0:00:30 > 0:00:33If we could travel back in time, 8,000 years,
0:00:33 > 0:00:37we'd find woodland almost everywhere in Britain.
0:00:41 > 0:00:49People had lived in this forest for millennia, yet never enough of them to make much of a difference.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54But the tiny population was growing and a new age was dawning,
0:00:54 > 0:00:57as people power began to take over
0:00:57 > 0:01:02from the wild wood in the great taming of Wild Britain.
0:01:10 > 0:01:17The vast forest that cloaked the British Isles at the end of the last ice age was a true wilderness.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25It was a place where nature ruled the roost.
0:01:29 > 0:01:34That ancient woodland really was the forest of fairy tale,
0:01:34 > 0:01:40a primeval paradise, where the wildlife followed the natural rhythms of life...
0:01:40 > 0:01:42and death.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49It was Britain's very own Garden of Eden.
0:01:51 > 0:01:57How people turned this wild woodland into the gentle countryside we know today
0:01:57 > 0:02:00is the most important story in our history.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05This is how it all began.
0:02:13 > 0:02:18For thousands of years, man had been at the mercy of mother nature.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24But these predators were not hunting for man,
0:02:24 > 0:02:27they were hunting with him.
0:02:28 > 0:02:30Someone else was on the menu.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43Working together made for a much more successful hunt.
0:03:02 > 0:03:07And this was also a vital first step in taming the wild.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12Go on, down there! No, down there! Go on!
0:03:12 > 0:03:18Turning wolves from wild enemies into furry friends like Scamp here,
0:03:18 > 0:03:21was a pivotal moment in human history.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24We used our big brains to control a little bit of nature.
0:03:26 > 0:03:32But people didn't begin to change the British landscape until the arrival of a much larger animal.
0:03:32 > 0:03:37And we know all about that, thanks to this little chap.
0:03:37 > 0:03:42Believe it or not, this beetle can help us look back in time.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45MUSIC: "THE GREAT ESCAPE" THEME TUNE
0:03:51 > 0:03:55Fossil beetle bits can survive for centuries.
0:03:55 > 0:04:00And by counting their remains we know that 6,000 years ago
0:04:00 > 0:04:03the population of this particular beetle suddenly took off.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09And that's all because of what they eat.
0:04:11 > 0:04:17It might be fertilizer to you and me, but it's dinner to a dung beetle.
0:04:17 > 0:04:22Phew! Not my idea of nouvelle cuisine, but these fellas love it.
0:04:22 > 0:04:29In fact, they only eat dung, so if there was an increase in their numbers 6,000 years ago,
0:04:29 > 0:04:32there must also have been an increase in dung.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36And the culprit...the cow.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42Believe it or not, cows were crucial.
0:04:46 > 0:04:51As they arrived, along with sheep and goats, on early trading boats,
0:04:51 > 0:04:55the transformation of the British Isles began in earnest.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01Forest had to make way for pasture.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15Cutting down trees doesn't present a problem nowadays.
0:05:15 > 0:05:20One of those machines can have them down and all chopped up in seconds.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23Our ancestors had nothing like that.
0:05:23 > 0:05:29When they wanted to clear a patch of forestall they had was this... a stone axe.
0:05:29 > 0:05:34Made, in this case, from Cornish greenstone. Not exactly razor-sharp!
0:05:34 > 0:05:38They tell me it's surprisingly effective.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40I may be gone some time!
0:05:46 > 0:05:53It's hard to believe that the people who began taming Britain were armed with only simple stone tools.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08It may look gentle, but it is pretty strenuous...
0:06:08 > 0:06:10and slow!
0:06:21 > 0:06:25I wish they'd hurry up and invent the chain saw.
0:06:30 > 0:06:36Yes, I could certainly do with more practice. Oh!
0:06:40 > 0:06:45But in more expert hands, this was a powerful weapon of destruction.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58More and more forest fell to the axe.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03Whoa!
0:07:06 > 0:07:10That's the way to do it! It's taken me quite a long time,
0:07:10 > 0:07:15but two of our ancestors could have cut down three to four acres of woodland in a week.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18The assault on the forest had begun.
0:07:19 > 0:07:255,500 years ago, the appearance of the countryside was changing.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31Though woodland still covered most of Britain,
0:07:31 > 0:07:35sizeable clearings had begun to appear among the trees.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41As our countryside opened up, large areas of grassland...
0:07:41 > 0:07:45and heath land made their first appearance.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49And so did Britain's first fields,
0:07:49 > 0:07:54full of newcomers which had arrived here alongside cattle and sheep.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58Domesticated plants, like wheat and barley,
0:07:58 > 0:08:03were the last essential ingredients in the recipe for human success.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07These really were the seeds of a revolution.
0:08:08 > 0:08:16With this new package of plants and animals, our ancestors no longer had to rely on the forest for food.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20They had become Britain's first farmers
0:08:20 > 0:08:24and as their success spread, the woodland shrank.
0:08:29 > 0:08:35By 3,000 BC, fields replaced forest across great swathes of Britain.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40It wasn't all bad news for nature.
0:08:40 > 0:08:46This was when many of our familiar countryside plants and animals first became common.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50Wild flowers thrived among the organically grown crops.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56And these new fields provided a bounty of insects and seeds -
0:08:56 > 0:08:58food for birds.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06With such poor eyesight, the mole
0:09:06 > 0:09:09couldn't actually see the changes,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12but he could certainly sense them...
0:09:14 > 0:09:17..along with the tiny harvest mouse.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20It's the smallest of all British mammals,
0:09:20 > 0:09:22weighing no more than a tuppenny piece.
0:09:26 > 0:09:32This abundance of snack-sized animals was also good news for Britain's predators,
0:09:32 > 0:09:35including one of our most beautiful birds of prey.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45The barn owl likes to hunt along the field edges,
0:09:45 > 0:09:50and must have prospered as Britain's countryside became more open.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55Watching its graceful flight on a summer's evening
0:09:55 > 0:09:59must be one of the most moving sights in the British landscape.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13Particularly, with the dying sun on its wings,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16it must have looked like a ghost to our ancestors.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19It flies almost silently,
0:10:19 > 0:10:26using sound to detect its prey, and stealth to creep up on it.
0:10:26 > 0:10:31That wide face is like a radio receiver, listening and listening.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35No matter how many times you see it it's always magical.
0:10:39 > 0:10:44Perfect hunter - talons, beak and radar.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49An unforgettable sight.
0:10:58 > 0:11:03Wildlife certainly thrived in these fields, but it was humans who gained the most.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07More fields meant more food, to feed more people.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11We were becoming an ever more powerful force in the landscape,
0:11:11 > 0:11:16and signs of that new-found strength can still be seen today.
0:11:23 > 0:11:28West Kennet Long Barrow is one of the oldest man-made structures in Britain.
0:11:33 > 0:11:38Some stones are very heavy. They were moved here from miles away.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42The barrow behind is comprised of thousands of tonnes of rubble,
0:11:42 > 0:11:47so why did our ancestors go to all this effort?
0:11:52 > 0:11:58The first clues to answering that question were found inside West Kennet.
0:11:59 > 0:12:04When first excavated, these chambers contained pottery, axe and arrowheads
0:12:04 > 0:12:08and most importantly...bones, from dozens of different people.
0:12:09 > 0:12:15So, all in all, it's pretty safe to assume that this was a tomb of some sort.
0:12:15 > 0:12:21The local community may have come here to worship or just to remember their dead.
0:12:21 > 0:12:27It's clearly a place that had great, spiritual significance to our ancestors.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36But its importance doesn't end there.
0:12:36 > 0:12:42The land around me was, and is, good farmland, well worth hanging on to.
0:12:42 > 0:12:48And so our ancestors used tombs like this to prove their family ties to the land,
0:12:48 > 0:12:51and claim ownership of it.
0:12:51 > 0:12:57Monuments were beacons in the landscape, saying, "This land is taken".
0:13:18 > 0:13:23These symbols of ownership appeared wherever fields replaced forest.
0:13:23 > 0:13:30Over a few hundred years, thousands of monuments were constructed all across the British Isles.
0:13:30 > 0:13:35A clear signal of growing human control in the countryside.
0:13:44 > 0:13:49Many are aligned with the movements of the sun and the stars,
0:13:49 > 0:13:52as people learned more about the natural world around them
0:13:52 > 0:13:57and began to attach significance to the pattern of the heavens.
0:14:12 > 0:14:17Most remarkable of all are the great stone circles.
0:14:26 > 0:14:31Stonehenge stills draws almost a million visitors each year.
0:14:31 > 0:14:35To our ancestors, it must have been awe-inspiring.
0:14:36 > 0:14:43To build such a magnificent monument must have taken extraordinary organisation and co-operation,
0:14:43 > 0:14:46clear evidence of a thriving human population.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00The thousands of monuments, scattered all over our islands,
0:15:00 > 0:15:04shows just how widespread farming had become.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08Those early farmers even made it up here, to Dartmoor.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11Here, they had a far more drastic effect -
0:15:11 > 0:15:15the first environmental disaster in British history.
0:15:17 > 0:15:23The bleak moors we know today are very different from how Dartmoor originally looked.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26Even here it was once woodland.
0:15:26 > 0:15:31But just as they had elsewhere, our ancestors felled that forest to make way for farmland.
0:15:31 > 0:15:36Dartmoor is absolutely littered with ancient settlements,
0:15:36 > 0:15:39built during the Bronze Age, about 3,000 years ago.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42Here at Grimspound, they're well preserved.
0:15:42 > 0:15:48You can make out these circles of the stone huts set within this enormous perimeter wall.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52This was clearly once a much nicer place to live.
0:15:52 > 0:15:57But up here, turning forest to fields upset a delicate balance.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00Dartmoor was primed for disaster.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10Britain's climate suddenly became colder and wetter.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14And here on Dartmoor, more and more rain fell.
0:16:15 > 0:16:22With no trees to hold together the fragile soil, the nutrients were washed away.
0:16:26 > 0:16:28Crops failed,
0:16:28 > 0:16:31livestock died
0:16:31 > 0:16:34and Dartmoor became a wet desert.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45Yet what these moorlands have lost in fertility,
0:16:45 > 0:16:47they've gained in rugged beauty.
0:17:03 > 0:17:08Dartmoor isn't the only upland in Britain to be, at least partly, man-made.
0:17:08 > 0:17:13From Exmoor to the North York Moors, these remote and windy landscapes,
0:17:13 > 0:17:19though created by fire and ice, have all been sculpted by the hand of man.
0:17:20 > 0:17:27Forest had made way for moorland, heath land, grassland and above all farmland...
0:17:27 > 0:17:30and as Britain BC became Britain AD,
0:17:30 > 0:17:34the landscape was taking on a much more familiar feel.
0:17:34 > 0:17:39It's extraordinary to think that much of today's countryside
0:17:39 > 0:17:46isn't so very different from Roman soldiers found, when they landed on our shores in 43 AD.
0:17:46 > 0:17:52But there were still big changes to come. Changes that involved not so much cutting down forests,
0:17:52 > 0:17:57as controlling mother nature, imposing ever more order on the landscape.
0:17:57 > 0:18:01And no-one loved order more than those Romans.
0:18:04 > 0:18:11It was the Emperor Claudius who successfully invaded Britain, with an army of 50,000 men.
0:18:11 > 0:18:17It wasn't long before the Romans were doing their bit to change the face of the British Isles.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22The first... and most obvious legacy...
0:18:22 > 0:18:24the Romans left us...
0:18:24 > 0:18:26were these...
0:18:26 > 0:18:28roads!
0:18:34 > 0:18:38Efficient roads were crucial to Roman rule,
0:18:38 > 0:18:43allowing soldiers and goods to move quickly around Britain.
0:18:43 > 0:18:48Their direct routes sliced through the natural curves of the landscape.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57This vital infrastructure remains just as important today,
0:18:57 > 0:19:02and many of our modern roads trace routes laid down by the Romans.
0:19:06 > 0:19:10"Street" was the Anglo-Saxon word for a Roman road,
0:19:10 > 0:19:17so you could say that every street in Britain began with the Romans, even some of the most famous!
0:19:28 > 0:19:32These new roads led to new towns and cities -
0:19:32 > 0:19:39London, Chester, York, Lincoln, Bath, and many others were all founded by the Romans.
0:19:42 > 0:19:49Their occupation gave a clear and very human structure to much of Britain's landscape.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52And the very ultimate symbol of Roman power?
0:19:56 > 0:20:02Hadrian's Wall, marking the north-west frontier of the Roman Empire.
0:20:04 > 0:20:10It took six years to build, and used more than a million cubic metres of stone.
0:20:10 > 0:20:16It remains one of the most ambitious building projects ever undertaken in the world!
0:20:16 > 0:20:22Originally it would have been twice my height at around four metres, and about three metres thick.
0:20:22 > 0:20:28Today, it's a shadow of its former self, but it remains one of our most spectacular landmarks.
0:20:40 > 0:20:46The wall stretched right across Britain, from the Solway Firth on the west coast
0:20:46 > 0:20:48to Newcastle on the east,
0:20:48 > 0:20:53controlling the movement of people and trade in and out of the Roman Empire.
0:20:53 > 0:20:57And it's easy to see why it was built here,
0:20:57 > 0:21:01using the natural crags to make the frontier invincible.
0:21:15 > 0:21:20The best place to see the wall is in Northumberland National Park,
0:21:20 > 0:21:24where you can get still get some sense of its huge scale
0:21:24 > 0:21:29and some idea of what life must have been like for a Roman soldier,
0:21:29 > 0:21:31stationed in this bleak landscape.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35They were billeted in these mile castles,
0:21:35 > 0:21:40which are spaced at intervals of one Roman mile along the wall.
0:21:40 > 0:21:46A Roman mile is a little bit less than our mile. These walls were even taller than the main wall.
0:21:46 > 0:21:54Inside the area, a long barracks... You can see the foundations. ..would have slept about 16 men.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56It must have been fairly cosy!
0:21:56 > 0:22:02It must have been draughty, with wind and rain blowing across the ridge.
0:22:02 > 0:22:07This curved wall here is probably a porch to keep out the worst of the weather.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10It may also have kept out the smell of the horses,
0:22:10 > 0:22:17which could have been stabled over here, along with stores, and weaponry to keep out the barbarians!
0:22:22 > 0:22:26The ruins of Hadrian's Wall, and our network of roads,
0:22:26 > 0:22:31are reminders of the hard edges the Romans created as they tamed our landscape,
0:22:31 > 0:22:34but they also made subtle changes.
0:22:34 > 0:22:37To find those, I'm heading south.
0:22:45 > 0:22:50The Yorkshire Dales might seem an unlikely place to look for Roman remains,
0:22:50 > 0:22:55but I'm not looking for crumbling ruins or ancient coins, I'm after flowers.
0:23:01 > 0:23:05Back in May, the livestock were shut out of this field
0:23:05 > 0:23:12to let the grass to grow good and tall for hay. And it has done, along with the buttercups and the clover.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15Now it's ready for cutting, but with what?
0:23:17 > 0:23:22These days the hay is cut by machine, then dried and stored for the winter,
0:23:22 > 0:23:26but they didn't have tractors back then.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29It needed a bit of Roman innovation.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31That's where this comes in.
0:23:31 > 0:23:37Before the mower, scythes were at the cutting edge of cutting technology,
0:23:37 > 0:23:41and it was the Romans that brought them to Britain.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45Without such an efficient cutting tool, we couldn't have cut hay
0:23:45 > 0:23:49and so it's the Romans we owe our hay meadows.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02And what a wonderful spectacle they make,
0:24:02 > 0:24:06packed with colour from more than 40 different wild flowers.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08A botanist's dream!
0:24:19 > 0:24:25This one, yellow rattle, is particularly useful because it feeds on the roots of grass,
0:24:25 > 0:24:29weakening it and allowing the other flowers in.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32Why yellow rattle?
0:24:32 > 0:24:37Well, when the seeds are ripe, they shake and rattle in those pods just like a rattlesnake.
0:25:03 > 0:25:10The glorious sight of a hay meadow in full flower is surely something to thank the Romans for,
0:25:10 > 0:25:12but they had one more contribution
0:25:12 > 0:25:19for which I, along with every gardener in the country, owe them nothing but curses.
0:25:24 > 0:25:29The Romans gave us snails!
0:25:33 > 0:25:35There have always been snails in Britain,
0:25:35 > 0:25:41but it was the Romans who brought over the all too familiar garden snail.
0:25:41 > 0:25:47It was introduced as a gourmet delicacy, but these days the snails do most of the eating!
0:26:03 > 0:26:06A single snail can have 430 babies in a year.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13They really are eating us out of house and home.
0:26:16 > 0:26:23How ironic that the humble snail lasted longer than the mighty Romans.
0:26:23 > 0:26:30Their armies left Britain behind in 410 AD.
0:26:30 > 0:26:36Released from their strict control mother nature had a chance to bounce back.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45Britain's wildlife began to reclaim the countryside.
0:26:52 > 0:26:57For 600 years the taming of Britain slowed almost to a standstill.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04But it was only a temporary reprieve.
0:27:04 > 0:27:08In 1066 the conquest continued...
0:27:08 > 0:27:10in came the Normans.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13Before the Normans arrived, castles like this one at Chepstow
0:27:13 > 0:27:16simply didn't exist in Britain.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19But within a few decades, they built hundreds of them
0:27:19 > 0:27:21from Dover to Dublin.
0:27:26 > 0:27:33Chepstow was the very first castle to be built in stone, but many others quickly followed.
0:27:38 > 0:27:44In fact so many buildings went up in the century after the conquest
0:27:44 > 0:27:47that Britain must have been like one huge construction site.
0:27:49 > 0:27:54More stone was quarried for all this building work, than for the great pyramids of Egypt.
0:28:00 > 0:28:07These majestic buildings were solid statements of Norman strength and power.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10But this was just the beginning.
0:28:10 > 0:28:17In the decades which followed, castles became more and more impressive.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21Many of the most imposing of all are here in Wales,
0:28:21 > 0:28:26a legacy of the centuries of struggle between the Welsh lords, and the Kings of England.
0:28:28 > 0:28:36In a world where most buildings were modest timber affairs, castles would have towered over the landscape.
0:28:47 > 0:28:49For the lords of the land,
0:28:49 > 0:28:54these were symbols of their growing control over Britain's countryside.
0:29:02 > 0:29:09As well as their love for castles, the Norman lords had one other great passion - hunting.
0:29:10 > 0:29:15Ironically, their addiction to the thrill of the chase
0:29:15 > 0:29:18made the Normans into Britain's first conservationists.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23That'll do!
0:29:32 > 0:29:36The Norman's favourite prey was the fallow deer.
0:29:36 > 0:29:42But while they were common back home in France, these particular deer were entirely absent from Britain.
0:29:42 > 0:29:47So the Normans brought some over and left them to settle in.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52The stag's roars still echo round our woodlands
0:29:52 > 0:29:55as he gathers up his girls each autumn.
0:30:04 > 0:30:10To protect their prized deer the Normans set aside great areas of land, much of it forest.
0:30:10 > 0:30:12With 80% of Britain's trees already cut down...
0:30:12 > 0:30:16these woodlands became a vital refuge.
0:30:16 > 0:30:18Many, from Sherwood to the New Forest...
0:30:18 > 0:30:21have remained protected to this day...
0:30:21 > 0:30:25and now contain some of our oldest trees.
0:30:26 > 0:30:30Here in Windsor Great Park are some of the most ancient of all.
0:30:30 > 0:30:36Massive great oaks, some of them more than 1,000 years old, and that makes them
0:30:36 > 0:30:39amongst the oldest living things in Europe.
0:30:39 > 0:30:43It's amazing to think William the Conqueror
0:30:43 > 0:30:47may have ridden under the branches of these trees.
0:30:47 > 0:30:54But these forests were a far cry from Britain's ancient woodland.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57These woods were ruled by people...
0:30:57 > 0:31:04carefully managed to provide a ready supply of timber, fencing, firewood and charcoal.
0:31:15 > 0:31:23They may have had to serve people first, but they did provide a refuge for some of our richest woodland.
0:31:26 > 0:31:32And the creation of these forests was not the only way in which the Normans helped out our wildlife.
0:31:41 > 0:31:47I'm on me way to Skomer, a little island off the South West coast of Wales...
0:31:47 > 0:31:54It would seem an unlikely place to find a link between Norman rule and Britain's natural heritage,
0:31:54 > 0:31:56but you'd be surprised.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02In fact it's actually because Skomer is so remote that it was chosen
0:32:02 > 0:32:07as the perfect place to hide a very important animal.
0:32:10 > 0:32:12The rabbit!
0:32:12 > 0:32:16It might be a common sight today, but there were no rabbits in Britain
0:32:16 > 0:32:19until the Normans brought them here.
0:32:19 > 0:32:24When they were first introduced, rabbits were a prized delicacy.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27A bit like caviar is today.
0:32:27 > 0:32:32They were kept on islands to stop peasants nicking them for the pot.
0:32:34 > 0:32:41Remarkably, when they first arrived they were rather delicate creatures, and needed quite a lot of TLC.
0:32:41 > 0:32:47But eventually, they toughened up to the British weather and began to breed...
0:32:47 > 0:32:50well, like rabbits.
0:32:50 > 0:32:55It wasn't long before they were all over the place.
0:33:00 > 0:33:04But here on Skomer, at least, they've helped out some of our native wildlife.
0:33:04 > 0:33:09For the puffins which come here to breed each year,
0:33:09 > 0:33:12these rabbit burrows are the perfect place to make a nest.
0:33:48 > 0:33:50They are amazing, aren't they?
0:33:50 > 0:33:56One of our most endearing birds on account of the fact the face is painted a bit like a clown.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59Every one perfectly made-up -
0:33:59 > 0:34:04lipstick, silver-grey cheek, dash of eyeliner!
0:34:04 > 0:34:08Every last one of them's watching what I do.
0:34:08 > 0:34:10Skomer's the perfect hotel for them,
0:34:10 > 0:34:17full of these rabbit holes, five-star residences for raising a family.
0:34:17 > 0:34:21The puffins just boot the rabbits out.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24Well, you wouldn't want to argue with a beak like that, would you?!
0:34:24 > 0:34:31For brilliance the puffin is hard to beat, but there is an even more remarkable bird here on Skomer
0:34:31 > 0:34:34and it only comes out at night.
0:34:40 > 0:34:46It's half past nine, the sun's set and it's getting incredibly dark.
0:34:46 > 0:34:51Too dark now to use this camera, so we need to change...
0:34:51 > 0:34:56to infra-red. And for me to get out image-intensifying binoculars.
0:34:56 > 0:35:00pure James Bond this, you know.
0:35:00 > 0:35:05But to begin with it's more what you hear than what you see.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11BIRDS SQUAWK
0:35:11 > 0:35:14Can you hear that?
0:35:15 > 0:35:21It's been likened to the voices of cackling witches. I can believe that!
0:35:21 > 0:35:25Someone said it was the ghosts of long-dead pirates.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31It's neither, actually.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34It's the sound of Skomer's greatest treasure.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37And before long, they start to appear.
0:35:37 > 0:35:42it's a Manx shearwater, a truly remarkable bird.
0:35:46 > 0:35:53They're not the most elegant birds on land - their legs are too near their bodies to stand upright.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56But they're designed for a life at sea.
0:35:56 > 0:36:02They've just come back from fishing for sardines off the coast of Spain,
0:36:02 > 0:36:06eaten its fill, relieved its mate on the nest,
0:36:06 > 0:36:09who will go off and fish in turn.
0:36:09 > 0:36:14They come home at night to avoid being attacked by gulls.
0:36:14 > 0:36:20I can just make them out when your eyes get accustomed to the dark.
0:36:20 > 0:36:22The place is alive with them!
0:36:22 > 0:36:26It's not remotely scary, it's... quite wonderful.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36Just like the puffins, they're here because of the rabbits,
0:36:36 > 0:36:41whose burrows attract 102,000 pairs of shearwater each year...
0:36:41 > 0:36:45that's a third of the world's population on this one island.
0:36:49 > 0:36:54With so many neighbours in close proximity, the odd squabble is inevitable!
0:36:58 > 0:37:03These delightful birds pair up for life
0:37:03 > 0:37:08and may return to Skomer for anything up to 50 years.
0:37:08 > 0:37:10Well, it's been an amazing evening.
0:37:10 > 0:37:15Who'd have thought that the invasion of the Normans and their rabbits
0:37:15 > 0:37:18would have meant that islands like Skomer
0:37:18 > 0:37:20were rich in birdlife today?
0:37:22 > 0:37:23One o'clock.
0:37:25 > 0:37:26Time for bed!
0:37:36 > 0:37:41Under the efficient rule of the Normans, Britain's people flourished
0:37:41 > 0:37:44and farmland swept across even more of the countryside.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51Wild Britain was squeezed into ever tighter corners,
0:37:51 > 0:37:54but mother nature was about to fight back.
0:37:57 > 0:38:03Fields, towns and villages were a perfect breeding ground for rats...
0:38:03 > 0:38:06the rats carried fleas...
0:38:06 > 0:38:10and in the belly of the fleas was plague.
0:38:18 > 0:38:25The Black Death arrived on Britain's shores in 1348, and it spread like wildfire.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33Some towns lost 70% of their inhabitants...
0:38:33 > 0:38:38and in just 18 months, one in every three people in Britain was dead.
0:38:48 > 0:38:53The drastic effect of the Black Death on the people of Britain was clear,
0:38:53 > 0:38:56but did it change our countryside?
0:38:56 > 0:39:00Well, many villages were abandoned in medieval times,
0:39:00 > 0:39:03but was that because of the plague?
0:39:03 > 0:39:05This is Wharram Percy...
0:39:05 > 0:39:09one of the most important archaeological sites in Britain.
0:39:09 > 0:39:13Before the Black Death, it was a thriving community,
0:39:13 > 0:39:16but today it's a ghost town.
0:39:21 > 0:39:28This church dates back around 1,000 years, serving local villagers since Saxon times.
0:39:28 > 0:39:35But it's been a long time since anyone sang hymns or prayers were said within these walls.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39The village of Wharram Percy has all but vanished.
0:39:50 > 0:39:54All that remains today are lumps and bumps in the ground.
0:39:56 > 0:40:00It was these lumps and bumps that first attracted the interest of archaeologists.
0:40:00 > 0:40:08Every summer for 40 years, they came with their buckets and spades, trowels and brushes and dug away
0:40:08 > 0:40:16to reveal the foundations of the houses, now laid out in gravel for everyone to see.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19That square would have been a hearth.
0:40:19 > 0:40:23These houses had animals and people under one roof.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26We know the people were very tidy
0:40:26 > 0:40:30because the chalk underneath the grass is in the form of a dish
0:40:30 > 0:40:35from being regularly swept. Good Yorkshire values even then.
0:40:35 > 0:40:40So was it the Black Death that finished off Wharram Percy?
0:40:40 > 0:40:42Well, no.
0:40:42 > 0:40:48We now know that many of these houses were still in use for generations after the plague.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52Disease may have weakened the village, but it couldn't destroy its spirit.
0:40:52 > 0:41:01It wasn't until almost 200 years after the Black Death that Wharram Percy was finally deserted. Why?
0:41:01 > 0:41:06Well, it fell victim to a very different kind of plague.
0:41:09 > 0:41:14SHEEP BLEAT
0:41:14 > 0:41:17A plague of sheep.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27There was a huge increase in sheep farming
0:41:27 > 0:41:34in the years after the Black Death, and it was sheep, not disease, which drove people from their villages.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38There was a booming market for wool,
0:41:38 > 0:41:41and landlords, in pursuit of a quick profit,
0:41:41 > 0:41:46evicted villagers, to make way for these huge flocks.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55They may seem like timid scatty creatures to us,
0:41:55 > 0:41:59but back then, sheep really were a curse. Just listen to this.
0:41:59 > 0:42:04Sir Thomas Moore, writing in his Utopia, in 1515,
0:42:04 > 0:42:09"Sheep become so great devourers and so wild
0:42:09 > 0:42:14"that they eat up and swallow the very men themselves.
0:42:14 > 0:42:20"They consume, destroy and devour whole fields, houses and cities."
0:42:20 > 0:42:24It might sound a little over dramatic, but there's no doubt
0:42:24 > 0:42:29that it was sheep who finally polished off Wharram Percy.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32Thousands of other villages suffered the same fate.
0:42:32 > 0:42:39But even as many people were driven from the land, the population was on the rise once again.
0:42:39 > 0:42:43Towns and cities prospered and by the beginning of the 17th century
0:42:43 > 0:42:48there were more than six million people in the British Isles.
0:42:48 > 0:42:53But that amount of mouths to feed put a huge pressure
0:42:53 > 0:42:55on the British countryside.
0:42:55 > 0:42:59This was to be the final push in the taming of Britain.
0:43:13 > 0:43:19But there was still one corner of Britain where nature remained in charge.
0:43:19 > 0:43:25Across many of England's eastern counties the landscape was dominated by marsh and fen -
0:43:25 > 0:43:29too wet to farm, but a haven for wildlife.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36It was the last refuge of wild Britain.
0:43:42 > 0:43:47But with ever more mouths to feed, the pressure grew to dry out these great wetlands.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51At first with ditches and drains
0:43:51 > 0:43:55and then with a new technology.
0:43:59 > 0:44:02The windmill.
0:44:14 > 0:44:18This one at Thurne Dyke, was one of the last to be built
0:44:18 > 0:44:22and it's absolutely beautiful.
0:44:22 > 0:44:27It would have been running 24 hours a day, and there's a fire to keep the operator warm at night.
0:44:27 > 0:44:32His job was to keep the sails turned to the wind,
0:44:32 > 0:44:35and keep everything well lubricated with horse fat,
0:44:35 > 0:44:38which was apparently just the right consistency!
0:44:39 > 0:44:44Up close, these really are magical machines.
0:44:44 > 0:44:46The sails outside
0:44:46 > 0:44:52turn this main shaft, which drives the pump on the other side of this wall.
0:44:52 > 0:44:56It can shift 30 tonnes of water a minute,
0:44:56 > 0:45:00with hardly any noise and no pollution.
0:45:04 > 0:45:10It seems ironic that these new machines used the natural force
0:45:10 > 0:45:14of the wind to help transform this last wild corner of Britain,
0:45:18 > 0:45:25The wetland was dried up to create some of the most profitable farmland in our islands,
0:45:25 > 0:45:30the random patterns of nature replaced by a neat ordered man-made landscape.
0:45:31 > 0:45:39And all across the British Isles a patchwork of fields enclosed what had once been wilderness,
0:45:39 > 0:45:44lines of hedgerows and stone walls marking out a very human geometry.
0:45:49 > 0:45:55The wild woodland had been replaced by a very different green and pleasant land.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01By the early 19th century Britain had changed forever.
0:46:01 > 0:46:05We had transformed ourselves from a few thousand hunter gatherers,
0:46:05 > 0:46:09to many millions of farmers, traders and townspeople.
0:46:09 > 0:46:14To feed ourselves, we'd created a countryside dominated by farming.
0:46:14 > 0:46:18The great forest had been cut down, the wetlands drained,
0:46:18 > 0:46:21and the landscape parcelled up into fields
0:46:21 > 0:46:26and wild Britain had been well and truly tamed.