Episode 4 Countryfile Summer Diaries

Long, sunny days when our countryside

is bursting with colour and life.

It's the season that brings out the child in us all.

Summer is here.

It's the perfect time to enjoy the beauty

of our great British landscape.

And our amazing wildlife.

OWL SQUEAKS

Some of us are still hard at work.

But whatever you are doing and whatever the weather,

our island is at its very best.

All week, we're travelling the length and breadth of the UK...

..bringing the very best seasonal stories that matter to you.

Nobody asks the question, have we got enough water in the locality

to ensure that the taps will be running in those new houses?

Nationwide, we've got our rivers at real crisis.

The very warmest of welcomes to Countryfile Summer Diaries.

Here's what is coming up on today's programme.

Paul learns all you need to know about adopting hens.

THEY CHEER

Take a bow! Look at that!

Roy Taylor finds out how a landscape laid waste by coal mining

has become a wonderful wildlife sanctuary.

So you can imagine this, you can see this stretch of dirt and grit here.

This is what 364 football pitches looked like.

And with one of the warmest years on record...

..I'll be taking the plunge to see what wonders you could discover

in our seas this summer.

All this week, we're on the Isle of Wight.

And today I'm visiting its world-famous landmark,

the ancient chalk stacks known as the Needles.

In prehistoric times,

they formed part of cliffs that are thought to have reached all the way

to Dorset, 20 miles away.

But, now, only three pillars remain.

At the end of the Ice Age,

water from melting ice sheets flooded the chalk ridge

and gradually eroded the rock

until the island became detached from the mainland.

This happened thousands of years ago.

But climate change, shifting weather patterns

and higher water levels all continue to have

a dramatic effect on the shape of our British coastline.

So dramatic, in fact, that it's estimated

as many as 700 homes in the UK will be lost to coastal erosion by 2030.

But what will a rising seas mean

for our favourite summer holiday destinations

and the people who live there?

Well, Margherita is heading for one of Britain's smallest islands

to find out more.

This is a beautiful spot.

This causeway seems pretty sturdy,

and that castle's been here since medieval times.

But rising sea levels and coastal erosion

are causing the community that live here some fresh challenges.

The tiny tidal island of St Michael's Mount

lies a quarter of a mile off the Cornish coast,

and is home to 30 full-time residents.

But its status as a popular tourist destination could be under threat.

Caitlin DeSilvey, a professor in a cultural geography,

tells me more.

Caitlin, what kind of problem are we facing here?

The problem on this stretch of coastline

is just about a rapidly changing coast. So this is nothing new -

this coast has been changing for millennia.

But what we are seeing now is actually accelerated change.

And so with climate change, sea levels rising,

there are more frequent storms and the storms we do get

tend to be a little bit more aggressive and violent.

All of that adds up to make the coast more vulnerable to erosion.

What does that mean for St Michael's Mount?

At St Michael's Mount,

we have a unique situation where the Mount is connected to the mainland

by a causeway, and that causeway at the moment has a tidal window

for access where you can go across about two or three hours

on either side of the water.

What is likely to happen is the sea level rises as much as a metre

over the next 100 years and so eventually it will close altogether

and the causeway itself will become a feature

that's just underwater archaeology.

Among the permanent islanders is Lord James St Levan,

who lives in the castle.

We'll have to look after the causeway.

We've put rocks along the side of it to protect it.

So even though it's got a reinforced concrete base,

the sea is a very powerful beast.

So I think we'll have to keep an eye on it.

On a neap tide at low water, the sea doesn't go out as far,

which limits the use of the causeway.

Already, there are days in the year - not many, but a few -

when the causeway doesn't open at all.

When it's a very neap tide. And I think what will happen

is those neap tides will become more common

and the causeway won't open.

And if one day in the future you did lose the causeway,

how do you think that would impact St Michael's Mount?

Say the causeway only opened half the days of the month,

not having that easy access -

and we bring almost all our supplies across the causeway,

rather than on a boat -

that would change how life on the island worked.

Garry Earley has been the island's main builder for nearly 30 years.

He's seen everything the changing weather has thrown at this place.

A few years ago, massive storms washed away part of the causeway.

The worst thing is when the storms come in

and then you get the causeway coming up in places.

You just couldn't solve the problem because the tide was coming in.

You could just watch it.

And it was like piano keys just coming off the causeway.

It's a constant battle to keep this crucial lifeline open

and keep the island connected to the mainland.

It's vital for far more than access.

The causeway is crucial, really, for the islanders,

and the running of the Mount itself.

It shelters the sewage pipe which comes from here to the mainland.

You've got the electric cable coming in.

So there's lots of things which makes this island work,

so it is a very important asset to have.

Time for me to take a little trip.

Hi, Mike. Good to see you.

-And to you.

-Are you all right to give me a lift?

-Certainly am. Jump on.

-Thank you so much.

-No problem.

-VOICEOVER:

-Mike Grieg not only operates the boat back and forth

to the island, he also lives there.

How do you think it would affect the island

if you lose the causeway in years to come?

A massive impact on the business.

So many people target the whole visitor's experience

of getting the boat across one way and then walking back the other.

But on the flip side, a busy boating operation that we have already

certainly will have to up its game.

And how would it affect you actually living on the island?

It will certainly make shopping to the island a lot harder.

Certainly a lot more watching the clock and,

"When is the next boat available?" kind of thing.

Residents are already being forced to adapt to protect island life.

What we are doing is trying

to future-proof the island as far as we can.

And in the houses on the harbour front,

we tend to feed the electrics in from above,

so none of the electric points are at floor level, they're higher.

We now have slate floors, as a matter of fact.

So if they do get flooded, it isn't a ruined carpet each time.

And it's just the things which are not terribly difficult to do

but could be very helpful in the future.

It's a real treat to be able to walk along this causeway.

And who knows how many more generations will be able to do that?

One thing's for sure, the people that live and work here

on St Michael's Mount are doing everything in their power

to ensure this unique feature

remains part of our coastal landscape.

Later in the programme, we'll be revealing how coastal erosion

is forcing another of Cornwall's beauty spots

to make tough decisions about its heritage.

The British coastline stretches for more than 11,000 miles

across more than 6,000 islands.

And, at this time of year, plenty of us hit the beach

and go for a dip in the sea.

But you don't have to go as far as the Caribbean

to find dazzling white sands, turquoise seas

and an abundance in aquatic life.

It's right here in the UK,

and Keeley has been taking the plunge.

Forget the Maldives, ditch the Great Barrier Reef.

Scottish seas are a treasure trove for snorkellers and divers.

The West Coast boasts some of the clearest

and most vibrant, wildlife-filled waters in Britain.

Now, I haven't chosen a great day for it, but if the sun's shining,

these beaches can rival some of the most beautiful in the world.

Scotland is world-famous for its stunning scenery and nature,

but what's under the waves is just as spectacular.

Jam-packed with sponges, sea urchins, crabs, seals and dolphins,

Scotland's seascape is teeming with life.

And what better way to experience it than by snorkelling?

The Scottish Wildlife Trust has just created

the North West Highland Snorkel Trail along a 100-mile stretch

of this coastline so everyone can get an up-close view

of life underwater.

Noel Hawkins from the Trust was the inspiration behind the project.

-Hello, there.

-Hiya.

-How are you doing?

-Good.

-Good to see you.

-And you.

I want to hear a bit more about this project

-because I believe that you came up with the idea.

-I did, yeah.

I'm working with the Scottish Wildlife Trust,

on a project called the Living Seas Project.

It's a three-year project where we're looking at ways

to re-engage communities and people with the sea and marine environments

up here in the North West Highlands.

So why snorkelling, then?

We thought, "Well, snorkelling's a bit more accessible."

You can buy kit for relatively not too much,

go in as long as you're sensible. Anyone can do it, really.

So obviously a stunning part of the country.

But what's so special about it for this trail?

In the sea itself, we get a lot of crabs, juvenile fish, starfish,

sea urchins. We get some quite strange ones, actually, too.

So there's a lot out there once you start looking.

Everybody comes here. The Highlands is synonymous

with beautiful landscapes and seascapes,

but above the water. And it's actually getting down underneath

where you actually learn about more what's here

and why it's an important and very beautiful and varied ecosystem here.

It literally is just stepping into a different world

with the greens and browns of the seaweeds

and the animals themselves - it's like a rainbow sometimes.

And is summer a good time to get out and enjoy this kind of thing?

Summer's the best time cos it's not only a bit warmer and brighter,

it's nicer when the sun's out - you can see things more vividly.

But it can be fragile.

Getting people out to be aware of it, hopefully start caring about it,

and then maybe join us in helping protect and conserve it.

Noel investigated over 20 sites for the Trail

and picked the best nine based on their beauty,

range of wildlife and accessibility.

It's not a difficult trail for beginners,

but, for safety reasons the Trust discourages solo snorkellers.

Today, I have the company of a group of local schoolchildren.

-Morning, folks!

-Hiya, guys.

-Hello!

-How are you doing?

That means OK.

-VOICEOVER:

-Not that I'm worried, but what's the sign for a shark?

-A big shark?

-Great white shark.

If you see one of them, then the next signal is...

Run up the beach and create a new 100m record.

The project has trained 12 instructors

to pass on their snorkelling skills.

Sue, one of their newest graduates,

can't wait to get this class in the water.

Children are amazingly good at learning and picking up new skills

and talents, especially the ones that live here.

There's no fear. They're straight in there.

And since we've been teaching them,

it's really taken off and they're desperate to get in

and do snorkelling and see what lies beneath our waves.

They are the custodians of our future, our seas here,

so it's really important to get them to appreciate,

to love and to learn what's there

so that they can protect it for the future.

I'm very excited to see all these creatures,

but I'm really nervous because that sea looks cold.

I'm cold stood here, so...

Yes, I'm not going to lie to you, it is cold.

But when you get in, you actually get used to it

and you're so absorbed in what you're doing

-and what you're looking at...

-I'll forget all about it, will I?

-You will. You'll get acclimatised.

-Are you sure?

I'm absolutely positive. You'll become acclimatised, yes.

A decent, thick wet suit is essential on a day like today.

Not only does it defend against the cold,

it also protects from scratches and stings.

Well, I'm still not convinced about getting in the cold Atlantic sea.

But if the kids are game, I guess I'm going to have to give it a go.

It's amazing what you can see down here.

Just in this area of kelp,

there's tonnes of little fish weaving in and out.

There's a jellyfish there, just there,

and actually there has been quite a few swimming around us.

And on the seabed,

there's just loads of little crabs wandering around.

I didn't realise we were going to see quite this much.

Even on a dull day, these Highland waters are crystal clear.

And you can really concentrate on the beauty

of this spectacular environment.

Do you know what? That was great.

There's a whole other world teeming beneath the surface.

And actually, when you're under the water,

it doesn't actually feel that cold.

Back on dry land, where a welcome hot drink awaits,

there's a chance to swap tales of our underwater adventure.

And what was the best thing that you saw?

I think the lion's mane.

Because they're red in the water.

It wasn't that big but it was scary.

-And were you cold?

-No.

-I'm a man. I'm a man.

-THEY LAUGH

If this site is anything to go by,

any snorkellers tackling the rest of the 100-mile trail

are in for a treat.

I'll be completely honest with you,

I wasn't expecting to see such variety or beauty

here in the Scottish seas.

So I've got a whole new appreciation for our marine life.

And the best thing? It's all right here on our doorstep,

for all of us to enjoy.

In the UK, we're blessed with

a wealth of wonderful wildlife to enjoy,

be it underwater or on land.

Here on the Isle of Wight,

there's a huge range of habitats from chalk cliffs to beaches,

so it means that summer visitors

are likely to see all sorts of different birds.

And whilst you're likely to see them at the seaside,

around the country there are some surprising places

to spot our feathered friends, including disused coal mines.

Roy is headed north to Fairburn Ings Nature Reserve

in the heartland of West Yorkshire to investigate.

I have been a keen birder for over 40 years now.

And the RSPB nature reserve at Fairburn Ings

is one of my very favourite places.

I might hear a booming bittern.

I might see a bearded tit today.

But when I came here in 1978, it was very different.

Frankly, it was pretty grim.

Today, it's hard to imagine

that this place was once a vast industrial tip,

a dumping ground for coal waste from the local collieries.

At their height in the 1920s,

Britain's coal mines employed over one million people.

But with the last deep mine closing just a few years ago,

our landscape has been left with a legacy of industrial wastelands.

When Fairburn Ings shut down back in the 1950s,

a decision was taken by the locals to let nature take over.

From coalface to wild place,

it's now a nature reserve enjoyed by thousands of visitors each year.

Access roads have been replaced by paths and cycle tracks,

bringing a plethora of bird-watchers.

Chris Fuller, a volunteer at the reserve,

is a font of information about its industrial past.

When did coal dumping stop here, and what did the site look like then?

Well, they were still dumping waste here up until 1995,

coming in from the big Selby coal mine.

So you can imagine this, you can see this stretch of dirt and grit here,

this is what 364 football pitches, equivalent, looked like.

So it's a vast area.

And you had a bit of smoke coming in from the pits themselves.

You can imagine it was a pretty bleak scene.

-Pretty gloomy landscape.

-That's right.

A naturalist came here in 1938 and she called it "a dismal swamp".

-Wow!

-And I think she got it absolutely right

because, at one stage, this held a record

for one of the biggest slag heaps in Western Europe.

Today, Fairburn Ings Nature Reserve is considered a great success story.

It's a dedicated and diverse wildlife habitat,

the ideal spot for wetland birds.

Tell me what's in here and the special birds you've got breeding

for the first time this year.

It's the perfect habitat for things like little egrets,

which nested here a couple of years ago.

They joined the herons and the cormorants.

-Now, this year, we've got the appearance of a spoonbill.

-Wow!

Just to have one is quite something, but then it finds a mate, has young,

the young fledge - that's really quite something.

Spoonbills are a bird of European conservation concern,

and a real rarity in the UK.

Highlighting what a perfect place this has become for wildlife.

And this isn't the only industrial site

to have been given a new lease of life.

It's been such an achievement that when, just down the road,

an old opencast coal mine site ceased operating,

plans soon followed to emulate the Fairburn Ings success.

St Aidan's is an old opencast mine site.

Mining ceased here in 2002.

But work started immediately to turn it into a wildlife haven.

Someone who can really appreciate its transformation is Andrew Holmes,

who was employed here when it was still a coal mine.

When I worked here, it were a huge hole, there were no greenery,

it was all grey and rocks and it almost looked like a moon landscape.

It were that type of environment.

With dump trucks and machinery, you know, it were noisy, dusty,

completely different to what you're looking at now.

From a thriving coal mine to a flourishing nature park.

Black-headed gulls nest here in their thousands.

Sand martins zoom overhead

whilst dragonflies and butterflies are everywhere.

Fairburn Ings and St Aidan's are enjoying a new lease of life,

completely at odds from their industrial heritage.

But, for me, I think the real legacy of places like this

is that they offer people the chance to get outdoors

and connect up close and personal with wildlife.

So grab your bike, grab your dog or your binoculars,

and get down to your local wildlife reserve this summer.

Summer is when our seas come alive with marine life.

From some of our biggest to some of our smallest.

And over the years on Countryfile,

we've been lucky enough to come across an incredible assortment

of weird and wonderful creatures of the sea.

One of the most impressive and regular visitors to our shores

is the basking shark.

It's the second-largest shark in the world, weighing up to four tonnes.

Despite its size, it can be hard to find.

Have you seen any basking sharks?

We may have missed them in Cornwall

but they're known to migrate up the West Coast of Britain,

so try to catch them in Scotland at the end of summer.

Dolphins and porpoises are a popular sight off our coast

but one of the rarest is the white-beaked dolphin.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, wow!

HE LAUGHS

For a chance to spot one, head to Northumberland.

From one magical creature to another -

the tiny seahorse, found amongst the eelgrass beds at Studland Bay.

Oh, my goodness!

Take the plunge beneath the waves in search of this wondrous fish.

Back on shore, why not delve into a classic British summer pastime,

rock pooling?

Cor, this is a ferocious-looking fella! What's this one?

This is a spiny spider crab.

So grab your wellies and get exploring.

With long hours of daylight, this is the best time to be outdoors.

Whatever your preferred activity, there's something for everyone.

And one thing that suits pretty much all of us is alfresco dining,

as Matt discovered on a trip to Wales.

Summertime - Britain at its very best.

A time for friends to come together,

head outdoors and fire up the barbecue.

A heat wave goes hand-in-hand with a meat wave.

But there's no back garden cook-up for me.

Oh, no!

I am waiting for the first ladies of barbecue.

South Wales's very own Thelma and Louise, Shauna and Sam.

Now, these are two ladies who have learned their barbecuing skills

around the Deep South of the USA,

and I'm supposed to be meeting them here on this corner.

Bravely binning their careers three years ago,

executive Sam Evans and teacher Shauna Guinn

headed off in pursuit of the American Dream -

and the quintessential US feast.

Whoo! Howdy, partner!

-We're going to take you for some barbecues!

-Super!

-Jump on in!

Jump in! Here we go, then, let's go!

Woohoo!

The girls are taking me to a beach barbecue for their friends.

Whoo!

Restauranteurs Shauna and Sam may live in the leafy Vale of Glamorgan

but a trip to the Deep South

saw them fall head-over-heels with barbecue, US-style.

Whoo!

Were you, like, obsessed with barbecue before you set off, then?

How did it all start?

We were what's known as back yard barbecuers

so we'd do a little barbecue in our back yard

and have some friends round.

But we didn't really have a plan -

we just knew what we liked and knew what we loved

and just set out for the States, and that was it.

And did you have a barbecue teacher, then?

I think a lot of what they call pit masters,

these are the guys that look after the barbecue pits

throughout the day and throughout the night,

a lot of thought we were super-quaint.

So not only were we female -

so that's almost unheard-of in barbecue -

we had these British accents

and we wanted to learn about barbecue,

so they just thought we were a trip, you know.

So, were they quite open, then, in passing on their techniques?

Yeah, they were.

They would never have thought in a million years

that two women would go to America

and take their, like, national, traditional cuisine

and bring it back.

I've got to put it out there,

I think part of the pull to the Deep South for me personally

was my absolute love of country music.

MUSIC: Islands In The Stream by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers

THEY SING ALONG

# I was sorry inside, there was something goin' on... #

HE HUMS GUITAR RIFF

Go on, Matt, take it home!

# Islands in the stream

# That is what we are

# No-one in-between

# How can we be wrong...? #

This is our grill, Big Mama.

-Big Mama?

-Big Mama, yeah.

Was Big Mama an oil drum before?

-She was an oil drum, we made her ourselves.

-Did you?

And you can see the temperature gauge is beautifully soaring there,

so it's now hot enough for us to grill off.

-Oh, it is. 450!

-Yeah, it'll cool down when we open it,

so careful you don't burn yourself.

There we go. Yeah.

So what we're going to start doing is we're going to pop these...

I've already oiled these.

-MEAT SIZZLES

-Oh, that smell!

-It's good, isn't it?

-Oh, it's delicious!

This is what the Americans would call grilling.

This is more a typical British barbecue.

This involves direct heat,

so you can see you've got the heat from the charcoal

and that's really penetrating the meat.

I don't know how many barbecues you've ever been to.

Quite often, you go around to your friend's house

and they light the biggest fire that they can possibly light.

Then we wonder why we get that delicate balance

of burnt on the outside, raw in the middle.

How do you avoid that? What's the secret?

Well, the secret is having different parts to your grill.

Always bank your coals to the left or the right,

leaving a little cool part where you can run to

if things start to get a little bit hairy.

If you thought Big Mama was impressive, then meet BB King,

the American barbecue smoker Sam and Shauna made

from an old compressed air tank.

Here's the difference between British barbecue

and American barbecue.

This is a completely different kettle of fish, this is a smoker.

Now, what we're doing here is we're creating indirect heat,

so what we've got is our fire here,

so we're not going to be creating any sizzling grill

because this is turning into the smoking chamber.

But the really clever thing about this,

the smoke and the temperature of the smoke gets firstly pulled along

the bottom and then up and over and then out on this side.

What you get is the double pass over the meat.

This is our reverse flow smoker.

And we have an old saying in American barbecue -

"If you looking, you ain't cooking!

So, once we get the fire going

and we maintain the temperature in our chamber,

we can't be looking too much cos every time we open that,

the temperature's going to drop

and it's going to take us a while to get back up to temp.

Do you know, it's nice,

cos it brings around a whole different style of eating.

Instead of sitting there, flashing it on the grill

and then, you know, wolfing it down, you invest...

You see, it doesn't matter if it's cloudy or whatever,

-you just go outside...

-Exactly.

-..light the reverse flow

-and off you go!

-Very good.

Shauna and Sam's barbecue may be all about the meat

but they do some mouthwatering sides, too, to serve with it.

-We're going to make some delicious chimichurri.

-Chimichurri?

Yeah, it's this really great sort of Argentinian pesto.

It's so easy - just chop coriander and parsley,

grate garlic, glugs of oil and vinegar...

A little seasoning.

So a really good pinch of salt, to really bring out those flavours.

And as we're, you know, by the sea.

-Yeah, perfect.

-And we have a seagull.

There's a seagull eyeing us up there. Don't get any ideas.

THEY LAUGH

And what we're going to finally add is a little smoked paprika

and a little chilli flakes.

-Look at that.

-There we go.

-OK, good.

Right.

Have a sniff of that.

I might have a taste of it as well.

-Yeah!

-Happy?

-Oh, tasty.

Perfect.

So should taste a little garlic, a little of that red wine vinegar.

-It's delicious.

-Yeah, that's great!

-All right, come on over!

-Come on, guys!

-Come on in.

-Here's the party animals!

I hope you're hungry!

-VOICEOVER:

-It's showtime.

Sam and Shauna have invited friends and family

to come and enjoy the feast.

Oh! Really lovely!

There you are, sir. Yeah, one of each. Oh, you got the big bit!

Oh, trust you! THEY LAUGH

So the kebabs and veal steaks went down well.

Sam, you're going to have to put some more on.

But it's time to serve the jewel in the US barbecuing crown.

Brisket. Smoked in grease-proof paper for eight hours

and beautifully tender.

SHE LAUGHS

That's heaven on earth. That is literally heaven.

-That's good.

-Happy with that?

-Yeah.

A perfect end to a slightly cloudy summer barbecue.

At least it's not as blustery as where I am.

Here on the Isle of Wight, the three remaining Needles,

rising 30m above the sea, are justifiably world-famous.

And they look like they do because of many, many centuries of erosion.

Which begs the question, coastal erosion is a natural phenomenon,

so how far should we go to prevent it?

Margherita has been finding out.

It's not just ancient places like St Michael's Mount

at risk of coastal erosion.

The Cornish coast is famous for its tiny fishing harbours,

like this one here at Mullion Cove.

Nestled into the west coast of the Lizard Peninsula,

this quintessential cove draws thousands of visitors every summer.

But this particular piece of Cornish history is now on borrowed time.

The Cornish harbour here on Mullion Cove is under attack

from rising sea levels and increasingly violent weather.

Thankfully, not so much in the summertime.

But, come winter, this place is at the mercy of the elements.

Powerful storms race across the Atlantic to batter the coastline

with strong south-westerly winds.

Someone who is all too familiar with this volatile weather

is John Pascoe...

Thanks, John.

..who has fished these seas for the past 50 years.

So, John, you know this harbour well?

Yeah, I do. Very much so.

I've seen a lot of gales, I've seen some lovely fine weather,

some beautiful sunsets

and what more can one want?

But the storms in recent years,

are they the worst you can remember here?

Oh, yeah, yeah, they were very, very...

One particular storm we had was...

You couldn't see the island, the seas were breaking right up.

And the spray, just...

It was a whiteout, you couldn't see nothing.

Towards the end of the 19th century,

plans were drawn up to create a protective harbour here.

It was funded by local aristocrat, Lord Robartes of Lanhydrock,

who drafted in skilled stonemasons from across the South West.

After six years and at a cost of £15,000,

these two stone piers were built.

Now these walls, which provided refuge for almost 130 years,

are going to be left to nature.

The decision has been made to let this piece of our heritage

slip gradually into the sea.

For the past 72 years,

Mullion Cove has been managed by the National Trust.

For ranger Justin Whitehouse, the increasing cost of repairs

are making the walls difficult to maintain.

Every year, the Trust puts in...

I think this year it's about £10,000 of maintenance.

But the main cost is repairs and even, I think,

last year or the year before, it was about £100,000.

After the big storms of 2014, er,

that was almost £500,000 of repairs.

And so, on average, it works out about £1,500 every week.

Eventually, there'll come a time when the harbour is so badly damaged

by storms, the Trust has decided it will no longer be repaired.

So we can't predict when it's going to happen

but we know that, at a certain point in the future,

the harbour won't be here.

I personally will find it a huge loss.

I spend half my life down here

and it's a great part of our heritage -

it's an important feature of the Cornish coastline.

It brings in a lot of visitors,

it's an important place to the local community.

But, you know, we can't protect everything.

But what do the locals make of the approach

being taken at Mullion Cove?

Patricia Pearson has lived here for 75 years.

She and her husband, Paul, run the cafe

and they're fairly pragmatic about the impact

that losing the harbour will have on their business.

If it wasn't here, what do you think it would do for business?

Because you've been running your cafe here for a number of years.

-Yes, yes.

-We actually get a lot of our customers

from people who are walking the coastal cliff path,

as opposed to just holiday-makers coming down on spec.

I don't believe it's going to do much harm to the buildings.

They were here before the piers were here anyway, some of them.

And Patricia, for you, how would it change your life

if the harbour was not maintained as it has been?

I think it would take a while before it would disintegrate totally

and I'm getting older, so I don't know whether I will even be around!

But Jeff Maher, another resident,

has particularly strong ties to the harbour and is not so sure.

Jeff, your family have the most incredible link to Mullion Harbour.

-That's correct.

-Can you tell us a little bit about it?

Yeah. My grandfather acquired the harbour in 1925

and gave it to The National Trust in 1945.

And how would you feel if the harbour was no longer maintained?

Personally, I think it would be very upsetting

and I don't think anybody would benefit.

I think it would be tragic for Mullion, the village,

least alone the future generations of Britain

and the tourists that come here.

And your dream for the future of Mullion Harbour?

Well, just maintained as it is in perpetuity.

So everybody can enjoy it.

If I came back in 500 years, it would be here.

It's clear that the fate of the harbour

has stirred up strong feelings

in Mullion Cove's small but bustling community.

It's a community that may never be the same

once its heritage has been washed into the sea.

Over the next 100 years,

the look of our coastline in Britain is set to change.

Rising sea levels and coastal erosion are a problem.

There are options available

but difficult decisions will have to be made -

decisions we'll all have to face up to.

Long, balmy summer evenings.

A chance for many of us to take time out and relax.

But spare a thought for the nation's busy poultry keepers,

as the long hours of daylight mean increased egg production.

So what about hens that have passed their prime?

Paul's in Somerset, collecting tips

on how you could offer some old hens a new lease of life.

HE LAUGHS

One of the first things we got on our smallholding were our hens.

Not only do they give us a bountiful supply of fresh eggs every day

but they're great fun, too - the kids love them.

Now, if you're thinking of adding a few hens to your brood,

you may not need as much space as you think,

and you could be doing a good deed in the process.

So how do you raise chickens when you don't have that much land?

Well, Hayley Spencer keeps hens right in the heart of suburbia.

Here we go, Paul, here's my back garden.

Wow, how many chickens have you got?

I've got seven the moment.

You wouldn't expect seven chickens in kind of like a small back yard

like this of a three-bed semi, would you?

No, you wouldn't. That's brilliant, I love it.

-Are you enjoying it?

-Love it. I wouldn't be without them.

-Are they all pets?

-Yeah, all pet chickens.

-They've all got names?

-All got names.

I've got Tulip, I've got Wubby, I've got Poppy, I've got Fat Pam.

Fat Pam!

SHE LAUGHS

I've got Big Brenda down there.

I've got Mavis and I've got Gertie.

And I love the fact that they kind of roam around

underneath the trampoline, which is a bit of a dead space, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-They don't have a bounce, do they?

-Sometimes that happens!

Do they? I love it, it's like a holiday camp for chickens.

These ladies are all from the British Hen Welfare Trust,

who re-home around 50,000 commercial hens a year

in loving homes like Hayley's, who give them a second chance at life.

We started off with two rescue hens, they were battery hens,

they came to the end of their productive period.

They were about two and half years old,

so we inherited those and, do you know, they did us well, actually.

-You know, they lived out their days.

-Yeah.

-And we've got some more now.

But all of yours are rescue hens, aren't they?

Yeah, all rescue chickens that I keep.

All battery hens or caged hens.

All come from the cage system.

Yeah, it's very rewarding, isn't it?

-Nursing them back...

-It is.

..and seeing them becoming healthy birds again,

doing what they naturally do. Scratching around.

-Yes.

-Because those battery hens never scratch, do they?

-They don't know how to scratch.

-No, they're not able to.

-No.

What's the worst state you've had them in?

Well, Wubby come back, she was...

She didn't have a feather on her body,

she was left in a pile of dead chickens.

And in the pile, I was sure that I seen a little flicker in her eye.

So I put her in my car,

I wrapped up her in one of the dog blankets and, half an hour later,

I checked on her and her eyes had opened.

She was severely dehydrated.

So, throughout that night,

-I just syringed fluids into her.

-Aw.

And by the next day, she was a little bit brighter,

still touch-and-go whether she would make it.

But over the course of the next week,

I got fluids into her and I got

small amounts of food into her.

Oh, brilliant.

It literally is a transformation, isn't it?

They were on death row and look at them now, they're so happy!

They are. Happy, healthy.

Oh, well done, we need more people like you about.

Looking after these chickens.

It doesn't take a lot to keep your hens happy.

Just a bit of imagination.

Hayley's putting old play equipment to good use

to keep her hens safe and entertained.

And she's adding to that all the time.

-I gather you want to make a swing today for the chickens?

-Yes.

-Have you made one before?

-No, never.

I've never seen a chicken on a swing.

-The thing is, it's keeping them entertained, isn't it?

-Exactly.

Giving them an enriched life.

-About there, I think - they don't want to jump too high.

-No.

And battery hens don't have the muscle that a proper hen would...

-Exactly.

-..to be able to jump very high.

-There you go.

-HE LAUGHS

-Chicken swing.

Right, who's going to try it first?

-This one's Pandora.

-Pandora?

-Yeah!

-Yeah!

-Take a bow.

Look at that!

She's enjoying it, look, she's swinging.

She's thinking, "Oh, this is different."

This just goes to prove, you know,

you've got happy hens here and we're in suburbia in a small back yard.

Anyone can keep chickens at home.

-They are easy to look after.

-Yeah.

You need a henhouse to start.

This was once grass but obviously now it's mud,

which actually, they prefer. Somewhere to scratch around in.

Some food, some water.

-We give ours clean, fresh water every day.

-Yeah.

And henhouses, clean out and put fresh sawdust in

-and a bit of hay and straw once a week.

-Yes.

Now, it's no good having one chicken -

they'll get depressed by themselves.

So, ideally, what, two or three chickens?

Three is the minimum.

They're flock animals and three would give you a small flock.

Yeah. Obviously, there are urban foxes around

and there's the neighbour's dogs.

Yeah, and they're... Foxes are usually your biggest predator.

-So make sure you've got a good enclosure.

-Yeah.

It's great to see how Hayley's hens have become part of the family

and how much joy she gets from having them around the house.

If you're considering a new addition to your back yard,

then maybe you should give some thought

to some rescue hens just like these.

Eh? Buck-buck?

CHICKENS CLUCK

And that's all for today but here are just some of the entries

in our Summer Diary tomorrow.

Margherita uncovers the secrets of garlic,

one of our more pungent seasonings.

Oh, on my tongue straight away, I can feel... Wow! Ooh-hoo-hoo!

Paul will be showing you how a city roof

could be the perfect place to keep bees.

I can't believe that is so good,

and it comes from the rooftop here.

And I'll be finding out how going back to the past

could help to offer a solution for the future.

So make a date with us tomorrow.

Until then, goodbye.