Yorkshire The Great British Countryside


Yorkshire

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The Great British countryside. Beautiful. Glorious.

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And very, very old.

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For three billion years, these British Isles

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have been growing and changing.

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They've never stood still.

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If you love the British landscape, the way we both do,

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then you might be very familiar with it,

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but there is another story to be told.

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The story that's always fascinated me,

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of what happened here millions of years ago.

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And how that still affects our lives every day.

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Whoa!

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Hey! Look out!

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Look at that!

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For a country of our size, we have a greater variety of landscapes

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than anywhere else on earth.

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It's all down to our dramatic history.

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Over millions of years, we've been flooded,

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frozen, and ravaged by mighty earth movements.

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What's even more astonishing

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is how that distant past still shapes the countryside today.

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SHE LAUGHS

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I'm alive!

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We're going to all four corners of the country,

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to discover how Britain's epic past lives on

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in the most surprising ways.

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I'm ready for adventure, but you're the geology buff.

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-Where d'you want to go?

-I want to go everywhere.

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-Of course you do.

-I'm a boy!

-Can I come with you?

-Yeah.

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-Where are you going?

-It's a footpath.

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Yorkshire, historically is Britain's biggest county.

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And Hugh and I are about to cross the length and breadth of it.

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Our grand tour starts here, because Yorkshire's home

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to some of the most unusual rock formations in Britain.

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This is a land created by water and ice.

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The history hidden beneath our feet

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has given the locals much to be proud of.

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CHEERING

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It helped drive the Industrial Revolution,

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created a natural adventure playground.

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It has extraordinary features.

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and a host of classic landscapes.

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We've got fresh air, we've got rain, and good company.

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It's good, it's Yorkshire.

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WHISTLE BLOWS

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Hugh and I have chosen a bit of a damp day

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to start our adventures in Yorkshire.

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But, it has to be said, Hugh is in his element.

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Perfect weather for you today, isn't it? Wet.

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You like all this.

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I love a bit of weather.

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Anorak sticking to your face. You told me that before.

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-I couldn't be happier.

-You look it.

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I think, also, it's the weather

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that's made the landscape.

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That river is actually doing something, isn't it?

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It's carving out a channel, making the landscape.

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I like how Britain. changes all the time.

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You can be inappropriately dressed at any time of day.

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THEY LAUGH

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'It's great to be back somewhere I spent many of my childhood holidays.

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'We always came to Yorkshire, even brought the cat...

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'on a lead.

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'You'd have to ask my mother.

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'Yorkshire's a fine place to enjoy the great outdoors.

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'It has three national parks, for a start.

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'I'm in one of them.'

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Whoa, look at that.

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I'm on the edge of the North York Moors.

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A national park, an area of high ground that stretches for miles

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in that direction, towards Whitby and Scarborough.

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Marking its edge,

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don't look too closely,

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is this MASSIVE inland cliff.

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And that's Sutton Bank.

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'Sutton Bank is an impressive feature

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'of Yorkshire's landscape.

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'Thousands of years old, it seems to reach for the sky.

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'Which, funnily enough, is what I'll be doing.

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'From the top.'

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Albert Newbery has kindly offered to hurtle me off the cliff edge.

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Without an engine.

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-We're on a promontory, aren't we?

-Absolutely.

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So, the wind hits the base of the cliff...

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And goes up, and keeps on going.

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So, you're confident that when we get shot

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by this winch over the edge of that cliff,

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-which is 400 feet?

-Absolutely.

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That we will meet a body of air, coming back at us,

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shooting upwards?

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I've no doubt, at all.

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I guarantee it.

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RADIO CHATTER Closed!

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Oh! So, what happens now, Albert?

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-It accelerates.

-Does it go very fast?

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-It's quite startling.

-Ah, look at this!

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How fantastic is that?!

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You can feel a bit of a stomach-affecting thing,

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as we go over the top.

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That's it. The cable is off. We'll press the nose down.

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We both look out for traffic.

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If you see another glider, tell me

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If I see another glider,

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you can be certain I WILL let you know!

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Absolutely. Two sets of eyes are better than one.

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They're a bit like vultures, I think.

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Yeah, the way they circle.

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I'll do a right hand turn now.

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And hopefully, we'll be able to see the White Horse.

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Not wishing to be rude,

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-but it's not a very good picture of a horse.

-Right.

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'The white horse was painted onto the cliff in the 1850s,

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'but it's the spectacle of Sutton Bank that I really like.

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'From up here, from down there, from anywhere.

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'And it's all down to a vast expanse of ice

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'that once covered this terrain.'

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You get a fantastic view

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-of this escarpment.

-That's right

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20,000 years ago,

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there was a massive sheet of ice,

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that came down, and it scraped this edge

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-off the North Yorkshire Moors. It left this inland cliff.

-Got you.

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Which is why you can glide.

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Absolutely. It's amazing.

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It gives us hill lift up

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to 1,500, 1,600 feet.

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So, nature has given you

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a perfect place to glide, hasn't it?

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Absolutely. That's right.

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I think it's just beautiful.

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'The terrain makes Yorkshire a prime spot for gliding.

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'The world's first working gliders were pioneered here

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'in the 1800s by a Yorkshireman called George Cayley.'

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In a moment, I'll ask you to take over.

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Are you sure that's wise?

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I have every confidence in you.

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You have control now. Look ahead.

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Can I try and turn her?

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You stick to the right, the right wing goes down.

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-Press a bit of right rudder in.

-What do I do now?

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This'll keep turning till it hits the ground,

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if we don't do something.

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-I have control again.

-That's a great relief.

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-That's quite bumpy.

-A bit bumpy. More level.

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'So, it's thank you to a sheet of ice for this beautiful,

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'if a little bumpy, ride over Sutton Bank.

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'The edge of the high ground bulldozed off

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by an immense glacier.'

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Glaciers swept right across Yorkshire during the last ice age.

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I'm in the Yorkshire Dales,

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where the ice scoured away the surface

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leaving huge, flat areas of rock.

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This is limestone.

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A vast patio of it forming the classic, craggy Yorkshire landscape.

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Set foot on it, and it's one weird place.

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Almost otherworldly.

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Ooh! Did you hear that?

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I feel as if I'm walking along the spine of a dinosaur.

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'This spot is so weird, they filmed a scene from Harry Potter here.

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'So, how has such a mysterious place come to be?'

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This concoction of weirdly-shaped slabs and cracks

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would once have been a flat expanse of rock.

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But, over the years,

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surface was nibbled away at the limestone,

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leaving this incredible pattern.

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'The pieces of this "Limestone Pavement", as it's called,

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'have old Yorkshire names.'

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The blocks are called "clints".

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And the gaps are known as "grykes".

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'But the most curious thing is what's hidden down in the grykes.

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'Meet Professor Cynthia Burek, a geo-conservationist,

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'who's fascinated by this unusual rocky habitat.'

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Limestone pavements are mysterious places, aren't they?

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They are full of surprises and mysteries.

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'Remarkably, these cracks are teeming with plant life

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'that's extremely rare in Britain.'

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Down in the grykes, we have a very shady,

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a very humid

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sort of environment.

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Microclimate, if you will.

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We have shade-tolerant plants down there.

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You're making it sound quite nice!

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It's a bit narrow to get down there!

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THEY LAUGH

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It's a real surprise for people,

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when visitors come up here.

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They say, "Look at all these ferns!

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"These hart's-tongue fern. And the maidenhead. Spleenwort."

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-Just lovely, lovely names.

-Yes.

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But, there's a puzzle.

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These are plants you'd expect to see in shady woodland,

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not here.

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How did they get here, then?

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Well, they're a clue that not so long ago,

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this all would've looked completely different.

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It WAS a thick forest.

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This would originally have been ancient woodland, the whole thing.

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But the only place we find the woodland now,

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is down the grykes.

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This relic woodland flora, which used to be everywhere.

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That's what makes this landscape, this feature, so special.

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'The woodland that once covered the uplands of Yorkshire

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'was stripped back to the bare limestone by our ancient ancestors,

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'and their grazing animals.

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'It took thousands of years.'

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That's nothing compared to the story of the limestone itself.

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330 million years ago, before these rocks were even rocks,

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a tropical sea covered this whole area.

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The limestone is the remains of tiny creatures and plants

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that died in that sea, and sank to the bottom.

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Over millions of years, vast amounts of sea-life

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got compressed into stone,

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creating a staggeringly thick bed of rock.

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Below the limestone pavement,

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lies a place with its own dramatic story,

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a place Hugh's always been drawn to...

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..Malham Cove.

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It's a fantastic cliff. About 200 feet. Absolutely sheer.

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I think I must be feeling what a spider feels like,

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trapped at the bottom of a bath.

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They haven't looked after it well.

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It could use some lime scale remover.

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Look at the staining on that.

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'Essentially, you're looking at one massive pile

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'of dead coral and shellfish.

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'And there's the same amount again, below ground.

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'But wait and see what else happened here.

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'We're about to go a bit Hollywood with this.'

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The seabed that would turn into limestone

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began experiencing earthquakes.

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Over millions of years,

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a fault ,deep under the sea floor, made part of it drop.

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Eventually, the sea dried up, and there was desert.

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But the place was under constant change.

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In fact, three hundred million years of drama later,

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it was even covered in ice...

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..which melted, sending trillions of tons of water

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cascading over the drop in the ground.

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It would've been like Yorkshire's own Niagara Falls,

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sculpting and eroding Malham Cove into the place I love today.

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Over 300 million years in the making,

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this plunging precipice offers some of the world's hardest rock climbs.

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Getting to the top is incredibly difficult.

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To conquer my fear,

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I've asked world-class climber, Tim Emmett,

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to scale it all on his own, without me being there in any way.

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I've never climbed to the top of Malham before.

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I'd really like to.

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So you choose the wettest day of the year?

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That's the only day you could come, Hugh!

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There's not anywhere else in Britain that's like it.

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Wow! I see why the climbs here

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have names like "Carnage" and "Crash Dive".

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Looks terrifying to me.

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To get right to the top,

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Tim must go round the overhang, which he's not done before.

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It'll be even harder in this rain.

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His climb starts on a narrow ledge, part way up.

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Wow!

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Not climbed on holes that small for a long time.

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How wet is it up there?

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Well, right now,

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the water's pouring off the roof above me.

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It's like climbing behind a waterfall.

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'Limestone can be a nightmare to climb.

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'The fossilised sea creatures it's made of were squashed

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'into tiny fragments, resulting in smooth rock that's hard to grip.'

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The next bit gets really wet, so I might fall off.

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It's really slippery!

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HE GROANS

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Oh, man. It's SO wet.

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This looks a lot more scary than the first bit.

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'It's so slippery, Tim can only heave himself round the overhang

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'aided by anchor bolts set in the rock,

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'and little wedges he slots in himself.'

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Ooh! That doesn't look good, at all. But it'll have to do.

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Please don't break.

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'By contrast, I've had no bother at all making it to the top,

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'via the footpath.'

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Where is he, then?

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At last, Tom makes it, too.

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Well, well. Hey, Hugh, how's it going?

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Cheers.

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Well done. It was great. D'you have a fantastic sense of achievement?

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Malham Cove has been through a lot.

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It's been a seabed, it's suffered earthquakes,

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it's had waterfalls pouring all over it,

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but it's come through it all, and ended up as a national treasure,

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that's looking better and better with age.

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For me, too, Yorkshire's landscape is awe-inspiring.

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And, with 6000 square miles all in,

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it's a patchwork of geology.

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As Hugh's determined to show me.

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Yorkshire is massive, isn't it?

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Historically, it's the largest county,

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if you include all the Ridings.

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If you split it down the middle,

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this side is different, geologically, to that side.

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The Vale of York does split in half, pretty much.

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The Dales, which is this bit,

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it has lots of rocks, but it's famous for limestone.

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-So, use that scone. That's limestone.

-OK.

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The North Yorkshire Moors is the other classic Yorkshire landscape

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which is...

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"Heartbeat" country.

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So, that's got limestone, but it's got other rock, as well.

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Do you need more biscuits?

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Yeah. Sandstone, siltstone, they're most prominent.

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And there's iron and coal, all in this bit.

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And in terms of the age, geologically,

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150 million years between the two halves?

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That was about 330 million years ago that was formed.

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And this is 150 million years younger.

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So that scone is 150 million years older than that scone.

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When you used to go walking with the family, with the cat on a lead...

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It wasn't really a lead, it was a 30 foot washing line.

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It wasn't short.

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It walked most of the peaks here, certainly.

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Right.

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Yorkshire's landscapes have been part of our lives

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since we were nippers They're irresistible.

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But it's not all about great vistas.

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Yorkshire was at the heart of the industrial revolution.

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It's geology provided masses of coal.

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And the great iron and steel works were also once fed

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by local raw materials.

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I have fond memories of my family working in steel.

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My dad worked in the steel industry.

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When he was a trainee for British Steel, he was loading up a furnace

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and he accidentally threw the shovel into the furnace

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and that's when he got an office job.

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At least he didn't get the shovel. That's the sensible thing.

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Knowing my dad it's a surprise he DIDN'T go and get the shovel!

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There aren't quite so many shovels and furnaces around these days.

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But within this now tranquil landscape,

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there are still reminders of Yorkshire's great industrial past.

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And I want to track some of it down,

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so I'm off to the Moors, hitching a ride

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on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

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The high speed rail link, calling at all stations

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to 19th century Yorkshire.

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-I like the fact you've got a sunroof. That seems very modern.

-That's our air conditioning.

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It's a brilliant way to travel even if the engine is on back to front.

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What I'm searching for is in the hills halfway up the line.

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Here we are - Grosmont. Deep in the North York moors.

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You'd think it had never changed.

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Actually, you'd be wrong.

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In that group of trees over there, there was a massive works

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with three blast furnaces.

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The traces are all gone now. Well, almost.

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It's hard to imagine the scale now,

0:22:260:22:28

but in the 1830s, the geology here triggered a bonanza.

0:22:280:22:33

Like the gold rush, there was something valuable to be had

0:22:330:22:36

in the local rock.

0:22:360:22:38

Not gold though. Iron.

0:22:380:22:40

This is what they were after. Ironstone.

0:22:470:22:50

It's basically silt and sea shells

0:22:500:22:53

laid down about 180 million years ago,

0:22:530:22:57

but the sea water in which it was laid down was very shallow,

0:22:570:23:01

would also have contained iron minerals.

0:23:010:23:03

Huge amounts of ironstone were dug out here

0:23:080:23:12

and used to engineer the bridges, the ships and the trains

0:23:120:23:16

of Victorian Britain.

0:23:160:23:17

This area once accounted for about a third

0:23:170:23:20

of Britain's iron, some of it even ended up in Sydney Harbour Bridge.

0:23:200:23:25

But the big industry round here now is the tourists.

0:23:250:23:28

As valuable as ironstone, but much easier to load.

0:23:280:23:32

WHISTLE

0:23:410:23:43

The railway connects Yorkshire's industrial past and present.

0:23:480:23:53

And the landscape's not bad, either.

0:23:530:23:55

This gorge is maybe about 100 metres deep

0:24:040:24:06

and about seven miles long,

0:24:060:24:08

and it's much to big to be explained by the little stream

0:24:080:24:12

that now flows along the bottom of it.

0:24:120:24:14

That's because 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age,

0:24:140:24:17

this valley contained something akin to a raging river.

0:24:170:24:22

In fact, it may have been the fastest flowing and biggest torrent

0:24:220:24:26

that Britain has ever seen.

0:24:260:24:28

It's thought that the torrent was a short lived, but immense flood.

0:24:350:24:40

It was created when a lake brimming with meltwater from glaciers

0:24:430:24:46

suddenly overflowed.

0:24:460:24:48

The water had collected behind ice dams,

0:24:490:24:52

blocking valleys in the high ground to the north.

0:24:520:24:54

But when the tipping point came, the vast outflow heading southwards

0:24:560:25:00

ripped away millions of tonnes of rock and carved out a gorge.

0:25:000:25:05

What's that?

0:25:340:25:35

Hugh and I still have lots more to discover in Yorkshire.

0:25:360:25:40

This vast region is full of surprises.

0:25:400:25:42

Underneath you, it's like you're standing on a beach.

0:25:450:25:48

From the depths of the Dales...

0:25:480:25:51

to the very edges of the county.

0:25:510:25:53

That wind bouncing in off the North Sea nearly knocks you off your feet.

0:25:530:25:59

Now I'm heading for a taste of the town

0:26:080:26:10

and a rather unique flavour of Yorkshire's past.

0:26:100:26:14

Sitting between the North York Moors and the Yorkshire Dales

0:26:150:26:19

is a place where water

0:26:190:26:20

bubbling up from the ground once created an entire industry.

0:26:200:26:24

I've come to the majestic spa town of Harrogate.

0:26:260:26:29

At a tap in the town centre,

0:26:320:26:34

you can take a free sample of what made this place prosper.

0:26:340:26:37

I've come prepared. Now, apparently, you press this button

0:26:380:26:41

and some rather unusual water comes out.

0:26:410:26:45

Something's supposed to happen. Come on. Ooh!

0:26:460:26:50

Ooh!

0:26:510:26:53

Well, a bit spasmodic.

0:26:530:26:54

Eugh. A bit smelly. A little taste.

0:26:570:27:01

Aargh.

0:27:040:27:05

That is like really salty, smelly eggs with a bit of sock thrown in.

0:27:050:27:10

Revolting.

0:27:100:27:12

This spring water, rising through cracks in the rock below,

0:27:160:27:20

becomes enriched with eggy smelling sulphur...

0:27:200:27:23

That is so bad, it's not true.

0:27:230:27:25

..From iron sulphide, deposited deep underground.

0:27:250:27:29

You'd never drink that in a million years.

0:27:290:27:32

Unless they said to me it was going to make me grow hair.

0:27:320:27:35

If it grew me hair, and did wonderful things for me.

0:27:350:27:38

Well, despite the stink, people did once believe Harrogate's waters

0:27:380:27:42

brought no end of health benefits and they flocked here to partake.

0:27:420:27:47

-Hi, Malcolm.

-Julia, welcome. Do come through.

0:27:470:27:50

Local historian Malcolm Neesam is taking me down to the 17th century

0:27:500:27:54

street level to see the original source of the sulphur spring.

0:27:540:27:59

Right, OK.

0:28:000:28:02

..which certainly would have had some effect.

0:28:020:28:05

Especially on that delightful affliction - worms.

0:28:050:28:08

Probably 90% of the population,

0:28:110:28:13

in the 17th century had worms, internal worms.

0:28:130:28:17

Now this stuff, if you drink it, because it's a purge,

0:28:170:28:20

you evacuate the worms. People used to bathe in it.

0:28:200:28:22

And it was very effective for skin conditions.

0:28:220:28:25

I almost want to jump in there now. Almost.

0:28:250:28:29

I had a little taste outside and I have to say, I'm not a big fan.

0:28:290:28:34

The secret is to hold it at arms length, in a glass,

0:28:340:28:37

then bring it quickly to your lips,

0:28:370:28:40

down it without smelling it, that's the best way to do it.

0:28:400:28:43

So you've actually tasted it, en masse?

0:28:430:28:46

I had the small thimble full,

0:28:460:28:48

that the staff here recommend you take.

0:28:480:28:51

I said, "Take it away, I can't be bothered with that.

0:28:510:28:53

"Bring me a proper glass."

0:28:530:28:56

I downed half a pint, and within 20 minutes,

0:28:560:28:59

I had to stop the walk I was doing, simply because the power

0:28:590:29:02

of the sulphur water on the gut is literally explosive!

0:29:020:29:06

Harrogate has nearly 100 springs and wells.

0:29:160:29:19

They emerge from a complex system

0:29:190:29:21

of folds and cracks in the assortment of rocks under the town.

0:29:210:29:25

In the 1970s, many of the water sources were capped off

0:29:280:29:31

rather unceremoniously.

0:29:310:29:34

Then in the 1990's we consumers rediscovered a taste for water

0:29:370:29:41

or rather a thirst for mineral water.

0:29:410:29:43

Harrogate's water industry was born again.

0:29:450:29:48

James Cain sells over 50 million bottles of water a year,

0:29:500:29:54

every drop from this hole.

0:29:540:29:57

Oh.

0:29:570:29:58

I thought it might be a well.

0:29:580:30:01

What we have here is a pipe which goes 45 metres below,

0:30:010:30:05

and we're actually taking the water after it's passed through rocks like this,

0:30:050:30:09

so this is sandstone. And as the water passes through the sandstone,

0:30:090:30:12

-it's collecting all the different minerals.

-So, it's rainwater?

0:30:120:30:16

Yes. We believe the water to be 50-500 years old.

0:30:160:30:19

It depends on the route that it takes to travel through the 45 metres of rock.

0:30:190:30:23

Let's definitely taste it.

0:30:240:30:26

So, this is the first time this water's seen daylight,

0:30:260:30:29

for between 50 and 500 years, so let's see what it tastes like.

0:30:290:30:34

-It's very minerally.

-Very minerally. Yes.

0:30:390:30:42

A slightly metallic taste.

0:30:420:30:44

So we actually take out a little bit of iron to give it what we think the optimum taste.

0:30:440:30:48

-And then it gets bottled?

-It's straight to bottle.

0:30:480:30:51

-I was tasting water earlier on today in Harrogate...

-OK.

0:30:510:30:54

-(It was horrible.)

-Oh, I can imagine.

0:30:540:30:57

It was stinky, sulphur, very smelly.

0:30:570:31:00

Why doesn't this taste like that?

0:31:000:31:01

A completely different source.

0:31:010:31:03

Albeit we're a mile apart, a different mineral balance

0:31:030:31:06

and therefore the water will taste different.

0:31:060:31:08

The flavour is affected by the type of rocks around a well.

0:31:080:31:12

And generally, the higher

0:31:120:31:15

the mineral content the stronger the taste.

0:31:150:31:17

You can get an idea of how strong by adding up the individual

0:31:210:31:25

minerals listed on the label.

0:31:250:31:27

Around 300 milligrams, like this one - is low.

0:31:290:31:33

Over 1000 is high.

0:31:330:31:36

Back in the Dales, pouring water means something rather different.

0:31:490:31:53

Here, it's the power of it

0:31:530:31:54

that has created something special, by its sheer force.

0:31:540:31:57

That is worth the walk.

0:32:040:32:05

I love that sound.

0:32:070:32:08

Sorry, I LOVE THAT SOUND!

0:32:100:32:13

Hardraw Force this is called.

0:32:200:32:22

A big slab of limestone sits at the top.

0:32:240:32:26

I'm going in.

0:32:310:32:32

May the force be with me.

0:32:330:32:35

They filmed Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves here,

0:32:380:32:43

Kevin Costner got his kit off and Maid Marian spied on him,

0:32:430:32:48

but don't worry because these waders will take me about half an hour to get off.

0:32:480:32:52

Whoo!

0:32:570:32:59

There's an enormous weight of water coming over the top.

0:32:590:33:03

And it hits the bottom here with tremendous force,

0:33:030:33:06

which is what's created this plunge pool.

0:33:060:33:10

But because the resistance of the rock to water at the top

0:33:100:33:14

is much higher than it is down at the bottom,

0:33:140:33:17

you've got this undercutting.

0:33:170:33:19

In other words, the rocks below the limestone slab are softer

0:33:240:33:29

and more vulnerable to the force of the waterfall.

0:33:290:33:32

It means that this limestone is like an enormous overhang,

0:33:320:33:36

and at some point that's going to collapse.

0:33:360:33:39

The boulders around me are what's already collapsed.

0:33:510:33:55

Woooh!

0:33:550:33:57

Which makes me wonder if this is a wise place to paddle.

0:33:570:34:00

It's great. The landscape is constantly changing.

0:34:060:34:11

Just very, very slowly.

0:34:110:34:13

And here, well, this is my favourite bit.

0:34:130:34:17

Each time the overhang collapses the waterfall moves in that direction.

0:34:180:34:23

It's hard to believe,

0:34:230:34:25

but at one point it was 300 metres down there!

0:34:250:34:28

In fact, the waterfall has gouged out an entire gorge.

0:34:350:34:38

A gorge that echoes not only to the waterfall...

0:34:410:34:44

BRASS BAND PLAYS

0:34:440:34:45

..but also to a sound that simply says - Yorkshire!

0:34:450:34:50

BAND PLAYS

0:34:500:34:54

Over thousands of years the waterfall has created

0:34:570:35:01

a perfect concert arena

0:35:010:35:02

for the Hardraw annual brass band contest.

0:35:020:35:08

14 bands from all over Northern England, here to pucker up

0:35:080:35:13

and blow for the championship.

0:35:130:35:15

Hardraw's very special. It's a long way out in the Dales.

0:35:150:35:20

We've got a pub. We've got fresh air. We've got rain.

0:35:200:35:24

Good company. It's good. It's Yorkshire.

0:35:240:35:28

Good man! He likes the rain too!

0:35:290:35:32

But what really makes Hardraw special

0:35:340:35:38

is the wonderful sound of the place.

0:35:380:35:40

It has the sound of the stream going behind

0:35:400:35:43

and the wind rustling over the top. It encloses it, and it's special,

0:35:430:35:47

and it's quiet different from whenever you sit.

0:35:470:35:51

It's just wherever you seem to sit or stand, or watch the band,

0:35:520:35:56

it's like they're playing right next to you.

0:35:560:35:58

That's the magic of it. That's the magic of Hardraw

0:35:580:36:01

that you don't have in any other environment.

0:36:010:36:05

The first battle of the bands here was in the 1880s,

0:36:090:36:11

many of the competitors from the old coal mining communities.

0:36:110:36:15

So, there's real tradition to uphold.

0:36:150:36:19

Being British, we're lucky in this country.

0:36:190:36:22

We're lucky in Yorkshire because we live here.

0:36:220:36:26

Well, we played well. We enjoyed it. Glad to be hear.

0:36:340:36:38

Proud, really proud.

0:36:380:36:40

Yorkshire owes a lot to how

0:36:550:36:58

ice and water has shaped it over millions of years.

0:36:580:37:01

And not only here on the surface, also deep underground.

0:37:050:37:11

Beneath the Yorkshire Dales,

0:37:110:37:13

water has carved out more tunnels and chambers

0:37:130:37:17

than anywhere else in the country.

0:37:170:37:20

This is Britain's capital of caves.

0:37:220:37:25

And some of them are vast.

0:37:250:37:29

That is a very, very, big hole.

0:37:290:37:32

That is Gaping Gill. So called, obviously, because it is gaping.

0:37:320:37:37

Look at the size of that!

0:37:370:37:39

And it goes down to one of the largest natural limestone caverns

0:37:390:37:44

in Britain. Just over 100 meters, down there.

0:37:440:37:47

Usain Bolt could do that in 9.6, 9.7 seconds.

0:37:470:37:51

If I take a couple of steps forward I can do it quite a lot faster!

0:37:510:37:55

This imposing portal to the underworld

0:38:030:38:06

is the venue of summer camping meets for the Craven Pothole Club.

0:38:060:38:10

Every summer, they set up the apparatus

0:38:120:38:14

to plunge the unsuspecting into the yawning abyss.

0:38:140:38:19

Hi. So, you the man who's going to be winching me down?

0:38:190:38:25

-And back up again, I hope.

-And back up again. Hmm.

0:38:250:38:27

We haven't lost anybody today. Crossed over your chest, preferably.

0:38:280:38:34

I feel like I am going to be some form of human sacrifice

0:38:340:38:37

for the gods of the underworld at the moment.

0:38:370:38:40

Does the floor just disappear now?

0:38:410:38:44

Just have a quick look.

0:38:500:38:51

Help.

0:38:540:38:57

Help.

0:39:040:39:05

This waterfall beats the one I visited at Hardraw.

0:39:250:39:28

It's Britain's highest unbroken cascade.

0:39:280:39:32

Over thousands of years, hidden from view,

0:39:370:39:41

the water's created something on a scale

0:39:410:39:44

you just wouldn't expect.

0:39:440:39:46

Hello. What a fantastic place this is, isn't it?

0:40:040:40:08

Woo!

0:40:140:40:15

This is an absolutely astonishing place.

0:40:180:40:21

It's like a sort of limestone cathedral.

0:40:230:40:26

Up there, there is light just at the top there.

0:40:270:40:30

There's water absolutely everywhere.

0:40:300:40:32

It's got that sort of fresh...

0:40:320:40:34

It's not really dank, like you would expect a cave to be, I suppose,

0:40:340:40:39

because the hole is so big.

0:40:390:40:42

You feel like, if anything, you're in an enormous vase.

0:40:420:40:47

And you're sort of being sprayed with water.

0:40:470:40:50

And underneath you, down here, I'm going to show you this.

0:40:520:40:57

It's like you are on a beach, because this is all the stuff

0:40:570:41:01

that has washed down over the years. It really is. It's like shingle.

0:41:010:41:05

And if you cleared all of this out, there's between

0:41:050:41:09

30 and 60 meters more of limestone cavern underneath.

0:41:090:41:14

This is a massive pothole.

0:41:140:41:17

It's amazing really to think that water could do this.

0:41:280:41:33

But it is not just the physical power of the water,

0:41:330:41:35

it's also a chemical reaction which has dissolved some of the limestone

0:41:350:41:39

over hundreds and thousands of years,

0:41:390:41:42

and it's created this massive chamber.

0:41:420:41:45

And the thing is, it's still doing it.

0:41:450:41:48

The water is weakly acidic.

0:41:490:41:51

It picks up its acidity from carbon dioxide in the air,

0:41:520:41:56

and from decaying vegetation, making it slightly corrosive to limestone.

0:41:560:42:00

Imperceptibly slowly, acidic water has dissolved away

0:42:030:42:07

hundreds of miles of passages under the Yorkshire Dales.

0:42:070:42:10

1500 known caves, and who knows how many unknown ones.

0:42:100:42:15

Paradise, if you like dark, damp, muddy, tight spaces.

0:42:150:42:20

Hi, I'm clear.

0:42:230:42:26

WHISTLES

0:42:260:42:27

Potholers, Jude and Johnny Latimer, and their dog,

0:42:300:42:34

sell it rather better.

0:42:340:42:36

When you're a child and you see fresh snow, and no-one's put footprints in,

0:42:360:42:40

a little bit of caving is when you find something new,

0:42:400:42:43

and you've actually gone through quite a lot of blood, sweat and tears

0:42:430:42:46

to get there, and to actually find those passages

0:42:460:42:48

where there's not a single footprint, and nobody's been there.

0:42:480:42:51

It feels a real honour.

0:42:510:42:53

-So, how did you two meet?

-In a cave a few miles away from here.

0:42:530:42:57

It was my first caving trip, so I was wearing white wellies,

0:42:570:43:01

with pink hearts on them, and pig-tails,

0:43:010:43:03

and I heard Johnny mutter to his brother as I passed,

0:43:030:43:05

"she's not going to last five minutes!"

0:43:050:43:08

And you had your hen night down here. Is that right?

0:43:080:43:10

Yes. So, I took my 25 friends down Gaping Gill.

0:43:100:43:14

I had a helmet with a veil on it, and we had champagne.

0:43:140:43:17

I wanted to show my friends that caving wasn't just

0:43:170:43:20

squalid and horrible,

0:43:200:43:21

and that, actually, it can be glamorous, too.

0:43:210:43:24

For deeper, for colder, in darkness, and in, well, wellies.

0:43:300:43:36

The thing I like is that there are still caves still being created.

0:43:360:43:41

The water continually eroding away the limestone.

0:43:410:43:44

Blimey.

0:44:000:44:01

Back above ground, the water keeps on flowing.

0:44:100:44:13

It makes gorges and caves, it rises up as mineral water,

0:44:130:44:17

and here it is again, doing something very bizarre.

0:44:170:44:21

It might look like an exhibit from the Turner art prize,

0:44:250:44:29

but this is good old fashioned British quirkiness.

0:44:290:44:32

It's a little bit weird, isn't it?

0:44:320:44:34

The world's furriest kettle.

0:44:380:44:42

What's that?

0:44:440:44:45

Is that a monkey, or a..?

0:44:460:44:48

Very eccentric, isn't it?

0:44:480:44:50

I'm at Knaresborough, between the Moors and the Dales.

0:44:520:44:55

Here, the water turns things to stone.

0:44:550:44:59

For centuries, people have left personal mementos

0:45:010:45:04

to become encrusted in the transformational trickle.

0:45:040:45:09

These are some of the rather more special objects.

0:45:090:45:13

That is John Wayne's hat, apparently.

0:45:130:45:17

This, apparently, is - was - Agatha Christie's handbag.

0:45:170:45:24

Ward off attackers with that no problem, huh?

0:45:240:45:28

It's traditional to leave something behind,

0:45:320:45:35

so I'm leaving my earmuffs to be petrified.

0:45:350:45:38

'It takes about three months to create a crusty coating

0:45:400:45:44

'on the unsuspecting objects.

0:45:440:45:46

'It's like the limescale in your kettle -

0:45:460:45:49

'when the water contained enough dissolved minerals

0:45:490:45:52

'from the rocks it seeped through, it can build up, layer on layer.

0:45:520:45:56

'The water here has almost 10 times more dissolved minerals

0:45:580:46:01

'than tap water, so the build-up can get really thick.'

0:46:010:46:07

Apparently, soft, furry things work best.

0:46:070:46:09

I'm going to smash this little teddy's foot open

0:46:090:46:12

and see how thick the coating actually is.

0:46:120:46:15

Sorry, Terry.

0:46:150:46:16

Ooh. That's a surprise.

0:46:180:46:21

Ah.

0:46:240:46:26

Let's see if I can get that foot off.

0:46:280:46:30

More of a crust than a coating, a few millimetres thick...

0:46:350:46:40

'Teddy's crust is, in fact, proper rock,

0:46:400:46:44

'a brittle type of limestone known as tufa.'

0:46:440:46:47

'It's the very rock that dissolves away underground.'

0:46:480:46:53

You've been a naughty Teddy.

0:46:530:46:55

That is one of the most bizarre things I've ever done on telly, I think

0:47:030:47:08

'Poor old Teddy - he gave his right arm for science.

0:47:100:47:15

'But it shows his rocky coating is seriously solid.'

0:47:150:47:20

As night falls, the middle of the North York moors

0:47:290:47:33

may not seem the most inviting place to be,

0:47:330:47:36

but the geology here offers a haven

0:47:360:47:39

for one of the most secretive creatures in Britain.

0:47:390:47:42

A remarkable cave dweller that loves holes in Yorkshire's limestone

0:47:420:47:46

as much as I do.

0:47:460:47:48

'It's three hours after sunset, and I've located Prof John Altrincham

0:47:590:48:04

'from Leeds University, who spends many nights in these woods

0:48:040:48:09

'dedicated to studying bats.'

0:48:090:48:13

Wow, they're all over the place, aren't they?

0:48:130:48:16

They're kind of buzzing past my ears.

0:48:160:48:18

You can almost feel the air.

0:48:180:48:20

You can feel the air, they're coming that close, you can.

0:48:200:48:23

I just wish I could see them more clearly, really.

0:48:230:48:25

What we can do is switch from normal light to infrared light

0:48:250:48:29

so you can watch them in the dark.

0:48:290:48:31

-What do I do, I just point it?

-Put it up to your eye and point.

0:48:310:48:35

Oh, wow.

0:48:350:48:38

'This is fantastic. There's dozens of them.'

0:48:420:48:46

It's amazing they don't hit anything, isn't it?

0:48:460:48:49

There are great strings of them just going across the sky.

0:48:490:48:52

It's like watching the Red Arrows or something, isn't it?

0:48:520:48:56

'The bats are all buzzing around this cave entrance.'

0:48:560:48:59

And they've just gone straight down the hole.

0:48:590:49:04

'25 metres under our feet is a huge chamber

0:49:040:49:06

'in the limestone hillside, secluded, humid and an even temperature.

0:49:060:49:11

'It's a perfect batcave.'

0:49:110:49:13

'The bats have come from far and wide,

0:49:160:49:19

'but for now they're just visiting.'

0:49:190:49:21

If they don't live here, where do they come from?

0:49:230:49:25

Would you believe me if I said Hull?

0:49:250:49:27

-Hull.

-And lots of places all over Yorkshire and beyond.

0:49:270:49:31

-And that's about 60 km, isn't it?

-Over 60 km away.

0:49:310:49:33

And they go back at the end of the night?

0:49:330:49:35

In some cases they're going back at the end of the night.

0:49:350:49:38

-Wow, it's a commitment, isn't it?

-It is, yes.

0:49:380:49:41

'The bats, many from Hull,

0:49:410:49:43

'have come to check out the perfect place to hibernate.

0:49:430:49:47

'But they're also after something else.'

0:49:470:49:51

They come here to mate.

0:49:510:49:53

I think a lot of this is competition between males,

0:49:530:49:57

and it's females assessing males.

0:49:570:49:59

-See who can fly the best.

-Yeah.

0:49:590:50:01

You know, if you're fast and manoeuvrable and fit,

0:50:010:50:05

then you're carrying good genes.

0:50:050:50:07

That's always worked for me.

0:50:070:50:09

-So these are the traps, are they?

-Yeah.

0:50:140:50:16

'By gently trapping bats,

0:50:160:50:18

'John's found that six of the 17 British bat species visit this cave.'

0:50:180:50:24

They're great.

0:50:240:50:25

They look really rather sweet, actually.

0:50:250:50:27

They're cute, yes.

0:50:270:50:29

Even a hard-nosed scientist like me might think they're cute.

0:50:290:50:32

-You want to see one close up?

-Yeah, I'd love to.

0:50:320:50:36

Hello.

0:50:360:50:38

So, there you go.

0:50:380:50:40

They're quite big, actually, aren't they?

0:50:400:50:43

They're big, but they're very likely built.

0:50:430:50:45

They're the size of a mouse but half the weight,

0:50:450:50:48

these are only about 10 grams.

0:50:480:50:50

They looked like a tiny little dog, really, don't they?

0:50:500:50:54

-So, are these males or females?

-Most of these will be males.

0:50:550:50:59

So, these male bats are really on the pull, ardently?

0:50:590:51:02

That's it, this is clubbing for bats, only on a grand scale.

0:51:020:51:05

-We're going to let this one go.

-There he goes.

0:51:050:51:09

Superb takeoff ability.

0:51:090:51:11

I know, it's great, straight off into the darkness.

0:51:110:51:13

'This is the closest to nightclubbing I've been for a while,

0:51:150:51:18

'and great to see what a hidden limestone cave

0:51:180:51:21

'can do for these guys -

0:51:210:51:23

'bats, and bat professors.'

0:51:230:51:26

Our story has brought us right to the coast, and what a coast it is.

0:51:340:51:38

Yorkshire has 100 miles of it.

0:51:380:51:42

Some of it is around 200 million years old.

0:51:420:51:47

But the stretch I'm walking is a baby in comparison.

0:51:470:51:51

In fact, at less than 20,000 years old,

0:51:510:51:54

this is one of Britain's youngest landscapes.

0:51:540:51:57

It's an immense pile of sand, clay, pebbles and boulders.

0:52:000:52:06

Geological junk.

0:52:060:52:08

This is bits and pieces of old Yorkshire landscapes

0:52:110:52:14

that were torn away and ground up by the last ice age.

0:52:140:52:18

Glaciers and torrents of meltwater carried the debris from inland...

0:52:210:52:27

and dumped it, forming this brand-new stretch

0:52:270:52:31

of the East Yorkshire coast -

0:52:310:52:34

Holderness.

0:52:340:52:35

For the people who live here, geology has a sting in its tail.

0:52:360:52:42

The cliffs, and everything we've built on them,

0:52:440:52:48

are being devoured by the North Sea.

0:52:480:52:51

Scientists from the British geological survey

0:52:530:52:57

are keeping tabs on the disappearing land.

0:52:570:53:00

Peter Balsam is one of them.

0:53:000:53:03

The whole landscape here is very weak

0:53:030:53:05

and is easily worn away by the waves hitting the cliffs.

0:53:050:53:08

You can see here that I can smash it up in my hands,

0:53:080:53:12

it just tears apart, so it's very easy for it to be eroded, very soft.

0:53:120:53:17

There's been massive change in this location.

0:53:170:53:20

10 years ago, the cliff would have extended

0:53:200:53:23

all the way across here another 30 metres out to sea,

0:53:230:53:26

so everything here has gone in the last 10 years.

0:53:260:53:30

With as much as three metres of this coastline disappearing a year,

0:53:310:53:36

people's properties are under threat.

0:53:360:53:39

A life by the sea doesn't seem so appealing.

0:53:390:53:43

It's one of the fastest eroding coastlines in Europe.

0:53:430:53:47

But something else extraordinary is happening here,

0:53:530:53:57

something that actually benefits everyone of us in Britain.

0:53:570:54:01

As the vulnerable coastline gives way,

0:54:010:54:05

a lot of what's eroded washes down the coast.

0:54:050:54:08

It's heading here - Spurn Point,

0:54:110:54:14

a peculiar strip of sand and pebbles

0:54:140:54:17

that stretches across the mouth of the River Humber.

0:54:170:54:21

Some of the eroded material from up the coast

0:54:220:54:25

reinforces this exposed spot.

0:54:250:54:27

That wind bouncing in of the North Sea nearly knocks you off your feet.

0:54:300:54:35

This wild and remote spit of land has become

0:54:350:54:38

a haven for migrating birds coming in from the Arctic

0:54:380:54:42

and from northern Europe, but it also, very importantly,

0:54:420:54:47

protects the Humber estuary from the ravages of the North Sea.

0:54:470:54:52

'The Humber estuary is vital to Britain.

0:54:560:54:59

'It's a huge port, handling more of our cargo than anywhere else,

0:54:590:55:03

'and serious amounts of coal, oil and gas.

0:55:030:55:07

'Captain Phil Cowing is the harbourmaster.'

0:55:080:55:12

-Thank you very much, yes.

-Follow me.

0:55:130:55:15

How important is this stretch of water in shipping terms?

0:55:250:55:29

Very important.

0:55:290:55:30

We're handling about 95 million tonnes of cargo,

0:55:300:55:33

a million passengers each year.

0:55:330:55:35

From 500 ton coasters through to 300,000 tonne supertankers laden with crude oil.

0:55:350:55:41

How important is Spurn Point to all this activity?

0:55:410:55:44

It is vital, I mean, it's a great, natural,

0:55:440:55:47

three-mile long breakwater that protects us from the North Sea.

0:55:470:55:52

The Spurn is a natural asset to us, and if it wasn't there

0:55:530:55:56

the lights would go out in the UK and the heating would go off.

0:55:560:56:00

If it wasn't there, we'd probably have to build some sort of breakwater.

0:56:000:56:04

'Take away this strip of land and the coal,

0:56:080:56:11

'oil and gas that Britain relies on for its energy could be hit hard.

0:56:110:56:16

'Without this strip of land, we'd be in trouble.'

0:56:160:56:21

I like to think of it as a protective arm,

0:56:210:56:25

lovingly sheltering the estuary.

0:56:250:56:28

Help.

0:56:330:56:34

Well, that was Yorkshire, from the bottom to the top.

0:56:360:56:38

And we've seen some of the best of it.

0:56:380:56:41

It's a landscape born out of water

0:56:410:56:44

and shaped and carved by the force of water, too,

0:56:440:56:48

through water falls...

0:56:480:56:50

ice...

0:56:500:56:52

and the pounding power of the sea.

0:56:520:56:55

What happened millions of years ago stays with us today.

0:56:580:57:04

Perhaps even in the way people feel.

0:57:040:57:08

Yorkshire folk are officially the happiest in Britain.

0:57:080:57:13

'Well, it's certainly a landscape that makes me very happy.

0:57:150:57:18

'This is somewhere I'm very fond of.'

0:57:180:57:21

I think Yorkshire as a whole is great,

0:57:240:57:27

because it's the biggest county,

0:57:270:57:29

but then there's another county exactly the same underneath.

0:57:290:57:32

Lot of stuff down there.

0:57:320:57:34

-It's provided power for us...

-Puddings...

0:57:340:57:37

It's got the lot, Yorkshire.

0:57:370:57:39

Then on top it's this tremendous playground for walkers and climbers.

0:57:390:57:43

Or you can just do what we're doing -

0:57:430:57:45

-have a little natter and look at it.

-Yeah.

0:57:450:57:48

And, actually, it has been overall just the right side of wet for me, Yorkshire.

0:57:480:57:52

-Does that mean dry?

-No.

-Drizzle?

-Yeah?

-Perfect.

0:57:520:57:57

-Consistent drizzle.

-Yeah.

0:57:570:58:00

LAUGHTER

0:58:000:58:02

Next time, Hugh and I discover

0:58:020:58:05

that the South Downs are not as sleepy as they seem.

0:58:050:58:09

We get to grips with its most dramatic landscapes,

0:58:090:58:12

and discover there are some surprises in these hills.

0:58:120:58:16

Wahey!

0:58:160:58:17

HE LAUGHS

0:58:170:58:19

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:58:360:58:40

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0:58:400:58:43

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