29/04/2012 Countryfile

The Suffolk coast.

A breathtaking mix of sandy beaches, remote heathland and hidden secrets.

With summer just around the corner, it's the cue

for seaside towns like Southwold to start tarting things up a bit.

The famous beach huts get a lick of paint

and ice-cream inventors create new flavours.

I just hope they like the seaside themed one I've got in mind.

The quiet waterways, which flow to the sea along this coastline,

were once the M25 of their day.

And this would have been the lorry of its time.

Barges like this would sail up and down this stretch of river,

taking goods to the capital.

But when the factories closed down and the workers moved out,

the artists moved in.

I'm going to be meeting musicians and painters finding inspiration here.

Tom's looking at the environmental effects of a gardener's favourite.

This stuff, peat, is better than any rainforest

at protecting us against climate change.

So, how come we're still digging it up? I'll be investigating.

And Adam's celebrating new life on the farm.

But there's a cloud hanging over the Cotswolds.

Where I live is racehorse country

and lots of top racehorses are trained round here,

including Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, Synchronised.

Sadly, his box now lies empty

because he suffered a fatal injury at the Grand National.

I'll be paying tribute to this fine racehorse.

The Suffolk coast -

a patchwork of fields, dotted with picturesque villages.

All eventually giving way to 50 miles

of some of the most desirable shoreline in the country.

A jewel in this east coast crown is Southwold.

A pretty special seaside town.

No kiss-me-quick hats here.

Rather the refined air you'd expect

from somewhere that's made its name as an expensive retreat

for the well-heeled and wealthy.

Sounds delightful, doesn't it? A lovely place to live.

Apparently, there's a right little gem of a property just along here.

Bags of character, far-reaching views

and buyers are dying to get hold of it.

But I've got the details.

And I booked myself an appointment with the estate agent.

So, Aidan, here we are, at beach hut 98B.

-That's the one.

-£55,000!

-But look where it is!

-Yeah.

-Steps up to the town.

You're right on the beach.

The outlook is stunning and it's Southwold.

What more do you want for your holiday?

-Yeah, I agree, the location is pretty special.

-Oh, yeah.

-Shall we have a look inside?

-Indeed.

Most of the huts are sold with contents. They vary, of course.

Oh, right. That's quite a nice surprise, that. Very spacious.

Do come in.

-It's quite deceiving from the outside.

-They are TARDIS-like.

-Yeah.

-Don't we always say that? You get the daybed.

There's usually a little Calor stove, as we've got here.

-Where's the nearest loo?

-Er, only about 100 yards in either direction.

100 yards, it's nothing, really, is it?!

Right. Well, here's you giving me the hard sell.

Actually, you don't have to, because you have a waiting list.

They go so quickly usually.

Very often they don't even come to the market, in fact.

They'll change hands within families -

-family groups, social groups.

-Yeah.

-Lots of people are waiting for them.

-You'll get this

close to the asking price of 55,000?

Yeah. Three price bands, really, in the town.

-If you go to the prime location...

-Don't tell me, there's more.

There's more. Right up there, Gun Hill. Prime Southwold.

They've changed hands for 120,000.

For a shed this big?

What a bargain! Shall I get the contract?

Not just yet.

I might not be sold

but there's no denying the enduring appeal of these huts.

For some of Southwold's residents,

they've been a lifetime love affair

since their very earliest incarnations.

I'll tell you what, Jack, you were a bonny lad. How old were you here?

Well, I was one - 1919.

-Right!

-A bit before your time.

-A little bit.

-That was of my mother and I in a bathing machine.

-Right!

Was that on this beach somewhere?

Yes, it was down near the old pier. Um...

In the days when the bathing machine was taken down

to the edge of the sea by a horse.

These bathing machines were the forerunners of beach huts

and were designed to protect the modesty of changing swimmers.

As more relaxed attitudes brought in mixed bathing,

they began to be used for shelter and storage instead.

Eventually, they disappeared from the shoreline altogether,

evolving into the static huts on the promenade that we know today.

They haven't really changed that much, have they?

Is that part of the magic for you, then? How basic they are.

-Er, yes, it's just part of Southwold.

-Yeah.

There's a lot of hassle and a lot of expense

in connection with a beach hut nowadays.

But once you get in that hut, when the sun is shining from the east,

into the hut, you enter another world.

Back in 1919, when Jack first visited Southwold,

there were only a handful of beach huts here.

It's a testament to their timeless charm that today

there are 300 of them and counting.

With summer fast approaching, proud owners like Ken Waters

are busy preparing for a season in the sun.

-Now, then, Ken, how are you doing?

-Hi, fine.

-Are you well?

-Yes, indeed, thank you.

-What a bonny beach hut you've got here.

It's lovely, yeah. We've enjoyed this hut for many, many years.

-Is this annual maintenance, then?

-Well, it's about every other year.

It's pretty harsh. There were quite a few lost a few years ago.

We had a big storm which came up and swept about 12 of them away totally.

Some of them landed up in Dunwich. But, er, otherwise in bits.

-We were lucky.

-Here we are, we're painting this white and...

-You've got some black wood stain as well.

-That's right.

Are you restricted with colours? Are there any council guidelines?

Not really. Some people have them candy-striped

and some people have them just in pastel colours.

Little children come along and they shout out

all the names as they come along, which is also very nice.

-What's the name of yours?

-It's called Watershed.

-OK.

Which was my name being Waters and it is a shed.

And so, hearing these ridiculous prices, are you tempted to sell?

-Not a chance. No, no.

-No?

-I think the children wouldn't forgive me.

-They all come down.

-She's part of the family, then.

Yes, I think that's right.

Desperate times if we ever had to sell this.

I might not have been tempted into buying my own beach hut

but I've certainly bought into the simple pleasures

that owning one can bring. Beautiful views

and your own piece of the great British seaside.

What could be better?

Peat may be good for our gardens but, if we look after it,

it's even better at preventing climate change.

But are we doing everything we can? Tom's been to find out.

The uplands of Britain. Vast, open landscapes, starkly beautiful.

But that's not all which makes them remarkable.

It's the peat bogs and the vital job they do in locking away

billions and billions of tonnes of harmful greenhouse gases.

But only a fifth remain undamaged.

The rest, like this, are eroding and leaking carbon,

which is bad news, because this is our best,

though battered, shield against climate change.

The damage here in the South Pennines

is the legacy of the Industrial Revolution.

Smoke from nearby mill towns attacked the peat,

leaving it too acidic for anything to grow.

The scarring you can see is the end result.

These peatlands are now the battleground

in our fight against climate change.

A fight which is now joined by the very big guns.

It's a massive effort and it begins here - with helicopters.

And huge buckets of special fertiliser.

This stuff contains lime, which neutralises the acid in the soil,

the first step to bringing the bog plants back.

On the ground, close up, you can see just what these guys are up against.

And, here, what's happened here?

Well, this really is like a surface of the moon situation, isn't it?

There's probably been a fire in here at some stage

and the peat has disappeared completely.

We're right down to the mineral soil, the gritstone showing through.

This is what a lot of the Peak District

and the South Pennines would look like if we lost all of the peat.

Really?

It's got this destiny facing it if we don't do anything about it?

The areas that are bare peat that have lost vegetation off the top,

this is the end result - this is what will happen if we don't intervene.

After the acid soil has been sorted, the next step

is getting the moor back to being a big, soggy carbon store.

-A bit bouncy too. The earth moves beneath my feet.

-It does.

But this is the key plant, is it? This little thing down here.

Er, sphagnum moss is what's known as a keystone species.

If we pick a little piece of it out,

you can see straight away that it holds massive amounts of water.

-That's part of the key.

-So, the survival and the health

of the whole peatland system depends on this tiny little plant here.

The whole of this peatland landscape has been built by this tiny plant

and one or two other bog-building plants, but mainly sphagnum.

Everything we can see around this landscape, all of this peat,

was built largely by this tiny plant.

Sphagnum is something of a miracle plant.

As it grows, the vegetation below dies but doesn't totally decay,

unlike most other plants.

This means the carbon is locked safely inside.

It grows slowly and spreads reluctantly

but Chris's team have hit on an ingenious solution.

I have to say it looks like a cross between mushy peas and fish eggs.

-In each one of these is a little bit of sphagnum, is it?

-There is, yeah.

The idea is you'll spread these from a helicopter,

they drop on the ground and it will be new life from above.

It will, yeah.

The battle's being fought on many other fronts too.

These are the North Yorkshire Moors.

Here, the land was drained to grow trees for timber.

The bogs dried out, but now they're beginning to turn the tide.

It may seem a little bit odd that they're actually

putting a digger down into the peat.

The whole idea here is to create barriers which hold back the water.

The wooden ones are over there and they've got one

made of peat and soil over here.

They form the same basic purpose.

They stop the water flooding down here, causing further erosion.

Instead, the water builds up, soaking into the surrounding bog,

and helping more peat to regenerate.

Look, it's working!

Despite all this effort, in other parts of the country,

they're still digging peat up,

leaving behind landscapes that look like this.

So, is all the repair work a waste of time?

One man thinks saving our peat bogs is still vital.

He's climate scientist Dr Fred Worrell.

So, what's happened to this landscape?

On a site like this, this has been extracted for peat.

People have dug it up for horticultural use mainly.

And to understand how much peat we've lost from a site like this,

there's about half a metre left here now on this site.

-It would have been seven metres above our head.

-From here?

Yes. I know I'm short, but it would have been that much above my head.

-That's an extraordinary volume of lost earth, if you like.

-Absolutely!

What does that mean in terms of the carbon that was locked up here?

This site at the moment is actively losing it to the atmosphere.

-It's giving off greenhouse gas.

-Right.

On a site like this, if we could restore it,

the amount of carbon we could then store would be equivalent

to about two million to almost three million car miles a year

per square kilometre, on a site this size.

Let me make sure I've got that straight.

-This is more than one square kilometre.

-Yes.

Probably two or three. You're saying, each square kilometre here,

because of what's happened to it, is losing in CO2,

the equivalent of nearly three million car kilometres.

-Car miles!

-Car miles! That's an extraordinary amount.

-Yes.

The UK's peatlands store the same amount of carbon as the forests

of Britain, France and Germany put together.

The problem is that at the moment,

we simply don't seem to be able to do without our peat.

Or can we? I'll be finding out later.

The Suffolk coastline reveals some glorious stretches

of unspoilt heathland and marsh.

And the reed banks on the River Alder

are a haven for all kinds of interesting bird life.

Occasionally, an even more striking shape

can be spotted gliding through the reeds.

Thames sailing barges were once a common sight along these waters,

as they ferried cargo down to London.

I'm going to catch a lift on this one,

to find out just what they would have carried.

'The Cygnet is the oldest working Thames sailing barge in the UK.

'It's a wet old day

'but skipper Des Kalichevsky is letting me lend a hand.'

-This is called the haliade?

-Yes. We can pull it up.

It's fairly easy, just hand over hand.

-How's that?

-That's it.

-Yeah?

Ta-da! Off we go.

So, Des, what sort of thing would these boats have been used for?

Well, this particular one belonged to a farmer

and it was taking his wheat

to the flour mills and barley to the maltings.

-Is that what we can see over there, that building?

-That's right.

-That's Snape Maltings.

-Ah.

Were these the ideal vessels for the sort of waters that we're in?

Well, they were.

Flat bottom, shallow draft, they could sit on the mud

-and get up these narrow rivers and creeks.

-Yeah.

And sailed by just two men.

Here we go, then.

100 years ago, barges like this would've been queuing up at high tide

to get to the maltings here at Snape, and that's right where I'm heading.

Des, what an elegant way to travel. Thank you so much.

That was really good, thank you.

Time to explore!

Snape was once the largest maltings in the UK,

employing nearly 100 workers.

Barley was germinated and kiln-dried on huge drying floors like this

to produce malt, which was then turned into beer,

whisky and malt vinegar.

Production finally ceased here in the mid-'60s.

For 83-year-old Pat Lord,

who was evacuated to Snape during the war, the memories are still fresh.

-Hi, Pat.

-Hi.

-Look at these photos. What are these?

-I'm just admiring them. There's the maltings.

-And here's you.

-Yes, me.

I was ten, my brother was seven.

Eventually when we got to know some people here and the night-watchman.

We were allowed to go round with him at night to stoke the fires up

for heating the floors for the barley and everything.

-A bit of a playground for you?

-Yes, definitely.

-What was it like inside?

Very steamy and you got all the floors laid out with malt.

If we were lucky, we got a little tin of barley and we could go round

to the engine room and they'd roast it for us

-and then it was like chewing toffee.

-Really?

It was great. Really exciting.

You know, it was...

There's just something about this place that just gets you.

It's very much part of my life and I love every stick and stone of it.

Well, Pat's not the only one still enamoured with these old buildings.

Malt hasn't been produced here for nearly 50 years, but the malthouses

here are Snape are now thriving in a completely different way.

The clue to why can often be heard

coming out of those old bluffs up there.

Once production had ceased here,

the renowned composer Benjamin Britten, who lived locally,

suggested one of the huge malthouses be converted into a concert hall.

It was opened in 1967 and is now at the heart

of an internationally recognised centre for music.

These bricks that were once heated by kilns now contribute to

the great acoustics that help make this place so popular with musicians.

Benjamin Britten's legacy continues with new generations

of experimental composers such as the Aldeburgh Young Musicians.

Apparently students here often take their lead from the landscape.

Things like the sound of the wind blowing through the reeds

is a common source of inspiration for these young composers.

It's not just musicians benefiting from this stimulating location.

The family run maltings complex also houses shops, workshops

and local art.

These dramatic oil paintings are inspired by the landscape

surrounding the site. And with the reed beds now bathed in sunshine,

I'm seeking out the woman behind those works - artist Emma Green.

-Hi, Emma.

-Hi, Ellie.

-Good to see you. What a lovely spot.

-Now this, I'm guessing, is for me?

-That's for you.

I am a bit scared. OK, let's take my coat off.

Don't be intimidated by the blank canvas.

There's a very big blank canvas there.

-So, we're going to put the horizon line in quite low.

-Yeah.

Round about here.

That's going to be the base of that reed bed there.

-Oh, I see. The shadowy bit.

-Yes.

-Go for it.

-See, in my mind, I'm Monet.

So long as I don't paint, I will always be Monet,

but now I'm having this whole illusion ruined.

Does having these big, wide, open skies help?

It's distinctive because it's so flat,

so the skies really take full reign.

It's always changing, but so's the landscape below.

Especially here. It's tidal.

So, in certain weathers, it's hard to tell where the land ends

and the sky begins sometimes.

Oh!

Honestly!

-Just cover it, Ellie.

-Really?

-We'll deal with it after.

-Yeah.

If it was up to me doing the sky,

there would just be a big yellow sun in the corner and a big blue sky.

'Well, Suffolk has inspired some famous landscape artists

'over the years.

'I'm not sure I'm quite up there with Gainsborough or Constable,

'but it's a start!'

-What do you think, Emma?

-I think you've done incredibly well.

You've got some of the feel of this watery, fluid landscape.

The sky's been incredible today.

Every time you looked at it, it's been different,

so I think you've coped with that really well.

Whilst I've been exploring the artistic side of the Suffolk coast,

Jules has been delving into its secrets.

Orford Ness is a spit of shingle ten miles long,

separated from the mainland by only a few hundred yards.

What happened over there across the water

arguably had a profound effect on the course of British history.

This intriguing landscape is now owned by the National Trust.

To find out more about it,

I'm heading across the water into the Ness's striking interior.

'Guiding me in is Duncan Kent.'

-Duncan, how you doing?

-How are you?

-Very well thank you.

-That's for you.

-Wow.

-It's full of secrets. A bit mysterious.

Duncan, when we think of the National Trust, we tend to think

of grand country houses and teacakes and all the rest of it.

Yeah, that's true. The National Trust has a much wider approach

to heritage and conservation.

So, this is a particularly important site, both for nature conservation

but also for the range of military testing that was done here.

-It was a secret experimental site.

-As a military historian,

this is a fascinating story. When does it start?

The Royal Flying Corps formed 1911, got themselves organised

and were looking for somewhere as a base to do experimental work.

So, trying to learn how to use a plane as a weapon.

By 1915, it then embarked upon a huge amount of activity,

doing experimental work on all sorts of military aviation.

So, from the design of aircraft, to aeronautics and aerobatics,

through the design of bombs, all of those kind of things.

How would you define the national importance of this site?

The early development of military aviation, crucial to that.

There isn't anywhere like this in the world, I would say.

By 1917, more than 600 people were stationed at Orford Ness.

A clandestine community had been quietly assembled,

undertaking work that carried on into World War Two,

when Bert Smith became one of their number.

So, looking across this landscape now,

clearly a lot of the old buildings have gone.

What did it look like back in 1942?

-There would've been a hanger there...

-Yeah.

..which contained a lot of German aircraft and engines,

and we technical people

set up German-British aircraft as targets.

We would attack a German aircraft

with British airborne guns on the ground.

So, presumably you were looking

for the weak spots in the enemy's systems?

Absolutely, and we worked solidly

because what we did protected

a lot of the British and American airforce crew.

Despite the work that went on here, Orford Ness was never bombed

and its secrets were never uncovered by the enemy.

Many believe that the barren landscape and remoteness

of this location was enough to allay suspicions

that anything of any consequence could happen here.

When you walk around here,

it's easy to see how you'd reach that sort of conclusion.

I mean, take this building over my shoulder.

On the surface, yes, it's dilapidated,

but it still doesn't look anything special.

But what if I told you that the events that happened in there

not only kept us in the war but arguably helped us win it?

You might think twice about it.

It was in this small brick building on this remote Suffolk island

that a team of young scientists,

led by Sir Robert Watson-Watt, proved that radar worked.

It was a pivotal moment without which we wouldn't have won

the Battle of Britain, and the outcome of the whole war

might've been very different.

This tiny spit of Suffolk coast had helped shape

the outcome of two world wars, but its role was far from over.

As the Cold War dawned,

this landscape was about to hide some much darker secrets.

So, is this where the bombs were wheeled in?

-Yeah, they come in this way.

-My goodness me.

-It's clearly seen better days, hasn't it?

-It certainly has.

It's fascinating.

Jim Drane was an engineer working in this laboratory,

where Britain's fledgling nuclear arsenal was quietly developed.

I would be involved in actually fitting the various sensors

onto the weapon and then assisting with the testing.

But just to be clear, the bombs that you worked on here,

they weren't fully armed with their nuclear cores, where they?

Um... No.

-No.

-You would say that, wouldn't you?

-I would, yeah.

But how were the bombs brought here?

They came by van, I understand,

and just one police escort.

Nothing over the top.

The bomb arrived in a van with a copper,

presumably just driving through the night?

Well, I think that's the British way and it seems it worked, didn't it?

That's the main thing. If you draw attention to something,

-you'll get problems.

-What about your family?

-Could you talk about what you were doing at home?

-No.

So, for years, your family had no idea

what you were doing here, day in day out?

No. That's tended to carry on after I finished here!

THEY LAUGH

When at last relations between East and West thawed,

the military finally packed up and left,

letting nature reclaim Orford Ness.

But this tiny shingle spit,

just ten miles long, holds a unique place in our past.

As much as the people who worked here, it's the location

and character of this landscape which have kept its secrets safe

and which have shaped the history not only of Suffolk

or even our own country, but life far beyond these shores.

Still to come on tonight's Countryfile...

Ellie's leaving treasure in the woods.

John Craven!

Adam's welcoming new life onto the farm.

She's got good, strong black points.

Black ears, eyes and nose, and on her feet. She's perfect, really.

And we'll have the five-day Countryfile weather forecast.

As we've already heard, the UK's peat bogs are suffering.

They've been damaged by decades of industrial pollution,

agriculture and forestry.

The harmful greenhouse gases they've been locking away

since the ice age 10,000 years ago are leaking into the atmosphere,

adding to the problems of climate change.

So, why are we digging them up?

The simple answer is, we love peat.

There's a huge demand from gardeners.

Two-thirds of all the peat dug up in the UK

winds up in people's gardens and greenhouses.

Here at Chat Moss near Manchester,

they've been meeting that demand since the 1960s.

The man behind the company doing the digging is Bernard Burns.

Here's what's perplexing me.

We've been to a lot of places

where people are spending thousands and thousands of pounds

building peat up by the millimetre

and here you're digging it out by the many, many tonnes.

How can that be right?

Well, peat's no different from coal,

gas, oil, all the fossil fuels.

In fact, if anything, it's more replaceable than any of those

because nothing that you're looking at

-is any older than 10,000 years old.

-But it is a bit different.

We're just using it in our gardens for something that's not a necessity.

It's not a vital energy to keep us warm and lit. It's a luxury.

Well, you're going to be putting something on your garden.

Anything you put on your garden's got carbon in it.

Despite being in peat for a profit,

Bernard's amongst the first to call for a ban.

When the Government thought that tungsten lightbulbs were bad,

they banned it.

When the Government thought CFCs in aerosols were bad, they banned it.

When they thought lead in petrol was bad, they banned it.

If the environmental imperative is so obvious,

why don't they do exactly the same thing here?

I can make a profit without peat if the Government banned peat.

If there was no peat within the country,

everybody would have to give it up and we'd find a solution.

-And would you like that?

-I'd like them to ban it.

If they don't, I'd like them to tax it.

The Government wants companies like Bernard's

to get out of peat production by 2030.

The keyword here though is "want". There's no legal pressure to do so.

In the meantime, extraction will carry on.

But there is an alternative,

and it's thanks to the rubbish we all chuck away.

Well, could this be the answer?

Every day, we throw mountains of waste

out of our kitchens and gardens,

and increasingly, this stuff is being processed

to make a peat-free compost.

1,600 tonnes of rubbish gets dumped here every week,

straight from our dinner plates and gardens to the conveyor belt.

But it helps if we do our home recycling properly.

Coming through here should be

green garden waste and then food waste from the kitchen.

That's all that really should be coming through now.

-But as you can see, there's elements of plastic.

-Yep.

And they're also pulling out things like glass bottles,

-metal, et cetera.

-Really?

Things that residents, consumers

are putting the wrong things into the wrong bins, in essence.

Absolutely right.

It's a fairly unique site as it's an in-vessel site.

So, we can handle food waste. Not every composting site can do that.

It's amazing what people put into kitchen and garden waste.

There we go, a nice toy fire station there.

Absolutely, it never ceases to amaze us what we will find in here.

What have we got?

A magazine, a cushion, even a shoe here.

You know what? The Generation Game just isn't what it used to be.

Once the rubbish has been picked through

it winds up here, a vast maturing shed

where huge piles of assorted waste are left to rot.

It's hot, damp, and a bit like being on the set of a sci-fi movie.

But this is fact, not fiction, and it could mean a future without peat.

The proof of the pudding.

Oh, that looks nice.

There you go, that's a really nice open product

that can be used as a soil improver in this instance.

And you're convinced that this can grow plants as well as peat?

Absolutely right.

We know from all the trials that we've done

that this can grow plants as well as peat.

We've proven that fact over the number of years

that we've had it in the market. Eight weeks ago

this was in somebody's back garden as a growing plant,

and now it's something that can go back to the garden centre

and be used again.

The quality of the alternative products

on the market today does vary

and production-wise we're still some years away

from being totally peat-free.

That means sites like Chat Moss

could still be worked to meet consumer demand.

But all is not lost.

On other parts of this site, peat dams and plastic piling

are locking in the water, bringing this bog back to life.

We've seen a lot of other peat environments in this programme,

and, to be honest, they've been looking pretty sad.

They're not looking good. But here, it gives hope for the future.

It does, it gives a huge amount of hope

that we can restore these really badly degraded sites.

It is possible,

it just takes a lot of hard work and a lot of money to be able to do it

but we can save them.

Chris's work shows even a landscape as desolate as this can recover.

What I've seen in making this film is the incredible fragility of peat,

its value as a carbon store,

and the massive efforts that some people are making to protect it.

Even the man in charge of peat digging

thinks that there should be a ban.

But one thing to remember, this isn't all about them.

We also have a choice whether we use peat in our gardens.

Farming's never been a nine-to-five job

and for Adam, spring is an especially hectic time of year.

His newborn lambs are keeping him busy,

and so are his rare-breed cattle.

His herd of White Parks are his pride and joy

but one of his cows is having some problems.

These are White Park cattle

and I think they're stunning to look at

with their white bodies, their black noses, black eyes and black ears.

And there's a train of thought

that they were introduced to the country by the Romans

and they would have pulled the carts and the plough,

and then they were left behind when the Romans went home,

and they were isolated in the parklands of Britain

and they say that the Kings and Lords

used to hunt the bulls on horseback with spears and dogs.

It would have been terrifying.

And today they can't really compete with the big Continental beef breeds,

they're not had enough, but their meat is delicious,

and I'm really fond of them.

While the majority of the herd are in good health

and enjoying the freedom of the spring pastures,

I'm concerned about one of the cows and her newly born calf

so I need to get them into the handling pens.

Go on, in you go, go on!

The calf is only suckling on three of the four teats

and one of the teats is quite swollen and red,

so I'm worried that it might have an infection in it known as mastitis.

On the good teat here you can see the milk is very white and clean.

If I get hold of the swollen teat

the milk is very yellow

and if that was mastitis, it would be clotted and lumpy

with some blood in it probably,

but actually, this is OK.

It's very runny, and this is probably just colostrum,

the first milk that the cow produces,

and the calf hasn't suckled on that quarter,

it's got enough milk out of the other three teats.

Because this one's a bit swollen and sore,

she's probably been kicking him off.

I'm pleased it's not mastitis, so what I'll do

is I'll just milk a little bit of this out now

to relieve the pressure off the teat

and hopefully the calf will get onto it, so it should be fine.

While she's safely secured,

I'm taking the opportunity to catch her calf.

She needs ear tagging, so I've got Mike to help out.

All right?

This is a really lovely little White Park,

she's got good, strong black points.

Black ears, eyes and nose,

and on her feet. She's perfect, really.

So, this little calf has to have two tags,

a plastic one in one ear and a metal one in the other.

Then it gets a passport, and all cattle have got a passport

that stays with them for the rest of their lives

and that's their identification, just like our passports.

Mike's going to put the metal tag in now,

and that carries its individual number,

700315, like a little earring.

Then the plastic tag is just so we can see it from a distance, really.

There we go, perfect.

And it's time to reunite mother and daughter.

My ewes are also mothering their offspring,

and we need to keep a close eye on them too.

In this field we've got all our rare-breed ewes.

We've got about 65 of them with their lambs.

They all gave birth at about the same time, so the lambs are a similar age,

and they're all looking very well

apart from there is one little Cotswold lamb that's quite lame,

so I've got the dog with me and John's just come into the field,

so we'll see if we can catch it and see what's wrong with it.

Come on, then.

'You'd think a lamb with a limp would be easy to catch.

'But with a dodgy back, I fail miserably.'

Come! Come! Here!

'So, John has a go next.'

Well done, brilliant!

'Well, he's younger and fitter than me.'

Fantastic!

-It's quite sore, isn't it?

-Yes.

Might just take that scab off.

It's difficult to know what's caused it.

It might have been a thorn or something that's caused an infection,

and I'll just put a bit of this antiseptic spray on.

It'll help clear it up.

Just give it a quick jab

with some antibiotics into the muscle in its neck.

There you go, little one. Give it a rub. There.

There you go, let's take it back to its mum.

Thanks, John.

The lamb is calling to the ewe, and she's coming racing back now,

so John will let it go.

Whilst it's all about springtime and newborns on the farm here

there's still a bit of a grey cloud hanging over the district.

I'm surrounded by racehorse trainers

and one of them is very famous, Jonjo O'Neill,

and at the Grand National a couple of weeks ago, his very best horse died.

Synchronised, ridden by champion jockey AP McCoy,

was the bookies favourite

after winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup earlier in the year.

He calls them forward once again.

This time they're off and running in the 2012 Grand National.

Right down...

But there's always risks during any race,

and Synchronised had a fall and had to be put down.

I was absolutely gutted when I heard the news about Synchronised,

because just over two weeks ago, I went over to see Jonjo

to do a deal about a Jacob sheep.

And whilst I was there, I got a sneak preview of Synchronised,

just before he went off to the Grand National.

Jonjo trains about 90 racehorses,

but on that day back at the beginning of April,

it was Synchronised that I really wanted to see.

So, here he is, Synchronised.

What a lovely fellow.

Can you get him out?

-Get him out.

-Fantastic.

Come on, old chum.

What's he like? Is he quiet?

He's really quiet. He's a lovely natured horse, really.

Well, I saw him in the Gold Cup

and the way he weaved and AP McCoy got him through to win the race,

it was extraordinary, wasn't it?

It was, great race to watch, wasn't it?

These horses we dream about in the game.

They are normal horses for a few seasons,

and then all of a sudden,

they just come good, you know.

And it's just time and maturing and all the rest of it,

and him enjoying racing, which is even more important, you know?

-He's so quiet.

-He's a lovely nature.

Think how fiery he gets when he's on the racecourse,

and here he is, quiet as a lamb.

He saves it all for the racecourse, puts it all together.

He's a great character.

Just a few days before the Grand National

Synchronised, with his distinctive white face,

was looking every inch the champion

as he trained alongside the other horses.

But with all the training in the world,

there's always a danger when it comes to horse racing.

It's never easy for the yard when they lose a horse.

So, I've come back to meet Jonjo, to find out

how he and the team are coping.

Well, I'm sorry to be here in the circumstances,

but how's the feeling in the yard?

It's very low, really.

Obviously he was a super horse

and when that happens, everybody is really upset about it,

and it goes right through the yard, you know.

It's like losing part of your family, really, isn't it?

But life goes on

and we've got to pull ourselves together and crack on

because we've got lots of other nice horses,

and the show goes on, so that's it.

And what happened, then, Jonjo?

Well, he started off and he was jumping brilliantly

all the way down the first five fences down to Beeches,

and he went knuckled over landing at Beeches

and then he got up and went off and he jumped another four fences

and he broke his leg when he was loose, you know, so...

It can happen anywhere.

And AP got unseated before the start of the race.

Would you have done anything different?

No. That was just the horse's well-being, really.

He was full of himself and he's a great little character, you know,

and he ducked from the line, really,

and that just shows you how bright and alert he was.

He just took to one side and AP went the other way,

but that was typical of his character.

Do you think the Grand National at Aintree should be changed in any way?

Well, they have done a great job in changing a lot of the jumps

and made them a lot easier,

but listen, they'll look into it again

and hopefully, if they can make more improvements, they will do,

because everybody in the game

wants the race to be properly organised

and they're doing everything they possibly can.

As a farmer, I suppose I have to become reasonably tough

about life and death on the farm.

-Is it the same in racing?

-Yes, it is.

We've had horses... We had one last year that just went into his box

and just lay down and dropped dead, so it happens.

It's not what you look forward to happening, obviously,

but these things happen in life.

Best of luck in the future, and thanks for seeing me again,

and hopefully you've got a few more winners in the yard here.

Let's hope so.

Onwards and upwards, please God.

Next week, I'll be sharing a proud moment with my favourite bull, Eric.

The rolling fields and stunning woodlands of Suffolk

have been a source of adventure and discovery for generations.

But are children today

seeing as much of the British countryside as perhaps they should?

With the spreading influence of gadgets, computer games

and over-protective parents,

today's generation of children

are spending more time indoors than any other,

and could be affected by what's coined nature deficit disorder.

Now, I've come to the village of Middleton to do my small bit

towards putting that right.

I've arranged for these primary school kids

to discover just what the great outdoors has to offer.

Boxes, OK.

Sorry to interrupt. Hello, everybody. How are you doing?

Who wants to come outside

and do some outdoor activities instead of maths?

-ALL:

-Me!

Of course! Come on, let's get coats and boots.

Well done.

Nature deficit disorder isn't exactly a medical diagnosis,

but rather a metaphor

for how many children are losing touch with nature.

It seems classic pursuits like tree climbing

and den building may be in terminal decline.

Recent research commissioned by the National trust revealed that

fewer than 10% of kids today play in wild places,

down from 50% just a generation ago.

So, in a bid to encourage children and families to get more adventurous,

the National Trust have put together a list of fun activities entitled

50 Things To Do Before You're 11 3/4,

and we're going to try and tick off some of these today.

First up, we're skimming stones on the beach here at Dunwich Heath

and the list includes loads of simple pleasures,

instantly recognisable to most adults from their childhoods.

Next up, number seven on the list.

Not a lot of wind, so you've got a challenge today. Are you ready?

-Got your line? Say, three, two, one, go.

-Three, two, one, go.

Yeah! We've done it!

The kids seem pretty set,

so I'm finding out more about the campaign from Justin Scully.

-Justin, how are you doing?

-How are you?

-Good, thank you.

So, tell me about the aim of the campaign.

We've launched a campaign to encourage kids to get off the sofa

and outdoors and enjoy nature and the outdoors.

But is there actual evidence behind kids staying indoors more?

Yes, we've commissioned a report

that says on average, kids spend 60% less time outdoors

than their parents did.

As a parent too, I feel that there's so much information out there

that we're perhaps a bit more fearful.

The dangers were always there, but we're much more aware of them now

so it's difficult from a parent's point of view letting go a bit.

Again, that's something we found from the survey, was,

there's three times more hospital admissions

from falling out of bed than there are from falling out of a tree.

We don't need to be chasing them round the beach to do this.

-They're perfectly happy.

-Running on their own.

Indeed, they're running around, having a great time.

The 50 things won't all be familiar to parents and grandparents.

Number 49 on the list is the rather modern activity of geo-caching.

Geo-caching is a technology based treasure hunt

and caches are small items that are hidden somewhere in the landscape

and you use a GPS device like this or a phone app to try and find them.

How are we doing?

-Quite good.

-Good, good, let's keep going.

OK?

Is it there?

No. Nothing.

Oh, well done. What's inside? Let's have a look.

Ooh!

Trinkets and treasures.

'Caches can contain all sorts of things

'left by previous intrepid explorers.'

What we have to do is leave our own treasure.

John Craven. How about that?

-Did you see him?

-Sure did.

-That is cool.

-We're done.

Let's hide it again so that the other people can't find it.

It's all about developing that sense of adventure,

something key to our next activity,

bug hunting.

Oh, there's a little worm.

Isn't that a red one? Cool!

Oh, wow, look at the size of that caterpillar,

and an earwig.

And a ladybird, that's amazing.

'Jessica Cormack runs activity days here at Dunwich Heath.'

This is amazing!

What do they get out of this kind of activity

-when you see kids doing this kind of thing?

-So much.

A lot of the children

haven't been bug hunting before in their lives.

We find a lot these days are scared of ladybirds,

they don't know what a ladybird will do to them,

they'll get one on their hand

and they're like, will it sting us, will it kill us, will it bite us?

You get a lot of children from inner-city London,

a lot have never been to the seaside, so a lot of kids,

9, 10, 11-year-olds they live half an hour away from the beach

and have never been to the sea.

Seems like these kids haven't had their fill of nature just yet.

So, we've come down the road

to the RSPB reserve at Minsmere, where their Wildwood adventure

has trees to climb and dens to be built.

A lot of big decisions going on here, which tree,

taking the best bits of wood.

-I'm going to make one of my own.

-It's stuck.

Oh, you shouldn't...!

Wow, this is good.

These kids have loved it and the odd brush

with nature's wild side is all part of the experience.

Didn't you get stung by a stinger?

-Yes, I did.

-But it's OK now, is probably not hurting now, is it?

-No, not really.

-There you go.

-Good den, girls.

-Thank you.

What was your favourite thing about the day?

Um...

I think building this den.

-Yes.

-Was it?

-I really enjoyed it.

Did you have a good time or would you rather have been indoors?

-Outside, definitely.

-Yeah?

It's nice to get off the TV and get outside and play.

You can find the full list of activities on our website.

So, we've managed to tick off seven of our list of 50 things to do today,

and if you're planning on getting out and about

and trying these kinds of activities, you'll want to know

what the weather forecast has in store for the week ahead.

.

Today we're in Suffolk,

where Ellie and I have been discovering

some of the hidden gems along the coastline and the countryside

of Britain's most easterly county.

The fertile land here is dominated by farming.

Its tapestry of fields,

part of what defines this rural landscape.

Most of the farms here have one thing in common.

They use these fertile flat lands for crop-growing arable farming,

which makes this one here in Redenham a rarity

as it's one of only a handful of dairy farms left in the area

and a few years ago,

you wouldn't have laid odds on it being here at all.

A decade ago, milk prices plummeted,

just as foot-and-mouth disease swept our countryside.

For the Strachan family,

a generations-old way of life was threatened.

What saved them was the family rallying together

and adding value to their milk

by using it to make yoghurts, cream, and ice creams.

So, how bad did things get, then?

How close did the farm come to closure?

Well, pretty close, really. There were three things.

We either sold the cows,

we expanded drastically and invested a lot of money in the farm...

-Yeah.

-..or we went into the diversification.

-Right.

-And we chose the diversification.

And James, you were quite far away at the time, were you in Canada?

Yes, I was in Canada. I had a good opportunity for a job.

Katherine was developing her career.

In computers.

-Yes.

-A long way away from farming.

A long, long way from farming.

-But you decided to come back.

-Yes.

You all got round and said you'd make this work.

The Strachans scaled back from more than 200 cattle to a manageable 80.

And although milk still provides the bulk of their business,

the plan to expand into other areas has secured a future for them

and the farm that's been in their family for more than 35 years.

One of the big moneymakers these days is the family's own ice cream,

and the flavours are created here

in the farmhouse kitchen by mum, Collette,

and I am very intrigued to find out

what she thinks of my new innovation.

Well, Collette,

-I knew you were going to be showing me some of your flavours.

-Yes.

-I thought I'd bring one of my own.

-Right.

The Southwold Pier bag is a bit of a clue.

Stand by for the seaside sensation that is

-rock and choc.

-Right.

-It's mint rock.

-Mint rock.

-And chocolate.

-Do you think that would work?

-How do you want to do this?

I thought you were going to help me out!

It turns out all I've got to do is bash it.

While I'm hammering out Baker's rock and choc ice cream,

Collette's cooking up her new salted caramel flavour

which will be delighting the Suffolk crowds.

I really think it's going to work - quite excited about this.

I might be up against an ice-cream queen,

but I'm pretty convinced that my first foray

into the world of frozen food is going to be a summer sizzler.

Right, that's me done, then, Collette.

Obviously you're close behind.

Well, I'm glad you didn't pick something

that's going to take a long time!

Now we've created our recipes,

in my case crushed rock and chocolate,

they go to the dairy, where they're added to an ice-cream base mix

made with the farm's milk.

In just a couple of hours they'll be favoured, frozen,

and I'll be unleashing them on an unsuspected public

to see if rock and choc can win over the Southwold sightseers.

Oh, look at this! The rock and choc has arrived. Fresh from the dairy.

Look at that.

Doesn't that look delightful?

Here we go.

How's it going to taste?

Get a stick of rock in there, plenty of chocolate.

I tell you what, that says British seaside town to me.

Let's go a-taste testing.

-Right, are you hungry?

-Yes.

Brace yourself.

Cos it's quite amazing. There you are.

-What do you think of that flavour?

-Yummy.

-Yummy!

That's exactly what I was after.

-Give him your honest opinion.

-Really?

That one's terrible.

Oh!

-Sorry about that.

-Don't be sorry, just be honest.

Anyway, we don't have to use that anyway!

With the future of rock and choc hanging in the balance,

it's down to an ice-cream connoisseur

to deliver the final verdict.

Ellie, how are you?

I am well, how are you? Oh, wow!

You are the deciding factor in this taste test.

Right?

Rock and choc has been very popular with the kids.

I shall give it a fair go, fair hearing.

In the nicest way, it's only because

perfectly good chocolate gets ruined

by the flavour of toothpaste, in my mind.

I'm not a big minty fan.

That's it from the Suffolk coast.

Next week, it won't be ice cream we're tasting.

It'll be fine English wine as we visit Derbyshire's oldest vineyard.

And I shall be investigating

-a mysterious find in Bakewell Churchyard, see you then.

-Bye.

-Bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd