0:00:06 > 0:00:13This is Great Britain. Over a third of our country is made up of mountains.
0:00:13 > 0:00:20Around half the population of England lives in the shadow of this vast northern range of hills.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24I'm going to be exploring them from the inside...
0:00:24 > 0:00:27Watch your head!
0:00:27 > 0:00:31'..Discovering their fabulous mineral wealth
0:00:31 > 0:00:35'and celebrating them in traditional mountain song.'
0:00:35 > 0:00:37THEY YODEL
0:00:38 > 0:00:42These are the mountains that built Britain's greatest industries,
0:00:42 > 0:00:45but what do they offer us today?
0:00:46 > 0:00:49They are the Pennines.
0:01:05 > 0:01:11It's a massive thing, the Pennine range - 268 miles straight up
0:01:11 > 0:01:17the rump of the country - from the Derbyshire peaks, all the way to the Scottish Borders.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20They call it the backbone of England,
0:01:20 > 0:01:25and like some Thai masseur, I'm going to trample all over it.
0:01:25 > 0:01:29So, I thought I'd better get my hands on some reliable transport -
0:01:29 > 0:01:34a worthy and parti-coloured pack horse, with a folding roof and room for a couple of saucepans.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37If you can't overtake 'em, join 'em.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39Into second gear, very good.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42No power steering, it's all brute force.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49Come on, let's get up the hill!
0:01:49 > 0:01:50Come, come on, come on!
0:01:50 > 0:01:53We're gonna make it, we are.
0:01:55 > 0:02:00Oh, no, I think we can get a little bit more out of it. Ah!
0:02:01 > 0:02:04We've done it! We're round the corner.
0:02:06 > 0:02:13Yes, we did. We may not scale giddy heights but just driving around here is going to be an adventure.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16Welcome to Bottom Gear.
0:02:16 > 0:02:21The Pennines begin with the Cheviot Hills in the Scottish Borders.
0:02:21 > 0:02:27They then snake south through the Cumbrian Fells, the Lancashire Moors and the Yorkshire Dales.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31And down to the more populous end, where cities like Manchester
0:02:31 > 0:02:35and Sheffield crowd in on the Peak District.
0:02:35 > 0:02:37It's a lovely place,
0:02:37 > 0:02:41the natural beauty so exquisite it's hard to believe that millions
0:02:41 > 0:02:45live so close... until you get on the roads.
0:02:45 > 0:02:50We get a lot of friendly motorists who come behind us in a queue.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53They love the camper van so much, they can't bear to do anything
0:02:53 > 0:02:55except just get behind it and admire it.
0:02:55 > 0:02:56CLATTERING
0:02:58 > 0:03:00Wonder what that was?
0:03:02 > 0:03:10Perhaps it's time to pull over to answer an unavoidable question about this place.
0:03:10 > 0:03:16You may be wondering whether the Pennines are mountains at all, especially if you're Swiss.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19You'll probably be thinking, "What mountains, what is he talking about? These are
0:03:19 > 0:03:23"are nothing, this is the pimples off the goose."
0:03:23 > 0:03:27But, Swiss people, you may be interested to know we have laws
0:03:27 > 0:03:30in Britain, and the Countryside And Rights Of Way Act 2000
0:03:30 > 0:03:37have gone to the trouble of defining what a mountain is, which is land above 600 metres in height.
0:03:37 > 0:03:41That makes the Pennines into a range of mountains.
0:03:44 > 0:03:49And 600 metres is a proper climb, or, at least, it is if you do it in triplicate.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52I want to sample a famous Pennine mountain marathon.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55'It's called the Three Peaks Challenge, and it involves a close
0:03:55 > 0:03:59'relationship with three of Yorkshire's biggest hills.'
0:03:59 > 0:04:01Towering Ingleborough,
0:04:01 > 0:04:04ominous Whernside,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07and craggy Pen-y-Ghent.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11They're each around 700 metres high.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15And they are quite difficult to tell apart, but that's because they were all formed out of
0:04:15 > 0:04:22the same alternating layers of limestone and gritstone, which made these gigantic steps.
0:04:22 > 0:04:27The challenge is extremely well-regulated, and only a bit like old-fashioned hard labour.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30'You have to complete the trek in under 12 hours.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32'And first, you have to clock in.'
0:04:34 > 0:04:37- BELLS SOUNDS - It's upside down as well.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42'For myself, I'm making a One Peak Challenge.
0:04:42 > 0:04:47'I'm only doing Pen-y-Ghent. This is not just because I'm congenitally lazy, but because I have rather
0:04:47 > 0:04:54'foolishly agreed to tag along with a crack team from the British Army Military College at Harrogate.
0:04:55 > 0:05:00'The Army uses the Pennines to toughen up the already outstandingly fit.
0:05:00 > 0:05:06'Civilians like me would normally complete this 26-mile long mountain challenge in about ten hours.
0:05:06 > 0:05:12'But Sergeant Robertson has a more ambitious target for his prospective soldiers.'
0:05:12 > 0:05:17Hopefully, with the guys I've got today, we can do it in maybe six and a half, seven. We'll see how it goes.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20But in order to do that, you'll have to set quite a heavy pace.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22We'll march up the hills and then we'll run along
0:05:22 > 0:05:27the plateaus and we'll run around... we'll run down the hills.
0:05:27 > 0:05:29Quite a good one for the young lads who
0:05:29 > 0:05:34have just learnt map reading. It's good to put their skills into practice.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38But for someone who's not ready for it, and not trained for it, it will be very hard.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42'Will it? Well, I wonder who he has in mind, then?
0:05:42 > 0:05:45'I don't want to be the gormless one who lets down the troop.'
0:05:45 > 0:05:47We're at a fairly casual pace at the moment, aren't we?
0:05:47 > 0:05:50- This isn't the pace we're going to do it at?- No.
0:05:50 > 0:05:55Every time that I watch An Officer And A Gentleman or Saving Private Ryan,
0:05:55 > 0:05:58there's always a fierce sergeant figure who comes in,
0:05:58 > 0:06:01- starts yelling and they end up having a fight...- Yeah.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04Is that what, is that what he's like, then?
0:06:04 > 0:06:07- He's nothing like, no. - You can speak freely to me.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11- No, honestly, no. - He can't hear us talking.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13He doesn't come in and scream in people's faces?
0:06:13 > 0:06:15- No, he's a good bloke.- Is he?
0:06:15 > 0:06:17No, I'm not just saying that!
0:06:21 > 0:06:23I can't keep up already!
0:06:26 > 0:06:31'Within ten months, some of my companions today could be in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34'For them, being fit is part of being ready.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37'The Pennines is considered a proper mountain challenge,
0:06:37 > 0:06:40'and I think I'm beginning to agree.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46'In under an hour, we'd raced almost to the summit,
0:06:46 > 0:06:50'well ahead of even Sergeant Robertson's punishing schedule.
0:06:50 > 0:06:52'I made it, but only just.
0:06:52 > 0:06:57'Doing this sort of training requires a proper sense of commitment.'
0:06:57 > 0:07:01- OK, thanks very much. I think I'm gonna...- Yeah, no problems.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05I want to be, I want to desert now.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08I'm going to go to one of those clinics and get
0:07:08 > 0:07:13my legs made a bit longer, because it helps if you've longer legs.
0:07:16 > 0:07:18- You're running this bit, then?- Yeah.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22- OK.- See you later on. - See you later on.
0:07:24 > 0:07:26Thank goodness they've gone!
0:07:28 > 0:07:31Oh, well, look at them running off.
0:07:31 > 0:07:36But I get the chance, which they didn't have, to look around and take in
0:07:36 > 0:07:40what is an extraordinary landscape.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43It has a magnificent,
0:07:43 > 0:07:45timeless quality.
0:07:45 > 0:07:53We're not really on a very high mountain, but the perspective on the world changes almost immediately.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55That was a mountain,
0:07:55 > 0:07:57and it feels like I climbed it.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08It's not exactly great weather,
0:08:08 > 0:08:10but it's magnificent weather,
0:08:10 > 0:08:17even on a day like today - October, great clouds coming over, which would be somehow
0:08:17 > 0:08:24irritating if you were in London, have a certain sort of grandeur.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26You can see
0:08:26 > 0:08:32for miles and miles and miles, as Pete Townsend once expressed it.
0:08:32 > 0:08:37I'd better go and clock off, I don't want them sending out the Army to find me.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40I've bailed out now because I've got other peaks
0:08:40 > 0:08:46to challenge, including the wild and stormy highest top of the Pennines, and for that I need to be prepared.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48Can I have my little card, please?
0:08:48 > 0:08:53- Just been on the peaks?- Oh, yes. - Thank you very much, there it is. - So I clock out now?
0:08:53 > 0:09:00'Alas there's no One Peak club to join, but at the cafe I had a bit of vital shopping to do.'
0:09:00 > 0:09:04Apparently, you can lose a vast amount of your body heat
0:09:04 > 0:09:10through your head. It's very important to find the right hat that doesn't make you look...
0:09:11 > 0:09:13..Pillock.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24I think that's good, don't you? That's the best so far.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32I don't know, I'm gonna freeze to death, I can tell.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45'I've left the Army to their business as I'm in search of what
0:09:45 > 0:09:51'has, for thousands of years, been one of the most valuable resources of this region - water.'
0:09:51 > 0:09:57To look for it, I'm going 70 miles north to Cumbria and up Cross Fell.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02Cross Fell stands at 2,930 feet.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06Outside of the Lake District, it's the highest mountain in England,
0:10:06 > 0:10:11and it is in a notoriously weather-beaten place.
0:10:11 > 0:10:15The Helm wind was so fierce that a local bishop decided to try to
0:10:15 > 0:10:20lessen the demonic power of it by erecting a cross on the summit.
0:10:21 > 0:10:26'We may be in a heavily-populated region, but we don't have to go far
0:10:26 > 0:10:28'to feel that we've got away from it all.'
0:10:30 > 0:10:33Daniel Defoe,
0:10:33 > 0:10:38the author of Robinson Crusoe, undertook a great tour of Great Britain and Ireland,
0:10:38 > 0:10:44and he described these high peaks as "little more than a howling wilderness".
0:10:46 > 0:10:50You know, I think he was probably right.
0:10:52 > 0:10:57'But what I'm looking for is here somewhere, right at the top of Cross Fell,
0:10:57 > 0:11:04'in this strange, wet, spongy summit, where the clouds congregate, and the River Tees begins.'
0:11:04 > 0:11:07Well, there we are, exactly,
0:11:07 > 0:11:10somewhere or other.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13'In ancient times, Cross Fell was known as Fiends Fell because it was
0:11:13 > 0:11:17'believed to be the haunt of evil spirits.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19'I can't think why.'
0:11:19 > 0:11:21Whoa!
0:11:22 > 0:11:24look at this! Wow!
0:11:24 > 0:11:26There's an awful lot of water up here.
0:11:26 > 0:11:31Cross Fell is a major British watershed.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37Ugh! Solid ground.
0:11:43 > 0:11:44Now...
0:11:44 > 0:11:46this is it.
0:11:46 > 0:11:51This must be Tees Head and, of course, I'm not lost at all.
0:11:51 > 0:11:58All I have to do is follow the stream as it makes its way down and under the cloud cover
0:11:58 > 0:12:02and, eventually, I'd find myself in Middlesborough.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09Or perhaps Newcastle, because two more of Britain's most powerful and
0:12:09 > 0:12:16industrialised rivers - the River Tyne and the River Wear - also begin near the top of Cross Fell.
0:12:16 > 0:12:22It's because of the height of this range that these tiny streams start to pick up power and begin a journey
0:12:22 > 0:12:25which means a lot to the flat lands down below.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31Only ten miles downstream, the river is already transformed.
0:12:31 > 0:12:37Here, at a high-force waterfall, the Tees suddenly plunges 70 feet through a rocky bottleneck.
0:12:37 > 0:12:43It's easy to see how the sheer power of this charging river became the motor that drove the great steel
0:12:43 > 0:12:45and iron foundries of Middlesbrough,
0:12:45 > 0:12:4890 miles from Cross Fell at the junction with the North Sea.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56Looking at this incredible mess, it's difficult to think it grew
0:12:56 > 0:13:00out of that original sustainable renewable energy source - water.
0:13:00 > 0:13:05Nothing could be more life enhancing and life supporting than a mountain stream.
0:13:05 > 0:13:11'And as I continue my journey, I'm heading for a well-known salmon leap.'
0:13:11 > 0:13:17Salmon, making their way upstream to spawn, have to jump these cascading rapids.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22I've been waiting here now for nearly ten minutes,
0:13:22 > 0:13:23and, er...
0:13:23 > 0:13:27this is actually what I hate about fishing.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33I haven't seen one, but I have got a cold arse.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35It's not there.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38'I'm told the trick is to know where to look, and whatever you do,
0:13:38 > 0:13:40'don't look away.'
0:13:43 > 0:13:44ONLOOKERS CHEER
0:13:48 > 0:13:53'I have to see one jump, even if my bottom freezes to the rock.'
0:13:53 > 0:13:54Did you catch that at all?
0:13:55 > 0:13:57No.
0:13:59 > 0:14:00GRIFF LAUGHS
0:14:00 > 0:14:04When the salmon gets into the stream,
0:14:04 > 0:14:09she whisks like this, as hard as she can with her tail, to try and get up, up, up.
0:14:09 > 0:14:15But you certainly begin to will the salmon to make it, it seems such an extraordinary effort.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17Very exciting,
0:14:17 > 0:14:18but you missed it.
0:14:19 > 0:14:20Oh!
0:14:20 > 0:14:26'Everything comes to those who sit around for hours getting slightly damp.'
0:14:26 > 0:14:27There!
0:14:27 > 0:14:29Yeah, good. Hooray!
0:14:29 > 0:14:30We got one.
0:14:35 > 0:14:40Well, I'm full of the warm and inspiring joy that comes now from seeing nature do things.
0:14:45 > 0:14:50Just finding salmon here at all seems a little miracle to me,
0:14:50 > 0:14:54given that we human beings have used our time in this area
0:14:54 > 0:14:57to take absolute control of this water.
0:14:57 > 0:15:03'I'm going up to look at Britain's first industrial river, the Derwent,
0:15:03 > 0:15:07'from the air, in the steady hands of pilot Chris Ruddy.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11'This is going to be a little miracle, too.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13'It's a bouncy day,
0:15:13 > 0:15:15'but I'm sure we'll stay up...
0:15:17 > 0:15:18'..Somehow.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24'It's certainly worth it.'
0:15:25 > 0:15:27Magnificent, like a work of art.
0:15:27 > 0:15:32It feels like a natural world, but it's actually a world which has been
0:15:32 > 0:15:35controlled, manicured and managed.
0:15:39 > 0:15:40Chris, where are we heading now?
0:15:40 > 0:15:44We're just now approaching the top of the Derwent Valley.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46This river beneath us is the Derwent here.
0:15:48 > 0:15:55'This river played an important part in starting a small eruption called the Industrial Revolution.
0:15:55 > 0:16:02'In 1771, Richard Arkwright's Cromford Mill was built on a tributary of the River Derwent.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05'It was the world's first water-powered cotton factory.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08'And the Derwent has been a good and faithful servant,
0:16:08 > 0:16:13'not only powering industry, but also watering its workforce.
0:16:13 > 0:16:18'As the cities of Sheffield, Nottingham, Derby and Leicester grew, the Derwent Valley
0:16:18 > 0:16:23'was seen as the perfect place to store their drinking water.'
0:16:23 > 0:16:27Many people say that oil is black gold.
0:16:27 > 0:16:28Perhaps the real gold is water.
0:16:31 > 0:16:39Between 1901 and 1943, three dams - Howden, Derwent and Ladybower - were built.
0:16:45 > 0:16:52Controversially, two entire villages, Derwent and Ashopton, were sacrificed to the reservoirs
0:16:52 > 0:16:56and lie submerged at the bottom of these waters.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00In fact, until quite recently, when there were times of drought,
0:17:00 > 0:17:06you could actually see one of the church spires sticking above the water as the water receded, yes.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12Ladybower Dam also has a celebrated place in military history.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15It was used as a dress rehearsal for a theatre of war.
0:17:15 > 0:17:22The RAF's Dambuster Squadron came here to practise dropping the famous bouncing bomb.
0:17:22 > 0:17:24Personally, I remember it well.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38What a great film it was, what a marvellous moment.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41'I must have seen it about 50 times.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45'In May 1943, and just about every Sunday afternoon
0:17:45 > 0:17:51'for the next 20 years, the Dambusters successfully breached two German hydro-electric dams.'
0:17:53 > 0:17:56They've done it! They've got Eder Dam as well.
0:17:56 > 0:17:58It was a famous victory.
0:18:02 > 0:18:07But long before man built the dams and the factories and the mills, water was already transforming
0:18:07 > 0:18:11this landscape, albeit a little more slowly.
0:18:11 > 0:18:17During the Ice Age, ice one-kilometre thick scoured the soil up here, exposing the limestone.
0:18:17 > 0:18:22Rain and frost got into the weaknesses in the rock and cut intricate channels and courses.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27It created these natural, pocked limestone features.
0:18:27 > 0:18:32This fascinating phenomenon is here because of the amount of rain that falls on these hills.
0:18:34 > 0:18:39It is rare, beautiful and closely protected by a public body, Natural England.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43Paul Evans is the man in charge of preserving them.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47This is the famous limestone pavement.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50This is the famous limestone pavement. If you haven't been here
0:18:50 > 0:18:53or the west coast of Ireland, you will never have seen.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55It's a very, very bizarre thing.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59- What causes it?- Well, it's a combination of ice and water.
0:18:59 > 0:19:06Glaciers, about 12,000 years ago, stripped the surface off, so removed all the soil, all the vegetation.
0:19:06 > 0:19:10And then 12,000 years of basically dissolving by rainwater.
0:19:10 > 0:19:16It's internationally important, because it's incredibly rare. It's our rainforest, you could say.
0:19:16 > 0:19:18- It's of that sort of rarity. - Is it really?
0:19:20 > 0:19:25'In the little channels and holes in the rock, the shade and the humidity
0:19:25 > 0:19:32'creates a microclimate, which encourages lime-loving grasses and rare plants to flourish.'
0:19:32 > 0:19:36There's some beautiful things growing in there.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40Historically, this plateau was on a major drovers' route.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44Hundreds of thousands of cattle used to pass along, grazing around the pavement as they went.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48But over time, the cows have been largely replaced by sheep,
0:19:48 > 0:19:52which, being sheep, have been snacking on the wild flowers.
0:19:52 > 0:19:57This simple change is altering the fragile balance of the habitat.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01Today, Paul and his Natural England team are on a mission -
0:20:01 > 0:20:03to return this area to the wild meadow it once was.
0:20:03 > 0:20:11So, they've been paying farmers to replace some of those pesky sheep with these eco-friendly lawnmowers.
0:20:11 > 0:20:13I think we can walk on a bit now.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17- OK...- Here they come, here they come. Look out, it's a stampede!
0:20:17 > 0:20:21- I'm going to use you as a human shield.- Fair enough.
0:20:21 > 0:20:28'Farmer Bill Grayson looks after this herd of distinctive, and rather frisky, blue-grey cows.'
0:20:28 > 0:20:34What is their specific quality, then, for being here?
0:20:34 > 0:20:39They're very efficient converters of poor quality grazing.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41They will convert it into meat or milk.
0:20:41 > 0:20:47Oh, I see, but as cows, what they require is a fair amount of looking after.
0:20:47 > 0:20:49Whereas sheep can be left to, sort of...
0:20:49 > 0:20:54- That's the beauty of these cows. They look after themselves. - Have you seen a difference?
0:20:54 > 0:21:02Yes, a huge difference. I like to come back every spring, and see, you know, all the flowers
0:21:02 > 0:21:07that weren't there when we started, you know, beginning to thrive and spread.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17These limestone pavements are just one of the mind-boggling
0:21:17 > 0:21:20geological formations you find up here in the Pennines.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24They're part of what they call Karst landscape.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26It's the limestone.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30The rain falls and dissolves the stone, making it into an acid, which cuts more stone away
0:21:30 > 0:21:33as it dribbles through the cracks and the fissures.
0:21:33 > 0:21:38The process has created the ideal site for a little experiment I have in mind.
0:21:38 > 0:21:40I am walking up here to find a particularly
0:21:40 > 0:21:46large section of limestone wall like a huge rock amphitheatre.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51This is Malham Cove. Spectacular, isn't it? It looks
0:21:51 > 0:21:55like it might be a quarry, but it's an entirely natural phenomenon.
0:21:59 > 0:22:04A perfect place, I think, to meet an expert, the British expert,
0:22:04 > 0:22:07in a particular form of mountain communication.
0:22:07 > 0:22:09She's called
0:22:09 > 0:22:11Greta Elkin and...
0:22:11 > 0:22:14DISTANT SINGING
0:22:19 > 0:22:24I think that might be her. Yodel-eh-ee-ooh.
0:22:24 > 0:22:30- Yodel-ee-ooh.- Oooh-ooh...
0:22:30 > 0:22:35Hm, now, I've often thought I've got an undeveloped talent for yodelling
0:22:35 > 0:22:36and now was my chance to test it.
0:22:36 > 0:22:41Country singer, Greta Elkin, is Britain's top yodeller.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44So, I thought this cliff would be a good place to test the power of my
0:22:44 > 0:22:49own yodel against Greta's professional and highly trained throat.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53Now, my mum used to embarrass me...
0:22:53 > 0:22:54- Right.- ..When I was a kid.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57She'd arrive in somebody else's house, and she'd always walk in
0:22:57 > 0:22:59and go, "Yoo-hoo", like that,
0:22:59 > 0:23:03because that was a sort of signal between certain women in Epping.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06- That she was here.- Is that, do you think, how it started, yodelling?
0:23:06 > 0:23:09Well, it started, I suppose, in the mountains.
0:23:09 > 0:23:11That's how they communicated with each other.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15One would stand on one mountain, one on another, and they'd go something like.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19SHE YODELS
0:23:24 > 0:23:26Yodelling is a Swiss invention.
0:23:26 > 0:23:31Alpine shepherds first used it to communicate over mountain tops.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35It was later adopted by American cowboys on the range and then, of course, by country and
0:23:35 > 0:23:40western singers, which is where Greta first heard it as a child.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43Most of the yodel's with your throat. A falsetto.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45Le-oo, oh-oo, oh-oo, oh-oo...
0:23:45 > 0:23:48But I just go. I just go, you-oo, you-oo, you-oo...
0:23:48 > 0:23:52Yeah, but you've got the little falsetto there
0:23:52 > 0:23:54- and a lot of people don't have that. - Have I?
0:23:54 > 0:23:57You have, Griff, you really have.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01- So what, what, that is the secret of getting a bit of a yodel going? - Falsetto voice.
0:24:01 > 0:24:07- It was time to go head to head, well, yodel to yodel, really, with Greta..- Le-eeee...
0:24:12 > 0:24:15You-oo-yodel-ee-oo...
0:24:17 > 0:24:23Absolutely nothing, not a solitary echo.
0:24:23 > 0:24:28Ee-ee-ee... Ep-de-de-deeee...
0:24:33 > 0:24:37My yodel had been outclassed.
0:24:37 > 0:24:42So, respectfully, I left Greta down below and, like a lonely goat herd,
0:24:42 > 0:24:47went up to watch the sun set over Malham Cove.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50Thousands of years ago, a huge waterfall to rival Niagara
0:24:50 > 0:24:57plunged over this cliff, but the water was diverted and the exposed rock was left standing here.
0:24:57 > 0:25:02My journey is about to take an unexpected turn, in that
0:25:02 > 0:25:06there is a whole mountain landscape that I've not yet explored at all.
0:25:06 > 0:25:14It's time I followed the route that Pennine mountain water inevitably tends to take.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26I'm travelling on to Derbyshire, to caving country.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Quite unexpectedly, there are miles of hollows,
0:25:29 > 0:25:37chambers and subterranean passages under these gently swelling hills, and I am going into the honeycomb.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40So, what is the name of this cave here?
0:25:40 > 0:25:44- We are standing at the entrance of Giants Hole in Derbyshire.- Right.
0:25:44 > 0:25:51'Cave explorer Dave Nixon is taking me into the deepest cave system in the country.'
0:25:51 > 0:25:54I like these helmets cos as soon as I put a helmet on, I instantly bash
0:25:54 > 0:26:00my head against something, cos you can't see where you're going, so you go, "Oh, doing, doing!"
0:26:00 > 0:26:04Just what an odd shape you are to want to go crawling around in tiny holes.
0:26:04 > 0:26:08- Well, we're all the same size when we're lying down.- I see.- Come on.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13'The rock is carboniferous limestone.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17'It is actually made out of millions of tiny sea creatures.
0:26:17 > 0:26:23'Their skeletons were deposited on a seabed and then squashed to make stone.'
0:26:23 > 0:26:26It's quite a black hole down there.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29Yep, that's where we're going, deeper into Giants.
0:26:30 > 0:26:36'The same acid process that produced Malham Cove and the limestone pavements
0:26:36 > 0:26:43'has opened an extraordinary network of elaborate tunnels and cathedral-like chambers.'
0:26:45 > 0:26:48- Oh...- Watch your head.
0:26:50 > 0:26:55'Our mountains have long been conquered and mapped on the surface,
0:26:55 > 0:26:59'but down below there still remains dramatic undiscovered country.
0:26:59 > 0:27:05'This is Britain's last uncharted mountain territory.'
0:27:05 > 0:27:09Essentially, you go cave exploring?
0:27:09 > 0:27:15There's 10% of cavers who actively go out, trying to seek new places, try to look for, you know,
0:27:15 > 0:27:18to explore, to go, to push the frontiers to pioneer.
0:27:24 > 0:27:30We'd reached our destination safely, a cave called Base Camp Chamber.
0:27:30 > 0:27:32This is, if you like, a little antechamber.
0:27:32 > 0:27:36Is it? A mere cupboard under the stairs as far as things go.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39- Absolutely.- There are much bigger ones. How incredible.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43But you come to bits where, you know, you suddenly have to
0:27:43 > 0:27:46tie on a rope, and then start going down into the darkness?
0:27:46 > 0:27:49Uh-huh, yeah.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52'In fact, less than two miles away from where we're standing,
0:27:52 > 0:27:55'below these Derbyshire mountains,
0:27:55 > 0:27:58Dave Nixon had recently made an astonishing discovery.
0:27:58 > 0:28:00'It's a cave he called
0:28:00 > 0:28:06'Titan and it's the largest underground chamber in Britain.'
0:28:06 > 0:28:09Titan is one of my discoveries. I'm very proud of it.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11- How big is it, then?- Really big.
0:28:12 > 0:28:16It's just about the height of the London Eye, about 145 metres.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20- How extraordinary to find yourself a great big cave.- Yeah, it was a special day.
0:28:20 > 0:28:25- Cave exploration is more akin to mountaineering.- Old-fashioned mountaineering.- Yes.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29It doesn't matter, there are no ethics, the whole idea is just to get there, and get back
0:28:29 > 0:28:31in one piece and tell a great story at the end.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37I'm going to slip off...
0:28:37 > 0:28:40'It was time for us to get back in one piece.'
0:28:45 > 0:28:49It's an extraordinary experience to go underground like that, really.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52There's something rather spooky about it, isn't there?
0:28:52 > 0:28:59The idea that somehow deep below the earth are these, these great empty spaces.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02I'm quite pleased to be out of there.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14Of course, some people went underground in these
0:29:14 > 0:29:17hills to do rather more than admire the stalactites.
0:29:17 > 0:29:22I'm heading to Weardale, the heart of mountain mining in the Pennines,
0:29:22 > 0:29:28because it's not just water that runs through these rocks, there are other riches, too.
0:29:30 > 0:29:37Since Roman times, huge quantities of lead have been extracted from these metal-rich hillsides.
0:29:37 > 0:29:44As late as the 1900s, the Weardale Valley was one of the world's most important lead fields.
0:29:48 > 0:29:54Nowadays, all that's left are the museums that commemorate the Cumbrian mining bonanza.
0:29:57 > 0:30:04While digging out the lead, though, the Weardale miners also uncovered a fabulous range of mineral deposits,
0:30:04 > 0:30:07like these on display here in the Killhope mining museum.
0:30:09 > 0:30:15Some of these minerals can be cut down and polished to make gemstones, not rubies and diamonds perhaps,
0:30:15 > 0:30:19but they certainly make an impressive collection.
0:30:21 > 0:30:28Yeah, most of the minerals here seem to have been thrown away, things that got in the way of lead mining.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31Elizabeth Taylor would go mad for some of this stuff.
0:30:31 > 0:30:37'But as time went on, most of the minerals were found to have more practical uses.'
0:30:37 > 0:30:43Put into toothpaste, in aerosol propellants, in etching glass, in glazes
0:30:43 > 0:30:49It's as if the Pennines yielded up every conceivable form of mineral.
0:30:52 > 0:30:56'Which somebody eventually found a use for.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59'Jimmy Craggs was one of the last of the Weardale miners.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03'He remembers the way they'd discover a hollow in the face.'
0:31:03 > 0:31:07- Suddenly, the drill would go into a hole and you'd think "Oops, there's a hole!"- Yeah.- Right.
0:31:07 > 0:31:09There's some goodies in there.
0:31:09 > 0:31:14- Right.- Unbelievable, just... - And then...- You could walk in it!
0:31:14 > 0:31:16- Could you? - You could walk in it, yeah.
0:31:16 > 0:31:19And inside, was it all covered in crystal?
0:31:19 > 0:31:23Yep, staggering, the size of it, the amount of crystals.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26I think most people would just be thinking of the pound notes
0:31:26 > 0:31:29they could get in their back pocket, really, like, you know.
0:31:29 > 0:31:34- Were all the crystals all shiny or where they covered in..?- Oh, yeah. No, no they were nice and clean.
0:31:34 > 0:31:36Right.
0:31:36 > 0:31:40Have you discovered other things down in the mine, gold?
0:31:40 > 0:31:44- No, and if I had I wouldn't tell you, would I?- OK!
0:31:49 > 0:31:55The miners did often illicitly pocketed the goodies, but it wasn't necessarily for profit.
0:31:55 > 0:32:01These fabulous creations, works of folk art, are called spar boxes.
0:32:01 > 0:32:06They're the miners' equivalent of the sailor's ship in a bottle.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10These spar boxes take their name from the spar minerals like
0:32:10 > 0:32:13calcite and fluorspar they are decorated with.
0:32:13 > 0:32:19They are an ornate way for a miner to show off his collection and his craftsmanship.
0:32:21 > 0:32:27The most famous one of all depicts a fantasy mineral-encrusted Victorian street scene.
0:32:29 > 0:32:34This is the Bernini of spar boxes, the Egglestone box.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37It's an absolute masterpiece of construction.
0:32:37 > 0:32:45Local miner Joseph Egglestone completed this fluorite, calcite and quartz decorated box in 1904.
0:32:45 > 0:32:50It is the largest of these spar boxes ever constructed.
0:32:50 > 0:32:59Looking inside, the dim lights reproduce the feel of being right inside the mountain.
0:33:10 > 0:33:15The rise and fall of mining left deep scars all over this northern
0:33:15 > 0:33:18Pennine landscape, but slowly they're healing.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23The spoil heaps are getting overgrown,
0:33:23 > 0:33:26the tips are gently blending into the hillside.
0:33:26 > 0:33:33But look closely and you can still find the evidence not just of the industry, but also of the commerce
0:33:33 > 0:33:40and the way that the Pennine range, such a huge obstacle in itself, was crossed by ancient paths.
0:33:40 > 0:33:49These are packhorse trails, trade routes, and the HGVs of that period ran on just a single horsepower.
0:33:52 > 0:33:58I need to get closer to that old industrial landscape... Yippee-kyay!
0:33:58 > 0:34:03..To understand how trade and industry first saddled up in this mountain region.
0:34:03 > 0:34:07It's time to ride the packhorse trail.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11But first, I have to choose my steed.
0:34:15 > 0:34:22Essentially a horse is a very large quadruped with excessively big teeth.
0:34:22 > 0:34:23They're nervous things,
0:34:23 > 0:34:29I always think. They always look to me, horses, like they are not quite happy about something.
0:34:29 > 0:34:33I don't know what it is. Every time I come up to a horse, all the horse ever does is go.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36Look at this, this is the most placid horse in the history of horses.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39For some reason it's called Tyson,
0:34:39 > 0:34:42but I'm sure that's just a misnomer of some kind.
0:34:42 > 0:34:44Want to stroke him on his neck?
0:34:44 > 0:34:47Ah, that's it Tyson, you're a monster.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51Look at you rolling your eyes at me already. How many hands is he?
0:34:51 > 0:34:53- He's about 16 one hands. - And how many legs?
0:34:53 > 0:34:55- Four.- Four legs.
0:34:55 > 0:34:59Come on, come on, come on!
0:34:59 > 0:35:04'You might have gathered I'm not a natural horseman. Tyson has too.'
0:35:04 > 0:35:07Ho, go on, that's it.
0:35:07 > 0:35:10You can see now we're moving off along the track.
0:35:10 > 0:35:15Sometimes, it would take them years to get the goods delivered.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19Ho, off we go, go on, walk on.
0:35:19 > 0:35:21Oh, no. Oh, come on, Tyson.
0:35:21 > 0:35:27It would take them centuries, in fact, to get this stuff across the Pennines.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31Oh, all right, we'll go this way, I don't mind.
0:35:31 > 0:35:33I don't mind, it makes no odds to me.
0:35:34 > 0:35:35Whoa!
0:35:38 > 0:35:44Accompanying me is Christine Peat, who uses these routes regularly.
0:35:44 > 0:35:46Go on, Tyson.
0:35:46 > 0:35:48This is the Pennine Bridleway.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52- Right.- You can go all the way down to Derbyshire that way and all the way up to Hexham this way.
0:35:52 > 0:35:58- So...- Some of the busy routes would have a thousand horses a day passing along them.
0:35:58 > 0:36:01'Before the canals and the railways came here,
0:36:01 > 0:36:06'these giant convoys of ponies would ferry not only industrial products,
0:36:06 > 0:36:10'but also everyday goods, like salt, milk and coal,
0:36:10 > 0:36:12'up and over the Pennines.'
0:36:12 > 0:36:16Chris, we're up here, this is literally the high road, isn't it?
0:36:16 > 0:36:18- Yes, it is.- Why didn't they go down in the valley?
0:36:18 > 0:36:24Bottom of the valleys was usually very wet and waterlogged, and the other reason is said to be that
0:36:24 > 0:36:28there were more hiding places for the nasty robbers down there.
0:36:28 > 0:36:33Whereas up here, you could see anybody that was going to ambush you and steal your valuable cargo.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37Tyson is not very interested in our conversation. He's going home backwards!
0:36:37 > 0:36:38Don't pull him back.
0:36:38 > 0:36:44He's a concern, he's going backwards. This is not very clever. We're not in a circus, Tyson.
0:36:46 > 0:36:51'Each horse could carry over 16 stone of goods and still be strong enough
0:36:51 > 0:36:54'to get up the very steepest bits of the mountain.'
0:36:54 > 0:36:59A lot of lime went down to Cheshire and the salt came up, and that's where you get the
0:36:59 > 0:37:06- typical old-fashioned names for these routes, like Limesgate, Limesway, the Salt Way, the Salt Road.- Yes.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09It was used for lime going out, and salt coming in.
0:37:09 > 0:37:16These once busy trails were ridden right up until the early 1900s, but now they are largely neglected.
0:37:16 > 0:37:22Trains, lorries and cars use the easier routes along the valley floors.
0:37:26 > 0:37:31It wasn't until the 1960s, though, that the highest reaches of
0:37:31 > 0:37:37the Pennines were finally bridged and on an unimaginable scale.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41Six lanes of tarmac tearing through the heart of the high moorland.
0:37:41 > 0:37:43The M62 is Britain's mountain motorway.
0:37:43 > 0:37:49It's the highest in the country, and a marvel of civil engineering.
0:37:52 > 0:37:57They even built a footbridge to let walkers on the Pennine Way ramble on, uninterrupted.
0:37:59 > 0:38:05Inspector Phil Bromley of the Yorkshire Traffic Police took me out on patrol.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08- This is a really major artery now, isn't it?- Yeah, that's right, yeah.
0:38:08 > 0:38:13- The amount of traffic coming. - Oh, it's somewhere in the region of 110,000 plus vehicles a day.
0:38:13 > 0:38:16And what sort of height do we get to here?
0:38:16 > 0:38:19Um, you're looking at around 1,400 feet at the summit of the motorway.
0:38:26 > 0:38:29Wintertime we have a lot of problems with snow and ice on the motorway.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33People do get a very terrible sort of confidence on motorways, and, so,
0:38:33 > 0:38:39however bad the weather comes in, I'm always startled by how people won't slow down at all.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42That's right, yeah, and even if we have signs up they will actually
0:38:42 > 0:38:46get out, stop, remove the cones and signs and drive, through.
0:38:46 > 0:38:48- Will they?- Yeah.
0:38:48 > 0:38:52The M62 was built to help get industrial and manufactured products
0:38:52 > 0:38:56between the great industrial counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire.
0:38:59 > 0:39:05Here, as it rises over the Pennines, the motorway crosses an invisible line between the two counties.
0:39:05 > 0:39:11Once, that line was taken rather seriously and separated more than police traffic zones.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15600 years ago, in the War of the Roses, the rival
0:39:15 > 0:39:19houses of Yorkshire and Lancashire fought a bitter Civil War.
0:39:19 > 0:39:24Much blood was shed in these hills, but up here now in search of
0:39:24 > 0:39:30a night out on a crisp, clear evening, it all seems serenely peaceful, if a little cold.
0:39:32 > 0:39:41Well, that's a very welcome sight, that's the highest pub in England at 1,732 feet. Just up there,
0:39:41 > 0:39:46a mile away, is the border between Yorkshire and Lancashire.
0:39:46 > 0:39:50In fact, the Pennines have acted as a division between these very forceful counties.
0:39:50 > 0:39:58Certainly, it did in the late 1400s, but those Wars of the Roses, they're all behind us now, aren't they?
0:39:58 > 0:40:00Yes, of course, they are. They must be.
0:40:02 > 0:40:04Come on, Dawn.
0:40:04 > 0:40:09'Unbeknownst to the local constabulary, here in the Tann Hill Inn
0:40:09 > 0:40:12'hostilities have been resumed at the oche.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16'Tonight, the Yorkshire and Lancashire ladies darts teams,
0:40:16 > 0:40:20'resplendent in traditional colours, are competing for the pride
0:40:20 > 0:40:24'of their respective counties. Confidence is high in the red corner.'
0:40:24 > 0:40:27- You are all Lancashire ladies?- Yes.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30When you play Yorkshire...
0:40:30 > 0:40:33- Whatever sport... - We want to beat them.
0:40:33 > 0:40:35- Do you?- Oh, yes.
0:40:35 > 0:40:40We want to beat everybody, but Dawn, she's the one that we really want to, you know,
0:40:40 > 0:40:43definitely The War of the Roses. INDISTINCT CHATTER
0:40:43 > 0:40:46What are the great things about Lancashire?
0:40:46 > 0:40:48- Yeah, we're people people, we're friendly.- Yeah.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52This thing about Yorkshire, cos they say that Yorkshire are a bit,
0:40:52 > 0:40:56they're a bit, er, close with their money, kind of, bit, bit careful?
0:40:56 > 0:40:57A bit tight, aye.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00We'll buy a drink now, won't we?
0:41:02 > 0:41:06'The White Roses in the Yorkshire camp were not entirely impressed by that argument.'
0:41:06 > 0:41:10They said over there that the Yorkshire people have a bit of a reputation,
0:41:10 > 0:41:13amongst the Lancashire people, of being a bit tight.
0:41:13 > 0:41:14Is that true?
0:41:14 > 0:41:16The Yorkshire people lived within their means
0:41:16 > 0:41:20because they've got the money they have, and they live within that means.
0:41:20 > 0:41:24- Right.- We're careful, we're not tight.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27What do Yorkshire people say about Lancastrians?
0:41:27 > 0:41:29We don't talk about them at all.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32You don't talk about them at all? Oh, quite right, too!
0:41:33 > 0:41:38'It was time to let the darts do the talking.'
0:41:38 > 0:41:39Good darts.
0:41:39 > 0:41:43'Honours were even after the first exchanges.'
0:41:43 > 0:41:45OK, next time.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48'But, gradually, Lancashire eased in front.'
0:41:50 > 0:41:53This is quite close. Quite close these two.
0:41:53 > 0:41:57'Lancashire were now just two good darts away from victory.
0:41:59 > 0:42:04'Thankfully, in this particular battle, nobody lost their head, their crown
0:42:04 > 0:42:10'or their horse, but with Lancashire triumphant, it was time for a healing sing-song.'
0:42:10 > 0:42:14ALL: # Whatever they do in London We did it yesterday
0:42:14 > 0:42:20# Lancashire, Lancashire Lancashire leads the way, hey! #
0:42:20 > 0:42:24SINGING CONTINUES
0:42:29 > 0:42:34My evening of darts had introduced me to some lovely ladies,
0:42:34 > 0:42:37the real people, who live in the shadow of the Pennines.
0:42:37 > 0:42:43It's time to come down off the mountain and plunge into the great cities that encircle it.
0:42:43 > 0:42:47So, for the last leg of my journey, I'm going back to the densely populated
0:42:47 > 0:42:51southern end of this region, to Sheffield,
0:42:51 > 0:42:55a town that owes its very existence to these mountains.
0:42:55 > 0:43:00How do they get on - these working men and women and the high moors that rise above them?
0:43:00 > 0:43:03What is the relationship between the hills and the city?
0:43:03 > 0:43:10Like Rome, Sheffield is built on seven hills.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15Well, it's quite like Rome.
0:43:16 > 0:43:18# Listen to the voice of Buddha... #
0:43:21 > 0:43:29Now, the Pennines are away somewhere, they're just over there.
0:43:29 > 0:43:34They're full of iron ore, and coal, and fluorspar, limestone -
0:43:34 > 0:43:37the essential ingredients for making steel.
0:43:37 > 0:43:43The water runs down off the Pennines, and there are five rivers that come together here.
0:43:43 > 0:43:48So, there was power, and there was transport,
0:43:48 > 0:43:55and all this conspired to make Sheffield itself, thanks to the mountains, a crucible.
0:44:01 > 0:44:07As Britain industrialized, cities like Sheffield became noisy, polluted and crowded places.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10The mountains that gave their power to industry
0:44:10 > 0:44:13also had the potential to sustain the people who worked there,
0:44:13 > 0:44:18in a different way, by providing sanctuary.
0:44:19 > 0:44:26Generations of factory workers would flee Sheffield in their free time and head up into the Peak District,
0:44:26 > 0:44:29which is only 20 minutes away from the city centre.
0:44:31 > 0:44:36I'm taking a well-trodden path towards the famous Stanage Edge.
0:44:41 > 0:44:48Stanage Edge is a three-and-a-half mile long cliff face that runs down the Hope Valley.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51It's made of gritstone, a surface so popular with rock-climbers
0:44:51 > 0:44:56that they found nearly a thousand different routes to climb up it.
0:44:56 > 0:45:01Goliath's Groove, Marble Wall, Flying Buttress.
0:45:01 > 0:45:05Just the names would be enough to excite the would-be climber.
0:45:07 > 0:45:12I was anxious to get a look at it, but as I got closer, I thought I might have picked the wrong day.
0:45:12 > 0:45:18I was lucky, I suppose, to spot the Sheffield City School bus that was coming to pick me up.
0:45:20 > 0:45:21Heh-heh!
0:45:21 > 0:45:23Eh, 'ello.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27Hello, everyone. Have you all had lunch?
0:45:27 > 0:45:32I'm joining these schoolchildren for a day's climbing at Stanage Edge.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35Not ever before today have you ever climbed?
0:45:35 > 0:45:38I've never properly rock climbed, like.
0:45:38 > 0:45:40Not gone up a cliff, like.
0:45:40 > 0:45:45Are you all limber? That's the secret to be a little bit, not too on the heavy side, isn't it?
0:45:45 > 0:45:50- Cos there's a lot of dragging your own body after you.- Yeah, yeah, we've got no problem, don't we?
0:45:50 > 0:45:53That's nice(!) He's obviously judging me, I'm fatter than I look.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59Like me, these schoolchildren are novices.
0:46:01 > 0:46:05For many of them, it's the first time and it'll be a new experience.
0:46:05 > 0:46:10But our leader is an expert. Andy Cave is one of Britain's greatest mountaineers
0:46:10 > 0:46:13and a local lad as well.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18A real monumental quality.
0:46:18 > 0:46:22It looks like there's quite a lot of handholds to get you going. Girls, what do you think?
0:46:22 > 0:46:27Is this the easiest route to get up there or can you walk round the back there and go up?
0:46:33 > 0:46:35First time ever climbing? Nice one!
0:46:35 > 0:46:38Main thing is trust your feet.
0:46:38 > 0:46:41There... A bit lower. Small steps.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45Andy Cave has pioneered some of the hardest routes in the world.
0:46:45 > 0:46:49He climbed the North Face of the Eiger by the time he was 20.
0:46:49 > 0:46:56But his remarkable story actually began 3,000 feet below ground, down a Yorkshire coal pit.
0:46:56 > 0:47:01The first time I ever did a new route was during the miners' strike of 1984 and I called it
0:47:01 > 0:47:04The Lucky Strike, cos in a way, the strike was a bad thing, but,
0:47:04 > 0:47:10for me, it opened my eyes to the outdoors, and I realised there was more to life than money.
0:47:16 > 0:47:17Did you start like this originally?
0:47:17 > 0:47:21I think I was a bit reckless when I started. I wasn't from an outdoor family.
0:47:21 > 0:47:26Great Granddad, Granddad, Dad, worked at the pits. That's what you did locally.
0:47:26 > 0:47:28And you worked as a miner?
0:47:28 > 0:47:31I worked as a miner at Grimethorpe pit - Grimey, as featured in Brassed Off.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34That was where I worked, yeah.
0:47:35 > 0:47:37Keep going. Keep going.
0:47:37 > 0:47:40He now wants to encourage a new generation of young people
0:47:40 > 0:47:45to open their eyes to the adventure available right here on their doorstep.
0:47:45 > 0:47:50Too far. They're doing it. They're helping each other and giving each other support. Well done.
0:47:50 > 0:47:57Unlike something like football, it'll take you outside of the housing estate or wherever you live.
0:47:57 > 0:48:01It's a feeling you get. It's wonderful, the focus, shutting everything else out.
0:48:01 > 0:48:03You're a different person,
0:48:03 > 0:48:04you just feel great.
0:48:04 > 0:48:10All the small stuff, the gas bills, and the bum-fluff of life that's just, that's gone, that's gone.
0:48:11 > 0:48:17Now, if a bunch of kids can get up there, it shouldn't be a problem for me, should it?
0:48:17 > 0:48:19Well, apparently, we're off.
0:48:19 > 0:48:21Christ!
0:48:21 > 0:48:22- Go on.- Oops.
0:48:22 > 0:48:26Just small steps, small steps, that's it.
0:48:26 > 0:48:29- I don't know where I'm going next. - Can you walk across a bit?
0:48:29 > 0:48:31Halfway there.
0:48:42 > 0:48:45Right, you need to use your real upper body strength now...
0:48:45 > 0:48:48(if he's got any.)
0:48:48 > 0:48:52Right, now you need to go back a little bit more.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59Go on! Go on!
0:49:00 > 0:49:05Is this legal? Are you sure this is the correct way of doing it?
0:49:05 > 0:49:09'Yeah, well, maybe not the day's most graceful ascent,
0:49:09 > 0:49:11'but I did manage to reach the top.'
0:49:11 > 0:49:14CHEERING
0:49:16 > 0:49:19Do you just wanna turn around, Griff?
0:49:19 > 0:49:20I can't.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23'Now, all I needed to do was lean back
0:49:23 > 0:49:28'and trust that someone had remembered to hold on to the other end of the rope.'
0:49:28 > 0:49:32This is the bit that always gets me, I just have to sort of...
0:49:32 > 0:49:37find wherever... I lost me courage somewhere on the way up. Coming back! Right,
0:49:37 > 0:49:40Oh... Argh... Oh, no... Oh, no...
0:49:40 > 0:49:41Oh...
0:49:41 > 0:49:46Oh, lad, it all feels most unusual and peculiar,
0:49:46 > 0:49:51and unnatural in a funny sort of way for something which is close to nature. Know what I mean?
0:49:57 > 0:50:04I had me foot down there, and me arm up there, and then they say, "Now, pull yourself up on your arm",
0:50:04 > 0:50:08and I say, "Well, that's, that's not physically possible for me to do."
0:50:08 > 0:50:12It is like being a kid again cos your sitting there watching them all do it,
0:50:12 > 0:50:17and thinking, "Yeah, let me at it, I'm gonna go. I'll show them how easy it is." And then,
0:50:17 > 0:50:22you're cramming your fingers in, pushing against the flesh of your thumbs
0:50:22 > 0:50:25and ending up with sort of numb fingers almost immediately.
0:50:25 > 0:50:30I've got six 14-year-olds who just leapt up there, watching me do it.
0:50:30 > 0:50:33It's not fair!
0:50:37 > 0:50:42Andy Cave found sanctuary from industrial life by climbing on Stanage Edge.
0:50:42 > 0:50:49Others have broken away to trek all over the 555 square miles of the Peak District.
0:50:49 > 0:50:56And we should all pay respect to an unlikely sort of local hero who helped to make that possible.
0:50:56 > 0:51:02These days the thousands of ramblers who come here are a fairly law-abiding bunch,
0:51:02 > 0:51:03but not so many years ago,
0:51:03 > 0:51:07they were as likely to be looking forward to a jail sentence
0:51:07 > 0:51:10as the arrival of the latest breathable anorak.
0:51:12 > 0:51:16In the past, only a tiny part of our countryside was open to the public.
0:51:16 > 0:51:21Then the Ramblers began a 100-year campaign for the right to roam.
0:51:21 > 0:51:27I've brought my campervan to commemorate the 75th anniversary of a key moment in the struggle.
0:51:29 > 0:51:36In 1932, nearly 300 local activists met up in this disused quarry.
0:51:36 > 0:51:39They were here to take part in a legendary mass trespass
0:51:39 > 0:51:44out onto the forbidden mountain of Kinder Scout,
0:51:44 > 0:51:47which was then part of the private property of the Duke of Devonshire.
0:51:47 > 0:51:52And the gamekeepers were pretty violent in those days, too.
0:51:52 > 0:51:56If you encountered a gamekeeper, you know, you would be evicted fairly forcibly.
0:51:56 > 0:52:02This group of lads were turned off Bleaklow by a threatening gamekeeper.
0:52:02 > 0:52:05They came back down and they said, "If there were enough of us,
0:52:05 > 0:52:11"they wouldn't stop us." So, they arranged this mass trespass, which started here in this quarry.
0:52:11 > 0:52:16Organising the protest was a local Communist campaigner called Benny Rothman.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19The aim of the group was to gain access to forbidden countryside.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22There were rights of way, but they were strictly limited.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25So the protestors were intending to do little more than break away
0:52:25 > 0:52:28from the official footpath over Kinder Scout
0:52:28 > 0:52:31and register their belief in their right to roam.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34When I look at those pictures of them,
0:52:34 > 0:52:40there were quite a lot of very young people. There was, in a sort of sense, a lot of 16, 17-year-olds.
0:52:40 > 0:52:43It's thanks to these guys back in the '30s, really,
0:52:43 > 0:52:46that we've got this, because they started the battle.
0:52:46 > 0:52:52The argument from these landowners was, "How would you like someone walking across your backyard?"
0:52:52 > 0:52:55Well, if my backyard was the size of Yorkshire I probably wouldn't mind.
0:52:55 > 0:53:00ALL: # I'm a rambler, I'm a rambler From Manchester way
0:53:00 > 0:53:05# I get all me pleasures The high moorland way
0:53:05 > 0:53:09# I may be a wage-slave on Monday
0:53:09 > 0:53:13# But I am a freeman come Sunday. #
0:53:16 > 0:53:19So, I'm off with a group of local ramblers and walkers
0:53:19 > 0:53:23to retrace that historic route of 1932.
0:53:23 > 0:53:28The trespass had been well publicized, so Derbyshire police
0:53:28 > 0:53:31drafted in reinforcements and local gamekeepers
0:53:31 > 0:53:34got themselves ready for a fight.
0:53:38 > 0:53:44The narrow path the protesters were on was a legitimate right of way,
0:53:44 > 0:53:47but the walkers wanted to stake a claim to the hillside as well.
0:53:47 > 0:53:49Is this where they went up?
0:53:49 > 0:53:51They stepped off this right of way,
0:53:51 > 0:53:55stepped off to do their trespass, and that's where they encountered the gamekeepers.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58- So, the gamekeepers were... - Waiting for them.
0:53:58 > 0:54:00- Organised?- Oh, yes.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09The mass trespassers never got to see the top of Kinder Scout that day.
0:54:09 > 0:54:15There was a violent scuffle with the gamekeepers, which led to four of the protesters being jailed.
0:54:15 > 0:54:18But their struggle inspired a generation of campaigners.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23Finally, in 2000, nearly 70 years after that pioneering event,
0:54:23 > 0:54:30the Labour Government introduced an Act of Parliament that gave all of us the right to roam.
0:54:30 > 0:54:34There's been a struggle for generations, for people
0:54:34 > 0:54:40to try and get back onto what they considered was their land. Surely, it is our land.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43You've got to compare it with their everyday lives
0:54:43 > 0:54:46in a factory and seeing these blue hills on the horizon
0:54:46 > 0:54:51and knowing that they couldn't get there. It used to be theirs, but they couldn't get there.
0:54:55 > 0:55:00With us on the walk today are members of the group called 100 Black Men Walking for Health.
0:55:00 > 0:55:06These guys feel their access to the countryside has been limited, too, not by the law,
0:55:06 > 0:55:14but because they live largely in towns and have never felt at home in Britain's hills and mountains.
0:55:14 > 0:55:16Has this been a success, are you 100?
0:55:16 > 0:55:21Well, 100 in spirit. People look around and think there must be 100 of us out there.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24When we go walking, we tend to be the largest group.
0:55:24 > 0:55:30People just look at us and say, "How come there's six or seven black men walking?" that kind of thing.
0:55:30 > 0:55:35Often, as a black male, you're the only person and it's not that people are not allowed to.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38Sometimes, it's about access in a different sense -
0:55:38 > 0:55:43access in terms of people feeling as if it's somewhere where they can go as well.
0:55:43 > 0:55:46- It's pretty good fun as well, isn't it?- Well, it is, because
0:55:46 > 0:55:48Fitz, how did you find today?
0:55:48 > 0:55:53Part of the experience is, you need to get out, you need to be active,
0:55:53 > 0:55:58and that's the whole thing cos when you get out here, it just changes your perspective.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01Your consciousness changes as well.
0:56:01 > 0:56:06You know, we're middle-aged men as such and just talking about what middle-aged men of any community
0:56:06 > 0:56:11talk about which is, you know, trials and tribulations, frustrations and, you know...
0:56:11 > 0:56:13- And women.- I used to be good at football, and women!
0:56:13 > 0:56:18I agree, and when we switch the camera off we'll have a good old talk about women.
0:56:20 > 0:56:24And in the meantime, we're going to make the most of our hard-won liberty.
0:56:24 > 0:56:26So, we're carrying on up the hill.
0:56:26 > 0:56:30Thankfully, the only resistance we're meeting is from the wind,
0:56:30 > 0:56:35nothing has prevented us from getting to the top of Kinder Scout.
0:56:46 > 0:56:50It's a bit of a blasted heath up here but, in fact, all the time
0:56:50 > 0:56:55we've been passing ordinary punters, who have been using these paths to walk about the hills.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58In a way, the argument is about the spirit
0:56:58 > 0:57:03of mass trespass and access, but the real problem today is inertia.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06There may be millions of people living within
0:57:06 > 0:57:10half an hour of here, but millions of them never come up here at all.
0:57:10 > 0:57:12On a day like today, I suppose you can see why.
0:57:12 > 0:57:15It's windy, cold, wet, and there's every reason
0:57:15 > 0:57:19for sitting on a couch, looking out the window and saying, "I'm not going up there."
0:57:19 > 0:57:24But when you do come up here, it's absolutely bloody fantastic!
0:57:26 > 0:57:30These mountains are at the very centre of our nation.
0:57:30 > 0:57:36They have kick-started our industrial development, they have created great manufacturing cities,
0:57:36 > 0:57:40and they have served as a sanctuary and refuge for the people of this region.
0:57:40 > 0:57:43They are the Pennines.
0:57:46 > 0:57:48Next time on Mountain,
0:57:48 > 0:57:51I'll explore the mythical peaks of Snowdonia in Wales,
0:57:51 > 0:57:54encounter a landscape more fragile than we think
0:57:54 > 0:57:58and find out who is winning in the battle between the mountains and us.
0:58:20 > 0:58:23Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:23 > 0:58:27E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk