:00:05. > :00:11.Another time bomb for our trees - this time the oak and sweet
:00:11. > :00:16.chestnut. The history of ordinary life in Kent and Sussex. Might be
:00:16. > :00:26.that -- my business would collapse. Everybody in the industry would
:00:26. > :00:26.
:00:26. > :00:31.lose their jobs. It would be an environmental catastrophe.
:00:31. > :00:38.history of ordinary life in Kent and Sussex. This is living history
:00:38. > :00:46.and we must keep it alive. And is the origin of English
:00:46. > :00:52.literature to be found in Sheppey? When telling a good story, you need
:00:53. > :00:57.a hero, a monster and an evil battle. I'm Natalie Graham with
:00:57. > :01:07.untold stories, closer to home. From all round the South and South
:01:07. > :01:18.
:01:18. > :01:21.Hello, I'm in Preston Park in Brighton home to some of the UK's
:01:21. > :01:23.only surviving Elm Trees, now last series we told you about the battle
:01:23. > :01:26.to protect our woodlands from foreign pests and diseases, since
:01:26. > :01:30.then a fungus that's killing ash trees has swept the country but
:01:30. > :01:40.experts are now warning that this isn't the only disease we should be
:01:40. > :01:42.
:01:42. > :01:50.Ancient woodland, castle grounds, landscape parks, and manicured
:01:50. > :01:58.gardens. Trees have their roots firmly fixed in the rich history
:01:58. > :02:04.and culture of our region. But the countryside is in crisis. The trees
:02:04. > :02:07.that define our landscape might not be around for much longer. Last
:02:07. > :02:13.year, a deadly disease that kills ash trees hit our shores and the
:02:13. > :02:18.headlines. And it's spreading right the way across the region. There
:02:19. > :02:22.are now more than 40 infected sites in Kent and Sussex. I think that
:02:22. > :02:29.Ash is finished for two generations I mean two human generations - we
:02:29. > :02:33.are probably talking about 40 years. We'll only know the full extent of
:02:33. > :02:36.the damage when the leaves appear on the ash trees this spring. But
:02:36. > :02:43.the ticking time bomb of Chalara Ash dieback is by no means the only
:02:44. > :02:47.danger to our woodlands. There's plenty of other time bombs out
:02:47. > :02:53.there waiting to explode and we need to be careful about that we
:02:53. > :02:56.need to be wise to that. Nearly all the UK's sweet chestnut grows here
:02:57. > :03:03.in Kent and Sussex. It's vital to the South East's landscape,
:03:03. > :03:06.biodiversity and economy. John Leigh-Pemberton owns Torry Hill
:03:06. > :03:16.Farm in Doddington in Kent, he relies on sweet chestnut, coppicing
:03:16. > :03:19.
:03:19. > :03:21.it and selling it for fencing and firewood. It's a useful tree. And
:03:21. > :03:27.it's one of the few forms of woodland enterprise, which is
:03:27. > :03:30.genuinely self-sustaining, and provides economic activity. And it
:03:30. > :03:38.provides a significant amount of employment in the South East of
:03:38. > :03:41.England, the chestnut industry. it too is at risk. Last spring, a
:03:41. > :03:46.fungus called sweet chestnut blight was found on 30 trees in a Sussex
:03:46. > :03:54.orchard. Thought to have been imported from Europe it's one of
:03:54. > :03:59.only two sites identified in Britain. Particularly rampant, it's
:03:59. > :04:02.already killed 3.5 billion sweet chestnut trees over in America.
:04:02. > :04:05.blunt truth is that this would stop if we get Chestnut Blight here. My
:04:05. > :04:08.business would collapse; everyone working in the industry would lose
:04:08. > :04:18.their jobs. It would be an environmental catastrophe for the
:04:18. > :04:21.South East of England. And there's another tree in trouble. Peter
:04:21. > :04:31.Goodwin has been making furniture for 52 years, so home-grown timber
:04:31. > :04:38.
:04:38. > :04:41.is vital to him. Specifically, oak. English people adore English oak,
:04:41. > :04:44.make no mistake about it it's the number one in their hearts and
:04:44. > :04:52.minds. But there's a new disease attacking mature oaks called Acute
:04:52. > :04:54.Oak Decline. Acute Oak Decline was first identified six years ago, and
:04:54. > :05:00.scientists believe that a combination of a new bacterium and
:05:00. > :05:03.an insect called the oak jewel beetle are to blame for its spread.
:05:03. > :05:10.And Peter thinks the attention that ash dieback is getting is taking
:05:10. > :05:14.away the message about the threat to the oak. It's a far more
:05:14. > :05:18.important tree in the British landscape than the ash. I hate to
:05:18. > :05:21.say it - the ash has a very important role to play in certain
:05:21. > :05:26.areas. But oak is the one which is really needed - it's iconic, it's
:05:26. > :05:30.historic, it is England. So can our trees and our woodlands be saved
:05:30. > :05:36.and can anything be learned from the way in which we tackled pests
:05:36. > :05:41.and diseases in the past? Well, help might closer to home than we'd
:05:41. > :05:44.think for the ash and other trees. Kent is world famous for its apple
:05:44. > :05:54.orchards, and East Malling Research station is world famous for its
:05:54. > :05:56.research on apple trees. Working here is geneticist Richard Harrison.
:05:56. > :06:04.He believes he can help because East Malling Research didn't always
:06:04. > :06:06.just focus on fruit trees. Through some work we've done in the past at
:06:06. > :06:11.East Malling, we've amassed some very large gene banks from ash
:06:11. > :06:15.clones from across the country. So lots of different individuals
:06:15. > :06:20.collected as seed, and then grown up. And in that, there will
:06:20. > :06:23.probably be, most likely be, resistance to Chalara. So you could
:06:23. > :06:31.end up with a strain of ash that could then be planted in the woods
:06:31. > :06:34.to replace the ones that are lost? Is that the idea? Well, partially.
:06:34. > :06:37.You wouldn't want to take a single individual that was resistant and
:06:37. > :06:39.plant it everywhere. The best strategy would be to identify what
:06:40. > :06:42.are the genes controlling the resistance and then go back to
:06:43. > :06:46.natural populations of ash. And then look for the presence of those
:06:47. > :06:49.same genes in those natural populations. Richard's team is
:06:49. > :06:55.pursuing funding for broadleaf tree research and believe they have
:06:55. > :06:57.something valuable to contribute. feel we can take some of the
:06:57. > :07:02.knowledge we've gained from working on our horticultural tree crops
:07:02. > :07:06.across to other broad-leaf tree species. And relatively quickly.
:07:06. > :07:09.course our trees being attacked is nothing new. Remember the horror of
:07:09. > :07:17.Dutch Elm Disease back in the 1970's when the UK's population of
:07:17. > :07:23.elm was obliterated? Part of the English Landscape disappears, for
:07:24. > :07:27.the elm is one of the most distinctive of English trees.
:07:27. > :07:33.days, Brighton is the only place to visit if you want to see what
:07:33. > :07:38.England looked like before Dutch elm disease struck. And that's all
:07:38. > :07:45.because of what the council did over 40 years ago. Today, there are
:07:45. > :07:50.nearly 20,000 elm trees in the streets and parks of Brighton. And
:07:50. > :08:00.Brighton and Hove now hold the UK's National Elms collection. Geography
:08:00. > :08:02.
:08:02. > :08:05.played a vital role in saving the elms in Brighton and Hove. It's in,
:08:05. > :08:09.like, a sort of geographic bowel, they've got the downs to the north
:08:09. > :08:12.the downs to the east, the sea to the south. The only vulnerable side
:08:12. > :08:15.was a sort of weak western flank along a plain area going out
:08:15. > :08:19.through Shoreham. So the elms were naturally shielded on three sides
:08:19. > :08:22.from the beetle that carried the fungus. The council then controlled
:08:22. > :08:26.the infestation by pruning and removing the trees on which the
:08:26. > :08:34.beetles bred. They also paid private land owners and even their
:08:35. > :08:37.western neighbours at Adur district council to do the same. So they are
:08:37. > :08:47.now completely protected a sort of highly protected bowl protected on
:08:47. > :08:49.
:08:49. > :08:52.all four sides now. And the council is still on guard today. Between
:08:53. > :08:55.June and September each year, it's a major part of our task to keep
:08:56. > :08:59.inspecting all the trees in the parks open spaces in our streets
:08:59. > :09:02.its helped by the public we get people phoning in even our refuse
:09:02. > :09:05.street cleaners they often report things to us so there is a lot of
:09:06. > :09:10.people out there and there has been over the whole period who have
:09:10. > :09:13.contributed to the actual success of the programme. Whereas elm has
:09:13. > :09:15.essentially been wiped out in all four corners of the country, they
:09:15. > :09:19.still have 20,000 elms in Brighton, which is absolutely amazing and
:09:19. > :09:22.people should take their hats off to them. It took a good a deal of
:09:22. > :09:32.innovation for Brighton to beat the battle against Dutch Elm disease,
:09:32. > :09:35.but more than anything else it took money. Peter Goodwin agrees. He has
:09:35. > :09:37.set up a charity called Woodland Heritage, and over the past three
:09:37. > :09:45.years they have donated �300,000 towards helping staff the
:09:45. > :09:52.government's research team looking into Acute Oak Decline. 100 we're
:09:52. > :09:55.making progress but they are having to help. So we asked the government
:09:56. > :10:05.why a charity is having to help pay the salaries of their scientists?
:10:06. > :10:16.
:10:16. > :10:19.But Dr Terry Mabbett thinks the government needs to do even more.
:10:19. > :10:23.We need more urgency, more funding and we need the government to go
:10:23. > :10:29.out there and say yes we can do this and not to keep on saying
:10:29. > :10:32.sorry we can't do that for whatever reason. With the future of the
:10:32. > :10:42.South East's trees and landscape at stake, what's clear is that action
:10:42. > :10:48.
:10:48. > :10:58.is needed if we are to save our Coming up on Inside Out: Did the
:10:58. > :10:58.
:10:58. > :11:03.Isle of Sheppey inspire the ancient legend of Beowulf? We have this
:11:03. > :11:08.creature of cinema ushers round here, he barges then and he ripped
:11:08. > :11:18.it apart. Dead bodies everywhere and if you get rid of him, cover
:11:18. > :11:31.
:11:31. > :11:35.History is usually recorded in terms of high drama. Victories,
:11:35. > :11:40.catastrophes, heroes and villains. Those as the kinds of people and
:11:40. > :11:43.the types of events that make it into books like these. But what
:11:43. > :11:50.about when nothing happened, a normal day in the past when
:11:50. > :11:54.everything was just a bit ordinary? Many believe that there is just as
:11:54. > :12:01.much historical value in ordinary life as there is in accounts of the
:12:01. > :12:06.powerful and famous. Today, documenting your own unique history
:12:06. > :12:12.is becoming more popular and in the 21st century there are loads of
:12:12. > :12:15.weight to record your memories. One way of doing this is through a
:12:15. > :12:22.process called oral history, which involves interviewing people about
:12:22. > :12:27.their personal experiences. Oral history can do -- reach the parts
:12:27. > :12:35.that documentary archives can't. It gives you the voice, the person and
:12:35. > :12:38.it can also give you the memory. At today, students from Moira House
:12:38. > :12:44.School in Eastbourne are taking part in an oral history project
:12:44. > :12:49.funded by Heritage Lottery called Womens Lives, Womens Voices.
:12:49. > :12:55.girls will be interviewing Dorothy, June, Louisa and Maureen about jobs,
:12:55. > :13:00.fashion and rationing after World War II. Thank you for coming in
:13:00. > :13:05.today. We were going to talk to you about when it you were young. First
:13:05. > :13:10.of all, what was it like growing up? Because the war had ended and
:13:11. > :13:20.we thought, this is a new life. We had spent most of our live so
:13:21. > :13:22.
:13:22. > :13:28.during the war. -- will live fors. -- our lives are. We probably only
:13:28. > :13:32.had one dress through the year. I wore my one and dressed to the
:13:32. > :13:36.dance and there were a lot of sailors and I had a date with one
:13:36. > :13:40.of them. The next day I wore the same dress and he said, you wore
:13:40. > :13:50.that yesterday! I said, yes, I did, but I didn't tell him it was the
:13:50. > :13:52.
:13:52. > :13:56.only one I had! Me and two of our friends, we knitted a bathing
:13:56. > :14:02.costume. I did it one in brown and yellow and I looked like a
:14:02. > :14:07.bumblebee! It looked wonderful on the beach and I went into the water
:14:07. > :14:12.and when I came out it was down to my knees. Actually meeting the
:14:12. > :14:15.people that made the history, we hear about who make -- who makes
:14:15. > :14:22.the wars and the legislation but we don't hear about the people who had
:14:22. > :14:26.to live with the legislation. We need oral history for that method.
:14:26. > :14:30.For the older people, we find that the people we interviewed perhaps
:14:30. > :14:33.feel that life is heading towards the end, what part did they play,
:14:33. > :14:37.what was their value? When they meet the younger people and have
:14:37. > :14:45.the interviews, they realise that their place in history was quite
:14:45. > :14:48.important. Without them there was a whole piece of the jigsaw missing.
:14:48. > :14:54.Today's digital technology has made recording it easier than it was. 75
:14:54. > :14:57.years ago most people used pen and paper. I have come to see the Mass
:14:57. > :15:02.Observation Archive at the University of Sussex. It was
:15:02. > :15:07.founded in 1947 when a team of writers was recruited from members
:15:07. > :15:12.of the public to document the lives of ordinary people in Britain. It
:15:12. > :15:17.is updated every year and it is available for anybody to read.
:15:17. > :15:22.have some fantastic, interesting document at. These were recorded in
:15:22. > :15:27.Brighton in the 1930s and it is all about the quality of the pubs, but
:15:27. > :15:31.darts, the stout, and they are talking about how all of the women
:15:31. > :15:35.were talking and the men were drinking in silence. We have for
:15:35. > :15:39.series of questionnaires that we send out three times a year. It
:15:39. > :15:43.normally has three themes, which can be about general aspects of
:15:43. > :15:47.life, they can be personal, very much based on events that have
:15:47. > :15:51.happened in the world. They are returned to last sometimes within
:15:51. > :15:56.weeks but sometimes months. Some people hand right, some people use
:15:56. > :16:00.typewriters, some people draw pictures. -- some people use
:16:00. > :16:06.handwriting. It is very much based on how the individual wants to
:16:06. > :16:11.respond. During the war period we have nearly 500 diaries of people
:16:11. > :16:15.that they kept throughout the period. We were brought up with the
:16:15. > :16:21.idea of the British brick -- Blitz spirit but often the diaries show
:16:21. > :16:27.the more painful side, but people felt they could not necessarily
:16:27. > :16:37.express to their friends or family. You know, we are having a really
:16:37. > :16:37.
:16:38. > :16:42.hard time, and what was the cost of the in -- to the individual. So the
:16:42. > :16:49.spoken and written word might be one way to record your life story
:16:49. > :16:54.but, as we all know, a picture tells a thousand words. And now it
:16:54. > :16:59.is cheap and easy for everybody to have a go at taking snaps. 365: A
:16:59. > :17:04.Year in the Life of Whitstable is a project organised by Kent creative
:17:04. > :17:08.arts. Residents and visitors take photographs of the seaside town and
:17:08. > :17:12.submit their photos to the project website. At the end of the year a
:17:12. > :17:18.panel of judges will so -- will select one photo to represent each
:17:18. > :17:23.day of the year. My name is Stephen and I took this picture because I
:17:23. > :17:27.like the Church in this no. My name is Ruth. I took this photograph
:17:27. > :17:36.because it was a bleak and blustery day and I wanted to have an
:17:36. > :17:42.archival feel to the piece of work. We are at the tail-end of this Ali
:17:42. > :17:49.and my picture is my husband and my son stuck at the end. -- of this
:17:49. > :17:54.lane. Anybody can take a photo. I don't think people will be
:17:54. > :17:59.uncomfortable with it. You might be uncomfortable with writing or
:17:59. > :18:04.talking or painting, you might need some skills, but everybody has a
:18:04. > :18:11.camera or a mobile phone. People love to leave a little bit of
:18:11. > :18:17.themselves. We are racing towards oblivion so to leave a bid of
:18:17. > :18:21.yourself behind is a magical thing to do. Back in Eastbourne, students
:18:21. > :18:25.at Moira House School are coming to the end of their interviews. At the
:18:25. > :18:31.recordings will be regarded as a valid historical document to be
:18:31. > :18:36.stored at the East Sussex Record Office fare anybody to view.
:18:36. > :18:40.Everybody has a story to tell. Everybody's story has a value. One
:18:40. > :18:49.of the things about oral history is that it has bought into the
:18:49. > :18:52.historical picture whereby many voices had previously been unheard.
:18:52. > :18:57.You can get a sense of the world they lived in that just does not
:18:57. > :19:02.exist any more. They are interested in what happened to us. It is nice
:19:02. > :19:08.to discuss things like that with them. They had so much to give an
:19:08. > :19:13.so much wisdom to share. It amazes me and we can learn so much from
:19:13. > :19:18.them. You mustn't let your history die. This is living history and we
:19:18. > :19:28.must let -- keep it alive and we hope they will tell their children
:19:28. > :19:30.
:19:30. > :19:35.about what they told them. Hopefully it will live on forever.
:19:35. > :19:39.Sticking with our or history theme, once upon a time is a classic line
:19:39. > :19:45.that has opened many wonderful stories, but where did all of our
:19:45. > :19:48.stories come from? After her discovery by attend archaeologist,
:19:48. > :19:52.there is a chance that the birthplace of our world-renowned
:19:52. > :19:59.English literature is right here in the South East, as Vince Rogers
:19:59. > :20:06.discovers. We have been telling each other
:20:06. > :20:13.stories for centuries. Long before computers, televisions or even
:20:13. > :20:18.books, people would while away dark it evenings telling tales of
:20:18. > :20:25.Adventures, heroes and villains. But how did the stories begin?
:20:25. > :20:32.Where did they come from? And what was the first? It all began with a
:20:32. > :20:40.poem called by a wall. For it was a poem -- it was the first in English
:20:40. > :20:44.literature. -- Beowulf. It is where all of our great stories begin.
:20:44. > :20:48.start -- to tell a grim story you need a hero, a monster and a battle
:20:48. > :20:52.between good and evil -- good and evil, and Beowulf has them on.
:20:52. > :21:01.Until now it was thought it was set in Denmark but could it be possible
:21:01. > :21:06.that the location of this epic was based here on the Isle of Sheppey?
:21:06. > :21:11.Like every good story, we begin with a journey. The tribes that
:21:11. > :21:14.would later become the Saxons were packing their bags and hitting the
:21:14. > :21:22.road and according to historical writer Stephen Pollington they
:21:22. > :21:25.brought with them a wealth of culture and stories. Modern notions
:21:25. > :21:31.of nation-states and national identity don't really mean a great
:21:31. > :21:35.deal at that time. The whole thing was in a state of flux. According
:21:35. > :21:40.to Kent-based archaeologist Dr Paul Wilkinson, travelling with the
:21:40. > :21:44.settlers was the anonymous author of Beowulf. He has a theory that he
:21:44. > :21:54.may have taken inspiration for the poem from the Isle of Sheppey and
:21:54. > :21:56.
:21:56. > :22:02.its coastline. What other clues? -- what are the clues? They would have
:22:02. > :22:08.approached the clips, seen them shining, and there is a town called
:22:08. > :22:13.Sheerness, which means Shining cliffs. They land at a place called
:22:13. > :22:17.Land's End and above that is the warden or, and, lo and behold,
:22:17. > :22:27.those clay cliffs are called Warden's Point. In Beowulf the hero
:22:27. > :22:34.
:22:34. > :22:44.picks his way down the cliffs and we have clay cliffs.
:22:44. > :23:03.
:23:03. > :23:12.In the story, Beowulf arrives at the mead-hall in Heorot to Brit the
:23:12. > :23:16.kingdom of the monster called Grendel and his evil mother. There
:23:16. > :23:21.is a knock on the door, the door opens and they sit down and the
:23:21. > :23:25.King says, it is good to see you. We have serious problems, we have
:23:25. > :23:31.this creature living in the marsh land. It visit every night after we
:23:31. > :23:39.get drunk, barges in and rips the place apart. Dead bodies everywhere.
:23:39. > :23:49.If you get rid of him I will certainly awards to gold. -- Award
:23:49. > :24:02.
:24:02. > :24:12.But I still need convincing that Beowulf was written about north
:24:12. > :24:14.
:24:14. > :24:19.Kent. I have never seen any mention of Sheppey. We had Sheppey here but
:24:19. > :24:27.this place here that used to be an island is called Harty. In the
:24:27. > :24:33.Domesday Book it is called Harty and prior to that in the 7th
:24:33. > :24:39.century it was called Heorot. So this island has the same name as
:24:39. > :24:44.the place where Beowulf has his entrance. Beowulf kills Grendel and
:24:44. > :24:50.Grendel's mother and the kingdom of Heorot is safe once more, but is it
:24:50. > :24:56.happy-ever-after for our hero? In the story, 50 years after the
:24:56. > :25:01.events on Heorot, Beowulf is now on hold came. Everything is peaceful,
:25:01. > :25:05.until his kingdom is threatened by a dragon. And it is this part of
:25:05. > :25:08.the story that makes a local historian, Griselda Mussett,
:25:08. > :25:15.believe that Beowulf is similar to the Sheppey legend of the Grey
:25:15. > :25:20.Dolphin. The Grey Dolphin is a horse that can swim, owned by a
:25:20. > :25:26.night, and he is told that the horse will kill him, so he cuts the
:25:26. > :25:30.horse's head off and kicks the horse's skull and the bones of the
:25:30. > :25:34.skull going to his foot and he dies of gangrene. When the Christians
:25:34. > :25:40.arrived they did not like that at all so they made the horse into a
:25:40. > :25:47.monster. I think Beowulf is a Christian version of a much older
:25:47. > :25:57.legend. It ends with Beowulf killing the Dragon -- not killing
:25:57. > :26:12.
:26:12. > :26:16.the dragon, but been killed by the Near the end of the story, after
:26:16. > :26:23.Beowulf's death, his people build him a massive Barrett -- burial
:26:23. > :26:28.mound, fit for a king. Dr Paul Wilkinson thinks he has found the
:26:28. > :26:33.inspiration for the barrow across the water in Faversham. It is
:26:33. > :26:40.between those two pylons. Below the cables there is about the height of
:26:40. > :26:46.it, 15 metres high. We have pictures taken of it when it was
:26:46. > :26:56.being demolished to build up the sea walls after the massive floods
:26:56. > :26:56.
:26:56. > :27:06.in the 1950s. It has a Scandinavian name. At and that is the
:27:06. > :27:08.
:27:08. > :27:15.inspiration? -- and it has. There are many other theories about the
:27:15. > :27:19.origins of Beowulf. Kent is the most recent suggestion and there is
:27:19. > :27:29.a long-standing tradition that the whole thing was set in Denmark, on
:27:29. > :27:30.
:27:30. > :27:33.the shores of the Baltic. sure. Experts will probably never
:27:33. > :27:37.agree on the true setting of Beowulf, but wouldn't it be great
:27:37. > :27:47.if English literature began here, on the Isle of Sheppey? It is a
:27:47. > :28:02.
:28:02. > :28:08.Don't forget, if you want any more information about tonight's show,
:28:08. > :28:15.you can visit our Kent or Sussex websites. You can also watch the
:28:15. > :28:21.show again on iPlayer. Go to this address. Coming up next week...
:28:21. > :28:29.The family but ended up over �400,000 in debt. -- and that ended
:28:29. > :28:34.up. How have you coped with the pressure? I have lost six years of
:28:34. > :28:38.my life through worry and I can't see any end in sight. And, when
:28:38. > :28:45.Kent was nuked. We discover the film the BBC banned and the people
:28:45. > :28:49.who were in it. I happened to be there when the film crew turned up,