouse flows along the eastern margin of the Fens.'
0:08:40 > 0:08:43'East Anglia is drier than much of southern Europe,
0:08:43 > 0:08:47'yet the rivers that flow across Fenland to the North Sea
0:08:47 > 0:08:49'formed this extraordinary landscape.'
0:08:53 > 0:08:56Cadbury, look! Look! Look!
0:08:57 > 0:09:02'In the warmer climate that followed the last Ice Age, water tables rose,
0:09:02 > 0:09:07'creating large floodplain wetlands, through which the rivers meandered.'
0:09:13 > 0:09:17'Plant materials accumulated in these wetlands,
0:09:17 > 0:09:20'becoming in time rich, dark-brown peat.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23'Here and there islands of boulder clay
0:09:23 > 0:09:26'broke the surface of this waterlogged world.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30'Gradually people formed settlements on them.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34'The best known is Ely, the isle of eels.'
0:09:44 > 0:09:48We're coming in to cabin cruiser land now.
0:09:50 > 0:09:52It's funny how motor cruisers
0:09:52 > 0:09:55seem to feel the need to express their fantasies.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57Look at this. This is Moonraker.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59A sadder boat you've never seen really.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02It doesn't look as if anybody has been aboard it
0:10:02 > 0:10:04for the last five or six years.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08All covered with green mould. Oh, look at that!
0:10:08 > 0:10:10That must be the home of Babylon.
0:10:10 > 0:10:15Babylon. In Ely. How have the two come together?
0:10:15 > 0:10:18I'm just going to cross to the other side.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21There are some great ones over there. Look at this.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25Hot Gossip. What did the wife say when he bought that one?
0:10:25 > 0:10:29"So, darling, I'm going to call the boat Hot Gossip,
0:10:29 > 0:10:32"cos the neighbours, they'll be saying, 'I see you, Ted,
0:10:32 > 0:10:34" 'in your boat, out there, I see you
0:10:34 > 0:10:40" 'just entertaining a whole bevy of young ladies with gins and tonics.' "
0:10:40 > 0:10:43HE LAUGHS
0:10:43 > 0:10:45That was embarrassing, wasn't it?
0:10:45 > 0:10:50I was disparaging his choice of name, and he appeared!
0:10:52 > 0:10:54The other thing that happens
0:10:54 > 0:10:59is an outbreak of outrageous punning takes over.
0:11:02 > 0:11:07So Kanbedun is of course Can Be Done.
0:11:07 > 0:11:13Sugar D. Sugar Daddy, one assumes.
0:11:13 > 0:11:18Le Pourquoi Pas. The Why Not.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21Why not, indeed?
0:11:24 > 0:11:30'The river enabled Ely not only to develop as a Cathedral city,
0:11:30 > 0:11:32'but also as a market for Fenland produce.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34'Cadbury and I went to explore the town.'
0:11:38 > 0:11:40Look at the cathedral.
0:11:40 > 0:11:46It's positively gigantic in what is actually quite a small town.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49Which rather shows that, at one point,
0:11:49 > 0:11:52this was an extremely rich institution,
0:11:52 > 0:11:56in what is always thought of, because of the wetlands,
0:11:56 > 0:11:58as a backward place.
0:11:59 > 0:12:05And look, I'm walking uphill...in the Fens!
0:12:14 > 0:12:17The stone used to build the cathedral was carried here
0:12:17 > 0:12:22from Barnack in Northamptonshire along the network of rivers.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26The cathedral was the flamboyant headquarters
0:12:26 > 0:12:28of a mighty organisation, the Church,
0:12:28 > 0:12:32that was responsible for a long and successful period of drainage
0:12:32 > 0:12:34and reorganisation of the river systems
0:12:34 > 0:12:37which produced the wealth that built this edifice.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41It's known to this day as the "Ship of the Fens".
0:12:41 > 0:12:44The flagship of the Fens, in fact.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02I'm still getting up early. It's before dawn
0:13:02 > 0:13:06on a bird census day at Wicken Fen, six miles south of Ely.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10'This nature reserve is one of the few remaining places
0:13:10 > 0:13:12'where you get a sense of what the Fens
0:13:12 > 0:13:15'would have looked like in medieval times.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18'I'm here to help find out which of the 200
0:13:18 > 0:13:21'different types of birds that visit the reserve
0:13:21 > 0:13:24'happen to have got caught in the nets this morning.'
0:13:24 > 0:13:30I'll just open the net up a bit. And once it's out of the net,
0:13:30 > 0:13:35it goes in a bag, so that it's kept fairly calm and dark.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37'Today, it's black caps,
0:13:37 > 0:13:39'chiffchaffs and willow warblers.'
0:13:39 > 0:13:41- Let go of it.- If he let's go of me.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45And then we pull that drawstring and take a knot round it.
0:13:45 > 0:13:50And then we can carry it back to the ringing base.
0:13:50 > 0:13:55Over this summer, how many birds will you ring?
0:13:55 > 0:13:57A few thousand.
0:13:57 > 0:14:03It's a comparatively heavy ring for the bird.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06In human terms, it weighs something in the equivalent
0:14:06 > 0:14:10of the weight of a slipper and it has that unique identity on it,
0:14:10 > 0:14:13so we're going to give it effectively its own name.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17And now we're going to weigh it by putting it into this little pot.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21- Head first?- Head first. - And that disorientates it, does it?
0:14:21 > 0:14:25Well, it'll go into the dark so it'll keep it nice and quiet, we hope.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27- Gracious! - And then if you put it on the scales.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31Which comes out 7.8 grams.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33Is that plus or minus the little pot?
0:14:33 > 0:14:37No, that's the weight of the bird. The scales are already zeroed.
0:14:37 > 0:14:38The scales are already zeroed.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40Lift the left hand up.
0:14:49 > 0:14:54Early on a summer morning, we bird counters are the only people here.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57But wetland landscapes like Wicken
0:14:57 > 0:15:02were never originally empty of people.
0:15:02 > 0:15:07The local population were known as slodgers.
0:15:07 > 0:15:13They had stilts like this with which apparently
0:15:13 > 0:15:18they gambolled about the boggy areas.
0:15:19 > 0:15:22Attending to their duties,
0:15:22 > 0:15:25hunting wild fowl and making a perfectly good living.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27Originally,
0:15:27 > 0:15:33this whole area was a Fenland harvesting area,
0:15:33 > 0:15:40because these wet fields were full of sedge.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44The sedge that grew here was so useful for thatching
0:15:44 > 0:15:48that this ground has never been drained and ploughed.
0:15:48 > 0:15:53When the market for sedge collapsed at the end of the 19th century, the National Trust,
0:15:53 > 0:15:59then only recently set up, stepped in and bought two acres for £10.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03Naturalists from Cambridge had realised that the place was rich
0:16:03 > 0:16:06in rare Fenland plants and bugs,
0:16:06 > 0:16:10and so it became one of Britain's first nature reserves.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17You want me to fall over, don't you?
0:16:17 > 0:16:21Well, I'm indubitably getting much more confident now.
0:16:25 > 0:16:26Damn!
0:16:30 > 0:16:35Honestly, they are worse than stilettos and I've worn those from time to time as well.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38The slodgers have gone and so has the slodge.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42The Fens are now some of the richest farming land in the UK.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46They grow enough wheat here to produce 250 million loaves a year.
0:16:46 > 0:16:51This is the bread-basket of Britain.
0:16:51 > 0:16:56They began draining the waterlogged soil before written history began.
0:16:56 > 0:16:58But in the 17th century, the Duke of Bedford
0:16:58 > 0:17:02saw the potential to create a huge outdoor factory.
0:17:02 > 0:17:07He went where they knew all about dykes and drains, to Holland.
0:17:07 > 0:17:14And with other investors, he brought Cornelius Vermuyden here to turn Fenland into profitable farmland.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18And, remarkably, it was all dug by hand.
0:17:18 > 0:17:23'The best way to see Vermuyden's scheme is from the air.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26'I've been offered a trip in a microlight by Ben Robinson,
0:17:26 > 0:17:29'an archaeologist who works at Peterborough Museum.
0:17:46 > 0:17:48'The centrepiece of Vermuyden's scheme
0:17:48 > 0:17:52'was the creation of two new waterways.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56'These by-passed winding rivers which overflowed their banks
0:17:56 > 0:17:59'and made the land impossible to plough.
0:17:59 > 0:18:05'Water had never before been manipulated on this scale.'
0:18:07 > 0:18:11There's something of Arkansas here, there's something of the Mid-West.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14It's incredible, isn't it? This is essentially the two schemes
0:18:14 > 0:18:17that Vermuyden put in place and all done by hand.
0:18:17 > 0:18:20It's 20-odd miles. Just an incredible effort.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24It proves they really, really wanted to do it. It was worth, they felt,
0:18:24 > 0:18:28investing all that time and energy and money into doing it.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32And it was a precarious enterprise. No-one could say whether it'd work.
0:18:32 > 0:18:37And partly, this was not just because they wanted to get hold of a bit more land,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40they wanted to get hold of extra-special land.
0:18:40 > 0:18:44This had to be productive land. Whether it was summer pasture,
0:18:44 > 0:18:49whether it was sown for crops, there was a serious commercial purpose to it.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00As I come through this journey, I'm seeing there is a choice,
0:19:00 > 0:19:03but that the preservation of nature is one choice.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06The idea of a historic landscape is another choice.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09Amenity use is a third choice.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12Beauty is actually a choice that we need.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15Natural beauty we want to preserve, because it's a beautiful landscape.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19These choices are not easy to stick under one umbrella.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22- Aren't they competing?- We have the luxury of balancing these choices,
0:19:22 > 0:19:27to make sensible decisions based on evidence and understanding of what we've got.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31That should be our standpoint - to try and balance these interests
0:19:31 > 0:19:34and make sure that we don't do something irreparable.
0:19:38 > 0:19:43Reconciling competing interests is the key to the future of our rivers.
0:19:43 > 0:19:49During the English Civil War, competing interests clashed head on.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53Fen men refused to have anything to do with Vermuyden's scheme.
0:19:53 > 0:19:58'They could see that it spelt the end of their wetland way of life.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02'Guards were mounted over the drainage cuttings to prevent them being sabotaged
0:20:02 > 0:20:07'by a resistance movement known as the Fenland Tigers.'
0:20:07 > 0:20:11I'm in the Forty Foot Drain now,
0:20:11 > 0:20:15which is for a very long time,
0:20:15 > 0:20:21exactly 40-foot wide and as straight as a die.
0:20:21 > 0:20:26It was built by prisoners of war, Dutch and Scottish,
0:20:26 > 0:20:31and they were given white suits made of wool,
0:20:31 > 0:20:33so that if they did do a runner,
0:20:33 > 0:20:36they'd be easily visible in the Fens.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42'At first it seemed as if Vermuyden had tamed nature,
0:20:42 > 0:20:45'but in fact, he'd made a fatal miscalculation.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49'If peat is allowed to dry out, it shrinks.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52'Parts of the land began to fall below sea level,
0:20:52 > 0:20:56'yet such were the profits to be made that more and more water
0:20:56 > 0:21:00'was extracted and pumped into the waterways.'
0:21:02 > 0:21:06The whole system needs constant monitoring and management,
0:21:06 > 0:21:11and the land on either side is shrinking lower and lower,
0:21:11 > 0:21:18and the difficulty of pumping the water up and into this drain becomes greater and greater.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23But we've started it, so we've got to carry on.
0:21:38 > 0:21:44'This is Holme Fen. In 1848, just before a nearby lake was drained for more farmland,
0:21:44 > 0:21:47'a post was hammered into the peat here.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51'The tip was then at ground level.'
0:21:51 > 0:21:53They put these supports in to stop it falling over,
0:21:53 > 0:21:58because the ground around the post started shrinking at an astonishing rate,
0:21:58 > 0:22:01more than two centimetres a year.
0:22:01 > 0:22:05And this quickly became the lowest point in England.
0:22:05 > 0:22:07It isn't actually the lowest point any more,
0:22:07 > 0:22:13because this nature reserve now has stopped the ground disappearing any further.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17But over there, in the agricultural fields,
0:22:17 > 0:22:20it's still going down at the rate, they say,
0:22:20 > 0:22:23of the height of a man in the life of a man.
0:22:23 > 0:22:28'Holme Fen is now part of the Great Fen Project - a scheme to buy up
0:22:28 > 0:22:32'farmland and return it to its original wetland state.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35'But again, locals are protesting.'
0:22:35 > 0:22:39Man has used all his ingenuity to get the water out of the land -
0:22:39 > 0:22:42how can we afford to lose some of the best soil in the country
0:22:42 > 0:22:45at a time of increasing concern about food supplies?
0:22:47 > 0:22:51Others see the project as the Fen- dweller's revenge on Vermuyden
0:22:51 > 0:22:57and his aristocratic patrons for destroying the way of life of their ancestors.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01Competing interests still have to be reconciled.
0:23:04 > 0:23:09For all its strange, lonely beauty, after a while, you think it would be nice to see more people.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12We're taking the long straight road out of the Fens
0:23:12 > 0:23:16to go north and east to somewhere which is a bit more windy,
0:23:16 > 0:23:20but strangely, still shows the influence of man.
0:23:24 > 0:23:29I'm only going 60 miles, but I'm entering a sinuous and wooded playground
0:23:29 > 0:23:32where farming seems to take second place to fun.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37Five navigable rivers cross this Norfolk landscape -
0:23:37 > 0:23:40the Yare, the Bure, the Ant,
0:23:40 > 0:23:42the Thurne and the Waveney.
0:23:42 > 0:23:45And these rivers flow into, or alongside, lakes
0:23:45 > 0:23:50which give their name to the whole area - the Norfolk Broads.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55It's the landscape of Arthur Ransome's Coot Club,
0:23:55 > 0:24:00and since I happen to be addicted to sailing, I'm going to explore it by cabin yacht.
0:24:02 > 0:24:07This is Wroxham, one of the main setting off points for holidays on the Broads,
0:24:07 > 0:24:12and the entire place seems to belong to Roy.
0:24:15 > 0:24:20Well, obviously, I'm extremely excited to be back in the world of renting boats
0:24:20 > 0:24:23and I know there are several things that will be big issues.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26I have to plan my route, and that'll take some time.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29I'll have to get to learn the rig of the vessel.
0:24:29 > 0:24:35That's going to take some time as well, but obviously one of the most taxing and problematic elements
0:24:35 > 0:24:40of any charter is... is in fact provisioning.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49Fresh fruit, salad, vegetables.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52We won't be needing any of that.
0:24:53 > 0:24:59For me, small boats have a lot to do with what my father taught me,
0:24:59 > 0:25:05and he always stocked up as if he was off again into the Burmese jungle.
0:25:08 > 0:25:10Not by small boat, obviously.
0:25:13 > 0:25:18I think a Broads holiday essentially is a dads and boys thing, really.
0:25:18 > 0:25:24And these are the things... These are the things that my dad used to love.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27He used to love these things.
0:25:27 > 0:25:30All Day Breakfast in a tin.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34We're talking about a one-pan man.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36That's the quantity of Spam we'll need.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39Evaporated milk, quite honestly,
0:25:39 > 0:25:43I thought had gone completely, but here it is.
0:25:43 > 0:25:49Evaporated milk, it makes tea almost undrinkable,
0:25:49 > 0:25:52but this with... Of course!
0:25:52 > 0:25:55That's what I need. Cling peaches!
0:25:59 > 0:26:02Hunter's Yard at Ludham by the River Yare.
0:26:02 > 0:26:07'The boats for hire here were built in the 1940s and '50s
0:26:07 > 0:26:12'beautifully from mahogany. There's not a fibreglass fixture aboard.'
0:26:12 > 0:26:13- Hello.- Good morning.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17Give me a guided tour on what I can look out for on my next few days.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20'I was shown mine by Ian Grapes.'
0:26:20 > 0:26:26- You've got your cooker, in there, two burner and grill.- Lovely.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28- Your gas.- Yes. That's off at the moment, is it?
0:26:28 > 0:26:31- That's off at the minute, yeah. - Right.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34- Your water supplies will be in the back end.- Right. Is that full?
0:26:34 > 0:26:37- That's full.- That's full? Thank you very much.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40No electric on board, so you have an oil lamp.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44Tucked away in here is a baby Blake's toilet,
0:26:44 > 0:26:46which you've come across before.
0:26:46 > 0:26:51- What's terribly clever is that the whole of the roof lifts up. - Traditional Broads design.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54- Hold on there...- Push those in.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59Bring your material in... and you're there.
0:27:10 > 0:27:15'During the 1800s, holidays had to be invented to stop employers
0:27:15 > 0:27:19'making their poor workers just carry on regardless.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23'Then came school holidays and a need to get away somewhere.'
0:27:26 > 0:27:29You can just imagine, it introduced the idea of the "dad holiday".
0:27:29 > 0:27:32Dad saying, "I have a great idea, we'll get a little boat
0:27:32 > 0:27:36"and we'll go off, sort of, exploring in the Broads."
0:27:37 > 0:27:41Some loved it. Some were not so sure.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44John Betjeman wrote some rather moving poems
0:27:44 > 0:27:48about how difficult he found it to bond with his father
0:27:48 > 0:27:53as his father dragged him off to the Norfolk Broads for a quick cruise.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07There after supper lit by lantern light
0:28:07 > 0:28:10Warm in the cabin I could lie secure
0:28:10 > 0:28:13And hear against the polished sides at night
0:28:13 > 0:28:17The lap, lap, lapping of the weedy Bure
0:28:17 > 0:28:20A whispering and watery Norfolk sound
0:28:20 > 0:28:23Telling of all the moonlit reeds around.
0:28:47 > 0:28:53That's Spam with a "crusteon" of pork luncheon meat bits.
0:28:53 > 0:28:55Delicious!
0:28:56 > 0:29:01It's funny how Spam becomes doubly pink when you cook it.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05It must be something to do with the dye they put in it, probably.
0:29:05 > 0:29:07When it's cooked, it comes up extra pink.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19I'm surprised Heston Blumenthal hasn't made a dish
0:29:19 > 0:29:23out of this particular combination of flavours.
0:29:25 > 0:29:27Mmm.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32Ah...boyhood!
0:29:50 > 0:29:53'The next day I was joined by Tom Williamson,
0:29:53 > 0:29:56'a landscape historian from the nearby University of East Anglia.
0:29:56 > 0:30:01'Tom is familiar with the different interests at war in the Broads.'
0:30:01 > 0:30:03- This is a Broad.- Yeah.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06The rivers run through them and they're quite large areas of water.
0:30:06 > 0:30:10Usually the Broads sit a bit back from the rivers, not always, but they usually do.
0:30:10 > 0:30:15'The extraordinary thing is that it wasn't until the 1960s
0:30:15 > 0:30:18'that historians realised that the Broads were man-made.'
0:30:18 > 0:30:21The key things are the sides are vertical,
0:30:21 > 0:30:24which immediately rings alarm bells if you think they're natural.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28Second thing is that many of the Broads, including Barton here,
0:30:28 > 0:30:32had parallel ridges of uncut peat running under the water,
0:30:32 > 0:30:36and it's the peat, of course, that's the giveaway.
0:30:36 > 0:30:42These things are basically great big peat extraction pits.
0:30:42 > 0:30:46They've taken thousands of cubic metres of peat out of this stuff.
0:30:46 > 0:30:50It seems to start probably late Saxon times to 11th century probably,
0:30:50 > 0:30:53goes on through the 12th and 13th, stops in the 14th.
0:30:53 > 0:30:55And it's at that point that these flood.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59So they are gigantic equivalents
0:30:59 > 0:31:02- of open-cast mines, really. - Yep. Absolutely.
0:31:02 > 0:31:08Tom, one of the things that's sort of been forced on me in a way
0:31:08 > 0:31:10as I've come through the rivers is,
0:31:10 > 0:31:14there's lots of people want something from the rivers.
0:31:14 > 0:31:18- Yeah.- There are lots of different interests.
0:31:18 > 0:31:24More true here than anywhere. It's not just simply agricultural industry versus nature conservation.
0:31:24 > 0:31:28But it's the impact of tourism and particularly the kind of impact
0:31:28 > 0:31:31of people who think they're kind of proper tourists
0:31:31 > 0:31:34who really "understand" the Broads as it were
0:31:34 > 0:31:38versus the people who they perceive as the great unwashed having fun.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41And way back, that conflict arises.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45Jennings, who was the guy who first wrote a lot of books
0:31:45 > 0:31:49encouraging people to come to the Broads back in the late 19th century,
0:31:49 > 0:31:52he's talking about the quiet, the solitude, the nature, and all that,
0:31:52 > 0:31:56and all that does is attract more people to come and see it.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59And there's a fantastic passage when he's moored on Wroxham Broad...
0:31:59 > 0:32:02- Are we about to go round again? - We have to go round.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06And this is in, I think, 1880 and...
0:32:09 > 0:32:11Nice one!
0:32:11 > 0:32:16- LAUGHTER - No, we're all right! Just sometimes it gusts up a bit, but we're OK!
0:32:16 > 0:32:22- Moored on a Broad.- Yeah?- Woken at seven in the morning by someone playing a piano on another boat.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26This has always been a problem. People aren't doing what they're supposed to.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29So this is a contested landscape, always has been.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36This has always been a prosperous landscape too.
0:32:36 > 0:32:42A church like St Helens at Ranworth, glimpsed across the Broad, might seem remote and austere,
0:32:42 > 0:32:46'but in the medieval period, it was a jewel box,
0:32:46 > 0:32:49'a reminder of the wealth generated in Norfolk
0:32:49 > 0:32:54'and the part played by the rivers in the export of its riches.'
0:33:01 > 0:33:05'The church has several medieval treasures.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08'The one over here was made 500 years ago
0:33:08 > 0:33:12'by the monks at Langley, an abbey on the River Yare not far away.'
0:33:14 > 0:33:22There's Jonah... making his prayer to God,
0:33:22 > 0:33:26having been swallowed by a whale.
0:33:26 > 0:33:31Of course, we should know that it's not specified to be a whale,
0:33:31 > 0:33:36it's specified to be a big fish in the Bible.
0:33:36 > 0:33:40And here, in this East Anglian antiphona,
0:33:40 > 0:33:44the sea has reeds growing around it.
0:33:44 > 0:33:49And Jonah is poking up from the biggest fish they knew.
0:33:51 > 0:33:53A pike.
0:33:55 > 0:33:59'I've never fished for pike. Charlie Bettell,
0:33:59 > 0:34:04'Norfolk's top lure fisherman, took me out on Ormesby Broad to try and initiate me.'
0:34:04 > 0:34:07So when we cast, if you just watch the spool,
0:34:07 > 0:34:11and watch my finger, that's the only thing you're interested in watching.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15That same finger acts as a brake as well, so if we're casting to trees,
0:34:15 > 0:34:18any sorts of features, we can actually put the brake on.
0:34:18 > 0:34:24- You're going out to catch these fish to engage in a psychological game with them...- An adrenaline boost.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28You want to be seen to be the person who's landed the biggest fish in the water.
0:34:28 > 0:34:32And the most important thing is that camera, because that's your memory.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35Not a stuffed fish in a glass case.
0:34:37 > 0:34:42We've all got our own little things of why we like the Broads. I love the scenery. I like...
0:34:42 > 0:34:45I mean, today, it's probably quite likely we'll see
0:34:45 > 0:34:49marsh harriers flying overhead, we've had hobbies around here, um...
0:34:49 > 0:34:52Talk of the devil, look! Marsh Harrier!
0:34:52 > 0:34:54- Look at that!- Beautiful.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57I couldn't have talked that up better if I I'd wanted to.
0:34:57 > 0:35:01It's almost like he's coming to say hello to you there, Griff.
0:35:03 > 0:35:08The key to catching fish is being able to mimic the state the pike are in on the day.
0:35:08 > 0:35:10We have got top water lures in the box,
0:35:10 > 0:35:13we'll try those in a minute which are going to be very visual.
0:35:13 > 0:35:18They're going to mimic anything that would be on the surface, like a rat, chick, vole...
0:35:18 > 0:35:19Oh, I see.
0:35:19 > 0:35:22Squirrels, stoats, everything that swims across the surface.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25- So the pike will have a go at anything?- He will.
0:35:25 > 0:35:27- Including your hand?- That's right.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30A pike would mistake your hand for a fish flapping on the surface,
0:35:30 > 0:35:36make a quick dart at you, and a pike can move at least 30 foot a second in a fast sprint.
0:35:36 > 0:35:37And I'm afraid... Ooh!
0:35:37 > 0:35:41- Oh, dear, that's a little pull there. - Really?- Yep.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46Do you know I'm very, very convinced by my fish here, though?
0:35:46 > 0:35:50My fish is coming in at the speed that looks so convincingly alive.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54If I were a pike, I don't know how I would be able to resist it.
0:35:54 > 0:35:56Wait a minute. Here we are!
0:35:56 > 0:35:59- Oh, he's in! He's in! - Yeah, now what do I do?
0:35:59 > 0:36:00Just keep the pressure on him.
0:36:00 > 0:36:05Keep your rod tip down a little bit more. Just to there, and just play him off of that.
0:36:05 > 0:36:06So I keep winding in?
0:36:06 > 0:36:08- Yeah, follow the fish round.- Yes.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11Just use your rod from here on, just use your rod.
0:36:11 > 0:36:13No more winding.
0:36:13 > 0:36:15No more winding.
0:36:15 > 0:36:17- Now wait a minute. - Here he goes.- This is...
0:36:17 > 0:36:18Yes!
0:36:22 > 0:36:26You've got to give this fish a bit of respect because you can see...
0:36:26 > 0:36:28look, that's her teeth holding that.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32- So here's all her teeth in there. - Wow!
0:36:32 > 0:36:35- Nice and solid, into there.- Yeah.
0:36:35 > 0:36:40- Just push to camera with your other hand. I don't want to see the fingers.- Yeah.
0:36:40 > 0:36:42- Right. That's the shot I want to see.- OK.
0:36:45 > 0:36:47Just turn the tail to me a little bit.
0:36:47 > 0:36:49That's the shot. Little bit more there.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53- What's the expression I should have? - Nice and happy.- One of triumph.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57Now put her cheek up to your... put her head up to your cheek more.
0:36:57 > 0:36:59She's not a dog, she's not going to bite you.
0:36:59 > 0:37:00That's it, there.
0:37:01 > 0:37:03Look a bit worried again, I quite like that.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07- Argh!- See? I think I got that shot!
0:37:12 > 0:37:15Now, Charlie, how big is that fish?
0:37:15 > 0:37:19- That's about four pounds there, you've got.- Four pounds!?- Yes.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22That seemed enormous to me! You mean they come this sort of size?
0:37:22 > 0:37:25- A lot bigger, yeah. - How do you hold on to those?!
0:37:25 > 0:37:27Not easily!
0:37:29 > 0:37:31- And there's the man!- What?
0:37:31 > 0:37:34Very beautiful. Very beautiful fish.
0:37:48 > 0:37:50'Back aboard Wood Rose,
0:37:50 > 0:37:55'I set off in the direction of the medieval bridge at Potter Heigham.'
0:37:56 > 0:37:59We're coming down through Shed City at a cracking pace,
0:37:59 > 0:38:05and ahead of me I can see the bridge that Ian warned me about.
0:38:05 > 0:38:12What I've got to do, is get myself...to the side of the river
0:38:12 > 0:38:14before we get there.
0:38:14 > 0:38:17This will be a bit of a manoeuvre.
0:38:26 > 0:38:29Take my rope...and jump.
0:38:36 > 0:38:37What I have to do,
0:38:37 > 0:38:43is I have to take down the entire mast and lower it on top of the rest of the sail.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51That's the counterweight there. That swings up... Right!
0:39:09 > 0:39:14I've just got to turn around with the wind behind us and not take us across to the other bank.
0:39:14 > 0:39:15The wind is hopeless.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18Come on. Steer. Come on.
0:39:19 > 0:39:20Turn around. Come on.
0:39:20 > 0:39:22Turn.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26Have I made a fool of myself in public?!
0:39:26 > 0:39:30I've got people shouting at me now, not advice, just abuse.
0:39:30 > 0:39:35Just having a good old laugh at someone else being in trouble.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40That's at least pointing in the right direction now.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43This ruddy pole.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54Agh! I've dropped my pole!
0:39:57 > 0:40:00Luckily we've got quite a lot of wind behind us so...
0:40:04 > 0:40:08I should at least charge the audience money for it.
0:40:15 > 0:40:17Thank you very much.
0:40:17 > 0:40:19There we are, that's the excitement of boating.
0:40:19 > 0:40:25If I'd tried to come through that bridge about 50 or so years ago,
0:40:25 > 0:40:30I might've been helped by a little man with a Lancashire accent,
0:40:30 > 0:40:34in that way that Lancashire people sometimes can, that helpful advice,
0:40:34 > 0:40:38"You don't want to do that, lad! Go to the left, you'll be all right.
0:40:38 > 0:40:43"Bring yourself round a bit, round a bit! Ooh, look what you're doin' now!"
0:40:43 > 0:40:46It was George Formby.
0:40:48 > 0:40:53For many years, George had a holiday home at Wroxham called Berylea.
0:40:53 > 0:40:58He named all his houses after his wife Beryl, and all their boats, Lady Beryl.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05In the early 1990s, members of the George Formby Society lined the river's edge,
0:41:05 > 0:41:08with their little ukeleles in their hands.
0:41:10 > 0:41:14They were protesting against the council's plans to knock down
0:41:14 > 0:41:19Formby's house, by then renamed Heronby, to make a by-pass around Wroxham.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26# But this one I'd break any date for
0:41:26 > 0:41:30# I won't have to ask what she's late for
0:41:30 > 0:41:32# She wouldn't leave me flat
0:41:32 > 0:41:34# She's not a girl like that
0:41:34 > 0:41:36# She's absolutely wonderful
0:41:36 > 0:41:38# Marvellous and beautiful
0:41:38 > 0:41:41# And anyone can understand why
0:41:41 > 0:41:43# I'm leaning on a lamp-post
0:41:43 > 0:41:45# At the corner of the street
0:41:45 > 0:41:48# In case a certain little lady comes by. #
0:41:52 > 0:41:54It was time to leave the North Broads.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57I had an appointment to meet Deborah Steele,
0:41:57 > 0:41:59who's a Crown Prosecutor by profession.
0:41:59 > 0:42:04- I'm Griff.- I'm Deborah. - Hello, Deborah, nice to meet you.
0:42:04 > 0:42:11Deborah and her dog, Frankie, are members of the Norfolk Lowland Search and Rescue Team.
0:42:11 > 0:42:15They practice on the River Waveney in the southern half of the Broads.
0:42:15 > 0:42:19It's exactly the same as mountain rescue, but it's lowland rescue,
0:42:19 > 0:42:22because we don't have mountains. We're called out by the police if
0:42:22 > 0:42:25somebody's been out on the river, not turned up,
0:42:25 > 0:42:28family member's gone missing, can you come out and help us search?
0:42:28 > 0:42:31- And what do the dogs do? - The dogs are air-scenting dogs.
0:42:31 > 0:42:35So the dogs are trained to indicate human scent.
0:42:35 > 0:42:37So, what are we going to do now?
0:42:37 > 0:42:39We're going to put somebody out on the river bank
0:42:39 > 0:42:42and then we'll get the canoes out,
0:42:42 > 0:42:47and the exercise is, put the dog in the boat, and we're looking for the dog to indicate where that person is.
0:42:49 > 0:42:54Adam's been off and hidden and so, what Frankie's going to do is
0:42:54 > 0:42:58- indicate to us that she knows where Adam is.- That's right.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02- It's a game of hide and seek.- And how long does it take to train them?
0:43:02 > 0:43:06It's about 18 months, 600 hours. A long time.
0:43:13 > 0:43:16Good girl. What you got?
0:43:18 > 0:43:20Can you slow the boat? FRANKIE BARKS
0:43:20 > 0:43:24Good girl! Frankie! Yay!
0:43:24 > 0:43:27What did you find?
0:43:27 > 0:43:29'Very impressive.
0:43:29 > 0:43:31'But now it was Cadbury's turn.'
0:43:31 > 0:43:35You're going to show what a clever dog you are by finding me.
0:43:35 > 0:43:37Are you listening, Cadbury?
0:43:37 > 0:43:39If you find him, you can have the whole container.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42Is it a deal, have we got a deal?
0:43:42 > 0:43:44'Well, if we have, it'll be a first.'
0:43:44 > 0:43:46Done deal!
0:43:50 > 0:43:52All right, guys, so what do I do?
0:43:52 > 0:43:56I just go and lie down with my head down to keep out of the way.
0:43:56 > 0:43:57Whoops, here we come.
0:43:57 > 0:44:02OK, thank you very much, I've got my mat here.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10I'll get myself down and wait for developments.
0:44:15 > 0:44:16We'll go this side.
0:44:22 > 0:44:24Where is he, Cadbury?
0:44:24 > 0:44:27Can you go around in a circle?
0:44:31 > 0:44:35We had an indication...over there.
0:44:36 > 0:44:38He did a lot of sniffing over there.
0:44:38 > 0:44:43Let's see if we can land Cadbury and see if he can find him.
0:44:45 > 0:44:46Right come on then, Cadbury.
0:44:46 > 0:44:49It's our big moment. Oh, good boy!
0:44:49 > 0:44:52Help! Help!
0:44:53 > 0:44:56Go find him, Cadbury.
0:44:58 > 0:45:02Hooray! What you got, Cadbury?
0:45:02 > 0:45:04You don't even care when you do find me!
0:45:04 > 0:45:08You got him, good boy! Show me.
0:45:25 > 0:45:31Well, we're driving south, in a sort of south-easterly by south direction
0:45:31 > 0:45:33on a wonderful winding road at the moment.
0:45:33 > 0:45:38Join another East Anglian river, one of the loveliest in the country,
0:45:38 > 0:45:41so much so that I actually live on it.
0:45:41 > 0:45:45So we're going to hope that the River Stour
0:45:45 > 0:45:47will carry us home.
0:45:51 > 0:45:55I'm joining the Stour at Sudbury, one of the first towns on the river.
0:45:59 > 0:46:04The scenery is quite different again from the Fens or the Broads.
0:46:14 > 0:46:17My first rendezvous is with Major Ian Graham,
0:46:17 > 0:46:20a landowner with a fight on his hands.
0:46:20 > 0:46:22Excuse me, I'm not disturbing you, I hope.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25Can I ask you what you are up to?
0:46:25 > 0:46:29This is a game conservancy mink raft.
0:46:29 > 0:46:35And this is a clay pad here so that any creature that runs through here
0:46:35 > 0:46:36will leave its imprint.
0:46:36 > 0:46:42And if it's a mink, then we bring this into operation and quickly get him.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44And when we talk about the mink,
0:46:44 > 0:46:48we're really talking about the mink that Granny wanted to have as a fur coat?
0:46:48 > 0:46:50Absolutely. The mink is not a native.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54It originally came from North America and it was introduced
0:46:54 > 0:46:59into this country many years ago, for mink farms.
0:46:59 > 0:47:05And I'm afraid it is probably well-intentioned but ignorant and stupid people
0:47:05 > 0:47:12who go under the banner of animal rights who released the mink,
0:47:12 > 0:47:17and this is why untold damage has been done to the water vole population throughout Britain.
0:47:17 > 0:47:22We started this trapping for mink in 2001
0:47:22 > 0:47:25and we accounted for about 100 mink in the first year.
0:47:25 > 0:47:32And now if we were to find five to ten mink, that is the highest numbers we're likely to get.
0:47:32 > 0:47:39And I'm quite sure that if we and others can keep up the pressure on the mink,
0:47:39 > 0:47:44that the water vole can be restored in good numbers to its earlier habitats.
0:47:47 > 0:47:49Even on this idyllic Suffolk river,
0:47:49 > 0:47:51conflicts have had to be resolved.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54This time between man and predatory nature.
0:47:59 > 0:48:03I'm now heading downriver towards Bures.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44The Stour was one of the first English rivers to be made navigable.
0:48:44 > 0:48:48Barges travelled on it pulled by horses.
0:48:48 > 0:48:53Silly, quiet, peaceful Suffolk was a leader in the Agricultural Revolution.
0:48:53 > 0:48:59Its fertile soil produced the food that fuelled the expanding population of the 18th century.
0:48:59 > 0:49:03A river like the Stour enabled grain to be swiftly transported downstream
0:49:03 > 0:49:08to ports at its estuary and ultimately to London.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13From Sudbury the journey took about two days.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17But as a navigation system, the River Stour had a fatal flaw.
0:49:17 > 0:49:20It was never provided with a continuous towpath.
0:49:20 > 0:49:25Landowners were too worried that their cattle would wander off to allow one to be built.
0:49:25 > 0:49:30As a result, the horses pulling the barges had to keep switching banks.
0:49:30 > 0:49:33And because there is no uninterrupted towpath,
0:49:33 > 0:49:39we canoeists today have to negotiate our way round its locks and weirs.
0:49:41 > 0:49:49Now I have to portage, I think of it as a French-Canadian word meaning, basically,
0:49:49 > 0:49:56hump your own canoe across an intervening section so you can put it back in the river further down.
0:49:56 > 0:49:57I've seen...
0:50:00 > 0:50:03..illustrations of how you're supposed to get a Canadian canoe up
0:50:03 > 0:50:08on your lap, and then with one deft movement, up onto your back.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11But I think this is a two-man canoe.
0:50:13 > 0:50:19So my best bet... You see?
0:50:19 > 0:50:22I have a polythene bottom, Mrs!
0:50:32 > 0:50:35No, I think it's probably safer not to have a go at running that one.
0:50:35 > 0:50:37Now, how do I go here?
0:50:37 > 0:50:43Somebody doesn't want to make life easy.
0:50:43 > 0:50:46How does the canoeist get his canoe...
0:50:46 > 0:50:49I can't lift it up over here.
0:50:49 > 0:50:53But... There's a set of canoeing steps here,
0:50:53 > 0:50:58which would indicate that somehow we have to go through there.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02Oh, God, my back.
0:51:27 > 0:51:31And now, just like that, we're back in the water.
0:51:39 > 0:51:44The Stour's fortunes declined with the coming of the railways.
0:51:44 > 0:51:47By the 1930s, the barges had all gone.
0:51:47 > 0:51:51It took a long-running campaign and a House of Lords ruling
0:51:51 > 0:51:56before the Stour became navigable again in the 1980s.
0:51:56 > 0:52:01(This is fantastic river journeying, this is superb.)
0:52:04 > 0:52:08We're in the equivalent of a sort of Venice of East Anglia here.
0:52:11 > 0:52:13I've now reached Dedham Vale,
0:52:13 > 0:52:18perhaps the most famous, the most evocative river scenery in the world,
0:52:18 > 0:52:20since it was painted by John Constable.
0:52:20 > 0:52:27The sound of water escaping from a dam, et cetera.
0:52:29 > 0:52:33Willows, an old rotting plank,
0:52:33 > 0:52:36a slimy post or brickwork.
0:52:36 > 0:52:38These are the things I love.
0:52:38 > 0:52:43John Constable was making something rather beautiful
0:52:43 > 0:52:48out of the reality he saw.
0:52:48 > 0:52:54And of course the reality was a working river.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04Constable returned time and again to the next few hundred yards of water.
0:53:11 > 0:53:13He had a part share in the mill at Dedham.
0:53:13 > 0:53:16Flatford Mill was his, it had come to him...
0:53:16 > 0:53:21'My guide is Edward Jackson who runs the Field Studies Centre housed in Flatford Mill.'
0:53:22 > 0:53:27And Constable painted what he saw, and what was here?
0:53:27 > 0:53:31He painted from the head, but he also painted from the heart,
0:53:31 > 0:53:34and he was basically just painting what he grew up with.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38I've got some picture postcards here,
0:53:38 > 0:53:42but one of the things that's quite interesting about Constable
0:53:42 > 0:53:47is that although he's probably as famous, his images are as famous on picture postcards,
0:53:47 > 0:53:52he wasn't really a picture postcard painter. There's an irony in that, which I like.
0:53:52 > 0:53:56So if we look, where are we standing now in this one?
0:53:56 > 0:54:01This is the painting he called Flatford Mill - Scene On A Navigable River,
0:54:01 > 0:54:08because the River Stour was canalised, it was made suitable for barges to go up and down.
0:54:08 > 0:54:14And we're just off the bridge, there's the edge of the old bridge, it's been replaced since then.
0:54:14 > 0:54:19And he's looking down the river, couple of boats doing what they would do every day.
0:54:19 > 0:54:22They couldn't get under the bridge with the horse attached to it,
0:54:22 > 0:54:26so they had to unhitch the horse, the horse had to walk around the bridge.
0:54:26 > 0:54:32The bargeman had to push really hard under the bridge and then they'd hitch up again.
0:54:32 > 0:54:36So this was just an everyday scene that was going on two, three, four times a day.
0:54:36 > 0:54:38It's a picture of a working river.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01So this is what I know as Willie Lott's cottage. That's wrong, is it?
0:55:01 > 0:55:04- It's Willie Lott's house. - Now, where do we go
0:55:04 > 0:55:10for perhaps the most famous Constable picture that it's possible to take up?
0:55:10 > 0:55:13- We need to be...- In fact... Look, my dog is now just
0:55:13 > 0:55:18doing, I think, what this picture is actually partly about, isn't it?
0:55:18 > 0:55:21- It's the dog in the foreground.- Yes!
0:55:21 > 0:55:24Although, I notice the dog in the foreground of the picture
0:55:24 > 0:55:26is not getting in the water quite like MY dog.
0:55:26 > 0:55:31So this isn't a ford, then - this is just the horse drinking, is it?
0:55:31 > 0:55:35There's all sorts of theories as to why the haywain is in the water.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38Was it the horses coming down to drink?
0:55:38 > 0:55:42Well, probably not, because the water was at times brackish,
0:55:42 > 0:55:46cos the tides would come up towards this sort of area.
0:55:46 > 0:55:50Another theory is the cart's in the water to get water
0:55:50 > 0:55:51onto the wheels
0:55:51 > 0:55:55to make the wood swell and bite onto the metal rims,
0:55:55 > 0:55:59but the local blacksmiths would say, we'll just have them in overnight,
0:55:59 > 0:56:01we'll put them in a trough and away you go.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04I get the feeling... Cadbury has gone for a plunge in the water.
0:56:04 > 0:56:06I bet they're cooling the horses off
0:56:06 > 0:56:08after unloading the wagon, cos the wagon's unloaded now.
0:56:08 > 0:56:10- Could be that.- That may be it.
0:56:10 > 0:56:12Yes.
0:56:16 > 0:56:22Constable captured a combination of a waterway, work, scenery
0:56:22 > 0:56:25and the people who lived by and on it.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28It's a sort of slow-handed tranquillity.
0:56:28 > 0:56:32And when we ask what we want from our rivers,
0:56:32 > 0:56:35'it seems an important value to bear in mind.
0:56:42 > 0:56:46'I'm on the final stretch, six miles or so from my house,
0:56:46 > 0:56:48'which overlooks the estuary.'
0:56:54 > 0:56:56Come on! Out!
0:56:58 > 0:57:01Argh...!
0:57:01 > 0:57:03Argh...!
0:57:03 > 0:57:05Argh...!
0:57:05 > 0:57:06Argh...!
0:57:06 > 0:57:08Ah!
0:57:08 > 0:57:09Ah...
0:57:09 > 0:57:11Oh...
0:57:13 > 0:57:14Well...
0:57:14 > 0:57:19some of the most celebrated river scenery in Britain -
0:57:19 > 0:57:22in the world - comes to an end
0:57:22 > 0:57:26with a bit of thump here in Cattawade.
0:57:26 > 0:57:31Pylons, chemical factories, waterworks.
0:57:31 > 0:57:38Essex & Suffolk Water extracts millions of gallons a day to supply the demands of the south-east.
0:57:38 > 0:57:43A final reminder that the Stour remains a working river.
0:57:43 > 0:57:44Come on!
0:57:50 > 0:57:52'We make lots of demands on our rivers.
0:57:52 > 0:57:59'Farmers, water authorities, anglers, paddlers, nature conservationists all want a share.'
0:57:59 > 0:58:05What we've achieved over time is a sort of balance between these competing demands.
0:58:11 > 0:58:16'I love rivers. I love their extraordinary variety. I love their histories,
0:58:16 > 0:58:19'how they've shaped our lives as well as our landscape.
0:58:19 > 0:58:21'I love their beauty and their wildness.
0:58:21 > 0:58:26'But I also love their usefulness. You can float on them.'
0:58:26 > 0:58:27Come on. Come on.
0:58:29 > 0:58:34'We should make the most of our river inheritance, because it's made us who we are.'
0:58:55 > 0:58:58Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:58 > 0:59:03E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk