This is Coast.
Our stunning sea cliffs.
An imperious borderline,
stitched with a rainbow tapestry of stone.
Deceptive and dramatic,
yielding and treacherous.
Over millennia, we've learnt to negotiate this tricky terrain...
..and carve surprising uses from its rocky skeleton.
My quest has bought me to the lsle of Wight.
l'm on a mission to delve into the hidden world of our sea cliffs,
and l'm going to start with this key.
Over a century ago the locals unlocked a secret.
This solid sea cliff had a helpfully soft core.
Behind this grill is a disused lift shaft,
a man-made hole bored straight into the cliff.
l'm going to extreme lengths,
investigating mysteries at the heart of our sea cliffs,
and l'm not alone.
Tessa is on the south coast,
discovering a cliff that went to war.
These cliffs were the perfect testing ground
for the tactics that would be used in the D-day landings.
While Andy joins the military on a modern-day mission.
This cliff is a challenge you've got to conquer
if you wanna be a Royal Marine.
And new experts Cassie Newland and Sarah Beynon
share insider knowledge of unexpected treasures.
These guys can shift serious amounts of poo.
We've got all this amazingly interesting stuff
that's just falling out of the cliff.
And l'll be exploring the surprising shores of Yorkshire
where cliffs are towers of strength and soft as butter.
Road to nowhere.
Our island's edge as you've never seen it before.
This is the Secret Life of Sea Cliffs.
My journey will take me on a 70-mile adventure
across the vast and varied cliffs of Yorkshire.
But first l need to free myself from the depths of the lsle of Wight.
Here the sea has bitten chunks out of the headland.
lf nature could carve through the chalk, why not man?
l've walked across cliffs, l've climbed up cliffs,
but l've never abseiled through a cliff.
lt's completely other-worldly.
ln the late 1 9th century,
the government had the cliff's centre scooped out,
part of a secret defence plan.
This looks like a spur tunnel, this.
lt's got a very high roof and it's full of debris.
This one looks like the main one.
These tunnels have lain untouched for decades,
but clues to their use still remain.
Old electrical cables carried in this rusting steel pipe.
There's a gigantic rusting engine.
This must have been used to power the lift.
A window ahead sheds some light.
(Laughs)
Look at this! Unbelievable!
What could be more secure than a fortress built into a cliff face?
Beginning in 1 860, the military chiselled out the chalk
to create a rock-solid defence.
A fort dug into the cliff top and near sea level
camouflaged gun positions,
ideal for troops facing hostile warships in the Channel.
They'd worked a way to make the most of their cliff edge,
and this rocky border can lead me to further surprises.
lmagine following this seam of chalk back inland.
lt would be an underground journey through the soft underbelly of England,
emerging on the east coast in God's own country.
The chalk rears its head again here.
These are the white cliffs of Yorkshire.
This is the ideal location to celebrate our sea cliffs at their most splendid
and their most scary.
While l explore the Yorkshire shore,
the team will discover their own highlights.
Every cliff has its own secret and surprising story to tell.
With thousands of miles of cliffs circling the UK,
there's an adventure waiting around every corner.
But it's impossible to see the whole extraordinary mosaic at once.
Or is it?
l've brought together rocks from around our coast
to create a unique map of the UK.
These pieces of a puzzle build up a picture of the birth of our isles.
An epic saga l want to unpick.
Under my feet are the white cliffs of Yorkshire,
made up of chalk,
the remains of microscopic plants about 1 00 million years old.
l'm building an empire
Started from scratch lt began with stones...
Now layers of long-gone sea life provide a perch for bird life.
l'm building an empire
So little time and so much to do...
And where there's chalk, you find an even softer, scarier specimen.
ln East Yorkshire, the cliffs are smothered in boulder clay.
lt's all very soft material, this.
This is a coast that's being eaten away at a ferocious rate.
Empire...
Travel to Cornwall and the granite rock is much harder.
But locals make the most of chinks in their rugged border.
ln Wales some cliffs are chewed away,
evidence of a slate industry which quarried cash from the cliff face.
The oldest rocks on our coast can be found here, in the Outer Hebrides.
This is the great, great, great, great-grandfather
of our coastal geology.
Nice, this beautiful stripy rock is three billion years old.
That's more than half the age of planet Earth.
Mother Nature carved these rocks,
making a maze out of the lsle of Mingulay.
ln Orkney, people sculpted the softer sandstone
to build our oldest village, Skara Brae.
Cliffs tell us where our isles were once a desert landscape,
that dinosaurs roamed here and volcano bubbled lava.
Those stories make sea cliffs so exciting,
in all over 1 00 rock types.
There you go, the bare bones that make up the skeleton of our islands.
Our white cliffs are the famous face of the British lsles.
During the Second World War,
our chalky southern shore was immortalised in song,
a reminder of peace.
There'll be blue birds over
The white cliffs of Dover
Tomorrow
Just you wait and see
But this coastline wasn't remote from the war. lt helped to win it.
Courageous exploits are remembered in Burton Bradstock.
For centuries, this rocky precipice protected the tiny village,
but when the Second World War came knocking,
a door opened to an extraordinary invasion.
Tessa's discovering a cliff that went to war.
TESSA: ln 1 944, the tide was about to turn in Europe.
And Britain's unbreached borders were braced
for a new chapter in their long history.
This line of defence was about to play a crucial role in an attack on the enemy.
ln early 1 944, a line of assault craft was advancing on our south coast.
The sleepy village of Burton Bradstock was about to be exposed to war.
Janet Guppy was 1 3 at the time.
The cliffs brought danger to her doorstep.
We weren't allowed to use the cliff at all.
lt was just barbed wire all the way along here,
right the way along the coast.
TESSA: And one morning, Janet, you saw something untoward, didn't you?
Yes, l noticed something on the cliff top.
Looking through the wire, l could see this dark shape.
- There were several of them there. - Did you go and investigate?
No, we couldn't get there because of all this barbed wire.
l had to go off because l had to go to school.
TESSA: Grappling hooks were hurled onto the cliff top.
Unique film shows the cliff face under siege.
But the threat wasn't what the villagers feared.
Look closely and you can see the American uniforms.
This wasn't an enemy invasion. The Yanks were coming.
Burton Bradstock had become a training ground
for America's elite cliff assault team.
MAN: The leading men raced to the top.
Two men can climb each ladder at the same time.
TESSA: The US rangers were preparing for a daring mission
to decide the fate of Europe.
These cliffs were the perfect testing ground
for the tactics used during the D-day landings.
1 20 miles away over the Channel lay the Normandy coast.
The cliffs there are a mirror image of those at Burton Bradstock.
30 metres high, the same stone, they loomed over the beach,
high ground the Americans had to take.
The cliffs at Burton Bradstock were chosen
to test the troop's equipment for real.
lf they could successfully scale these cliffs in England,
then they had a chance of overcoming the German fortifications
on the cliffs of occupied France.
Waiting for D-day, a group of Gls were stationed nearby.
Locals weren't usually allowed to access their camp,
but there's evidence of one exception to the rule.
A little girl posing for a publicity shot with the Gls all those years ago,
and here she is now.
- Hi, Liz. - Hi, Tess.
TESSA: Liz Mackay was six years old when she was picked to meet the troops.
Photos of her visits were published stateside,
part of a propaganda campaign to reassure American families
that the Brits were giving their boys a warm welcome.
l have here some copies of those original photographs.
Oh, gosh.
- So here you are with your pigtails. - Yes!
- Yes. - Let's have a look.
- Oh, yes. - And this is my favourite.
- lsn't that special? - Yes.
Cute as a button. l bet they really indulged you, didn't they?
Oh, absolutely indulged. We came out with armfuls of...of goodies, you know.
Chocolate and candies and hair ribbons.
Had you ever even met an American before?
No, no. l'd only seen them in...on film.
They were all like movie stars, and l think we felt part of a big movie.
Were you aware of why they were stationed here?
Not really, no.
l was a little too young to fully comprehend
the seriousness of what was going on.
TESSA: For the Americans, their peaceful stay had an abrupt end.
Janet caught a remarkable glimpse of their top-secret departure.
- We were haymaking and... - There you are, stooking the...
There was a hayrick there and my uncle was up the top,
and he shouted to me and he said, ''Come up on the top of the hayrick.''
He said, ''There's a sight that l hope you'll never see
in the rest of your life.''
And when we looked out across here, it was black, the sea.
You couldn't see the sea. lt was just boats.
TESSA: The water was thick with soldiers.
On 6th June, 1 944,
the Allied forces launched the crucial landings on the Normandy coast.
The next few hours have been immortalised in drama.
The Americans stormed the beach and attacked higher ground
where German fire threatened Gls exposed on the sand below.
At the cliffs, the rangers'training kicked in.
Thanks to practice in England.
the first men were up in minutes and heroically stood fast.
More than 1 00 US rangers, over half the cliff assault force,
were killed or injured during the D-day operation.
The survivors were eventually relieved, having held onto their lethal position.
Overcoming the cliffs of France,
the Allies secured the beaches and advanced.
Within a year the war in Europe was won.
Back in Burton Bradstock,
two women come again to the cliffs to remember desperate days.
What about for both of you,
being so connected to such a significant moment?
lt honed your sights in on what could go on on the cliffs.
LlZ: We were part of that. JANET: lt's history.
And l feel quite proud of that,
that even though it's a tiny, tiny speck, it's good.
You were the poster girl for the Gls.
Don't tell everyone.
TESSA: Our coastline can feel like a full stop.
But here, when destiny came knocking,
these cliffs opened us up to events beyond our imagining.
NlCK: We're exploring the secret life of sea cliffs,
a journey that's brought me to Yorkshire.
The cliffs here at Flamborough Head are 1 00 million years old.
lt's easy to believe they're set in stone.
But not so.
This rocky skeleton creaks at the joints.
Lifeless rock is stealthily on the move,
creating cathedrals hewn from stone.
These arches are the magnificent leftovers of cliff formations,
extraordinary examples of coastal architecture.
The tide washes in and out of small holes in headlands like this one
and it creates a small arch.
That arch gets worn bigger and bigger, higher and higher,
until finally the top of the arch collapses
and you get a free-standing pillar.
And here is a perfect example.
Nature is perpetually busy remodelling our coast.
Grand pillars.
Majestic archways.
Vast halls.
Wild splendour that's home to our wildlife.
Where we keep clear, others congregate.
And there's no better residence than Ramsey lsland.
Here on the knife edge of West Wales, the rock face is daunting.
But look closely and you'll discover a secret community of cliff dwellers.
lnsect expert Sarah Beynon is onboard to bring us a bug's-eye view.
Ramsey lsland is about a mile from where l grew up.
l've been out here countless times,
but l never tire of the sea cliffs.
At 1 20 metres tall,
they're not very people-friendly.
There are only two permanent residents but a wealth of wildlife,
and a few surprise day-trippers.
Normally it's the sea birds that entertain the tourists.
Ramsey lsland is a bird watcher's paradise.
But l know a secret.
Some species only thrive
thanks to remarkable insects that stalk these cliffs.
The dung beetles.
l've studied these fascinating insects for years.
Fortunately they're not hard to find.
There's always an X to mark the spot.
Unfortunately that X is a cowpat.
Let's see what we find.
lt's a bit squishy.
Ah, here we go.
So, here is a dung beetle.
Now, this is one of the dung beetles that Ramsey lsland is renowned for.
This one is called Anoplotrupes stercorosus.
Not an easy name to remember.
This is a flightless dung beetle
that will potter along from dung pat to dung pat.
lt will just hide itself underneath the dung
and then bury the dung in a tunnel that it digs under the pat.
Observe them closely and you'll discover these humble creatures
play an illustrious role in Ramsey's rich ecosystem.
They are the biggest draw
for the island's more famous feathered residents.
Dung beetles attract other cliff dwellers
that bird watchers flock here to spot, the chough.
On the cliff tops these rare red-billed birds have a field day.
They feast on the plentiful, protein-rich dung beetles.
RSPB warden Greg Morgan keeps a close eye on the precious chough.
They're a special breed on Ramsey for the fact they are scarce nationally
and this is one of the strongholds for them.
They're very charismatic birds.
When you watch them as long as l do, you start to see all these little nuisances.
They nest in sea caves and it doesn't matter what the weather throws at them,
they'll put up with that, and you just start to love these birds.
Where we're standing now, it's absolutely rife with insect life.
So is this the kind of place the chough would be feeding?
Absolutely, this is ideal for them, and this what they need.
They need the grass to be short.
lf it gets too long, they can't forage properly.
And as a result of livestock out on the island,
that helps to provide that environment and provide dung.
So the dung beetles, their only predator is really the chough
and other birds that are foraging in dung.
Exactly. lt all starts at the bottom.
You get your insects right and then you get your birds right.
SARAH: lt's heartening to see Ramsey's cliff top food chain flourish.
Birds eat beetles,
beetles eat dung,
dung that comes from cattle and sheep
that feed on the flora that thrives in the soil
tilled and nourished by burrowing dung beetles.
To ensure this food cycle remains unbroken,
l monitor the beetle population.
A harmless trap baited with a cow pat lures them in.
So here's one of the dung pats we laid a few days ago,
and hopefully there'll be something inside.
Ah, look at this. What have we got?
This one here is called Trypocopris vernalis.
You can see its front legs that he's waving around here
have got lots and lots of spines on them.
They're so strong, these legs.
They use them for digging and for pulling the dung down into the burrows.
They can push the equivalent
to me pushing three and a half double-decker buses.
Ramsey's miniature world is going from strength to strength
thanks to the giant sea cliffs.
For us this margin is inhospitable,
but where we fear to tread nature can roam free.
The ribbon of sea cliffs around Ramsey is a precious place.
l wish we could manage more of our land like this,
so the beetles are left alone to do their bit for the environment.
NlCK: We've learnt to keep a safe distance from our cliff edge.
But what happens when cliffs edge closer to us?
Our shore shrinks by the day here in Yorkshire.
Rising some 200 metres,
these white precipices are among the loftiest in England.
But they have a secret.
They stretch much further than it seems on the surface.
ln many places the white cliffs are actually brown.
The gleaming face of the chalk
is covered in a thick layer of sand and clay.
This false facade extends for miles,
the clay of an ancient seabed
that was smeared up over the chalk during the ice age.
Now the sea's reclaiming her lost property.
Seen from a distance, this cliff might look fairly solid,
but up close it reveals its alarming secret.
This stuff is so soft, it falls apart in your hand.
As sea levels rise, this boulder clay along our east coast is crumbling.
This massive structure from the Second World War
is just lying on its back on the beach.
lt's made of brick, concrete, steel.
Once upon a time it stood up there on top of a cliff,
and it was constructed to defend Britain from enemy forces.
But it's been brought to its knees not by war but by the attacking sea.
ln 2006, our cameras captured the same tower
sitting a few metres from the cliff edge.
Just three years later, the ground disappeared beneath it.
Here's the present cliff.
lt's been receding over the last century and a half
at an astonishing average of 1 .27 metres for every year,
which means that since 1 941 , when that military emplacement was built,
this cliff has receded about 76 metres.
So l'm going to take a walk back through time, one pace for every year.
One, two, three, four...
30 paces in, l'm back in the 1 980s.
Madonna: Holiday
1 0 paces more, l hit the glam rock days of the 1 970s.
David Bowie: Changes
Through to the swinging '60s.
The Who: My Generation
And after 72 paces...
As Time Goes By
This was the line of the cliff in the 1 940s.
Look at it now.
Extraordinary.
As time goes by
Knowing how quickly this cliff is eroding
makes you feel uneasy standing on the edge,
so imagine living here.
Since Roman times,
over 30 villages on the East Yorkshire coast have been lost to erosion.
Now the community of Aldbrough is under threat.
While l'm at the seaside end of the village, it all looks pretty normal.
Pretty little houses, village pub.
What's not normal...
..is this.
A road to nowhere.
Our edge is a precarious place to be,
but some refuse to see this as the end of the line.
l'm meeting Nigel Fairclough.
Less than 20 years ago he bought a seafront house here.
But as the cliff started to nibble at his garden, it was condemned as unsafe.
Now only a ghost house remains.
We'd be walking up the front footpath here to the house?
NlGEL: That's correct, yeah. - So we go in here and we turn left.
NlGEL: And you're in the living room, lovely and cosy
when the storms were from the sea.
And you walk straight through the living room.
And we had like a galley kitchen running right along the back of the bungalow.
So this is where we'd be standing to make a pot of tea.
Yeah, and you could stand here and look out, beautiful view.
- You can see Bridlington. - Could you hear the sea at night?
Yeah. Odd stormy nights the house would shake.
Literally we had a lot of ornaments up,
and when the sea were banging in on the cliff,
the whole house shook.
- You're kidding? - No, no.
- The ornaments would tremble? - Yeah. We'd have to move 'em back.
lf they were on a shelf, sometimes we had to push them back
because they were working their way forward.
NlCK: Didn't that tell you that you were living somewhere quite precarious?
Yeah, but comparing where you live, living in a town,
to living somewhere like this, it were well worth putting up with it.
NlCK: Do you remember the day your house was knocked down?
Yeah, we had to watch while they come in with their digger
and virtually crushed it, turned it into matchwood,
and loaded it in t' skip and take it away.
NlCK: Today the street is slowly being bulldozed house by house
as the cliff edge inches closer.
NlGEL: lt just seemed so solid...
..and you never expected this to happen to it.
NlCK: But Nigel is undeterred.
He'sjust bought a new house 1 00 metres down the road.
They reckon that's got 50 years, so it won't worry me one little bit.
That one's gonna be to see me out now, you know.
lt's a lovely area. lt is great.
lt's just sad it's going.
NlCK: All our cliffs are shifting structures,
slowly being reclaimed by the sea,
as they know in Scarborough.
ln 1 993, the Holbeck Hall Hotel was demolished
after its east wing was lost to coastal erosion.
When cracks started to show in Cornwall,
a local geologist was lucky enough
to capture a rocky horror show on his phone.
Stretches of our coast do tumble into the sea,
a story they recognise at Lyme Regis.
These gentle slopes are evidence of the cliff's downfall,
and as the land slips, it spills the beans on its past life.
Cassie Newland is an archaeologist with a difference.
She's raking up history the town thought it had buried long ago.
Some archaeologists love Roman villas or Saxon hoards.
l like more unusual things. And today l'm trawling for trash.
The 1 950s is the birth of our modern throw-away society,
but what we chuck away as rubbish
we're not expecting to get confronted by again.
Here at Lyme Regis we can do just that
and get into all the details of people's everyday lives in the past,
when the sea cliffs give up their secrets.
Remarkably, these cliffs were once used as a rubbish dump.
Right on the edge of town,
the locals can relive past lives revealed from the old dump.
As the cliff crumbles, its curious contents litter the beach below.
We've got an actual kitchen sink.
Oh, and it's enamelled. How '50s is that!
lt's fascinating to think that these domestic relics
have lain hidden in the cliffs for decades.
l'm meeting local geologists Paddy and Chris to make sense of the jumble.
They've sifted out some prize pieces.
- Chris, Paddy. - Hello.
This looks interesting. ls there anything you know dates of?
That's 1 937. That's a beer bottle top from Bridport.
- Fantastic. PADD Y: So that's got a date.
CASSlE: l like that.
CHRlS: That was actually found the day before yesterday.
CASSlE: So that's George V. CHRlS: By my youngest son Leon.
These ones, you see, give you a bit of a tell-tale.
They're machine-made and you can see that
cos they've got a seam that goes all the way down.
lt also goes all the way over the top, so we know these have to be after 1 909
when the machine that did that was invented.
We've got all of this interesting stuff that's just falling out of the cliff.
ls that normal?
When it gets wet, particularly in the winter, the rocks over on that side,
they fail and they slide down,
and it so happens the rubbish dump was up at the top of the cliff
and all of that came with it.
And all of this material fell down in May 2008
when there was a very big fall, about three quarters of a million tonnes.
CASSlE: So we've got archaeology and geology.
CHRlS: Archaeology and geology literally all muddled up and all mixed up.
CASSlE: Out of sight and out of mind.
No one gave a thought to the cliff top dump.
But oddly the binmen who collected the town's trash became local treasures.
No one knew them better than Ken Gollop.
So, Ken, your dad was a dustman?
Yes, my old man was a dustman.
He wears a dustman's hat
He wears gorblimey trousers And he lives in a council flat
- Which one's your dad? - There you are.
- The big one. - Actually, yeah, it does look like you.
They're amazing.
What happened was they were on their rounds one day
and a gentleman was moving house, and he had loads of bowler hats
and top hats, dress coats, morning coats and things.
He said to the dustmen, ''Look, l've got all these. Do what you like with them.''
So, of course, Father being Father, he put a set straight on
and they went around the town emptying dustcarts in top hats.
CASSlE: Fantastic.
They were so popular that people used to stop and take photographs of them.
CASSlE: The sartorial binmen were tourist favourites,
but Lyme Regis was no holiday for them.
- So this is very steep, isn't it? - This is a dustman's nightmare.
CASSlE: lt is, isn't it?
CASSlE: The cliff edge is a top spot to share some lost treasure.
Hidden in the BBC archives, l've dug up a recording Ken's never heard.
Now, Ken, tell me if you recognise this at all.
REPORTER: You sound as though you enjoy yourjob. You're very happy.
MAN: Oh, we four are the happiest men in Lyme.
- That's my father. - Happiest men in Lyme, sir. Oh, yes.
We've had so many as 20 or 30 around us taking our photos.
We've had our photos took over a thousand times this summer.
REPORTER: You're very interested in hats.
FATHER: Hats? Yes, sir, yes. l expect l've got more hats...
KEN: He was taking the mickey out of the interviewer, wasn't he?
He was just... He was a clown all the time.
And he made the best of everything.
He really enjoyed his life and he made a lot of people happy
and l think he realised he did that.
- l love that. - That was really wonderful, that was.
CASSlE: The top-hatted dustmen of Lyme Regis are now long gone,
but this cliff top time capsule continues to reveal its secrets.
Oh, my goodness. These are Crittall windows, these metal-framed windows.
lf these were still in your house, you wouldn't be allowed to take them out.
These may not be the jewels and relics some archaeologists crave,
but to me they are priceless.
They tell the story of everyday people. lt's the archaeology of us.
NlCK: We're scratching at the surface of our sea cliffs to expose their secrets.
l've made my way to North Yorkshire,
but my precise location must remain under wraps.
Here on the Yorkshire coast there's a small group of locals
who keep their cliff top activities rather secret.
This precipitous spot is famous for its cliff top walks.
The steep slopes keep many from the beach below, but not everyone.
Nothing comes between a Yorkshireman and his fish.
Only a select few know how to reach the real fishing hotspots.
At the bottom of these cliffs lies the area's best fishing ground,
and with some resourceful DlY,
Glenn and Mike have constructed an interesting route
to the pleasure pools below.
So how long have you been coming down here?
l would think l've been coming roughly 20 years now,
so we know it really well.
NlCK: So that white thing you slide down on, what's that made of?
This is a fireman's hose.
(Laughs)
This is unbelievable. lt's an incredibly long way down.
l had no idea fishermen did this kind of thing.
lt's quite scary the first few times.
You do seem to get used to it the more you come.
At the bottom you find the perfect boys'getaway.
But this beach doesn't give up its fishing secrets easily.
Hidden from view under the sea
a deep channel lies unseen below these waves,
a gully carved into the seabed which funnels fish right up to the shore.
GLENN: What you've got here is a lot deeper water in here
and the fish like roam up and down looking for food.
NlCK: So really this is about gully fishing rather than open sea.
Gullies are the natural place for bait to rest, come to rest,
and the fish know that, you see.
NlCK: But why is this fish-friendly gully
under these cliffs in the first place?
l think one of the main reasons why the gully fishes so well
is the fact that it was actually deepened by man through industry.
- You see the tunnels here? - Oh, right, yeah.
NlCK: Workers tunnelling into the cliffs
also carved the underwater channel where the fish gather.
ln the 1 8th century they quarried valuable minerals from the cliff edge,
but without a natural harbour,
they needed to gouge deep clefts into the sea floor
to berth their trading boats.
The boats may be gone,
but their berths are a happy fishing ground for those in the know.
And local industry brings other benefits.
We've sort of had a helping hand with another mining industry.
They're actually underneath us now mining away for potash.
And they have an outlet pipe which is about a mile out to sea
and all the slurry and stuff that comes out of there
is mixed in with the water and it colours the water,
which is really good for fishing.
Why do the fish like cloudy water?
l think they've got more confidence to come inshore looking for bait,
especially during the daylight.
Without the hand of man, there wouldn't be good fishing. lt's a combination.
There'd always be fish there, but it's been a lot better since that happened,
yeah, without a doubt.
How long might you just stand here like this waiting for something to happen?
MlKE: lf there's fish in the gully, they're at it straight away.
NlCK: Oh, really? Fast.
Oh, he's got a fish, yeah. He's got a fish, yeah.
- Pouting. - l haven't seen a pouting before.
NlCK: Scaling the sea cliffs is all part of the sport.
Now l want to meet the man behind the madness.
A man known as Big Cliff
pioneered the route down to this secret world.
He's a local legend and he's agreed to meet me just up here.
Now nearly 70, Big Cliff cannily conserves his climbing energy.
Hi. Good to meet you.
So, is it true you put the fire hose there?
What l did, l got a couple of anchorages and a 1 4lb hammer and buried them in,
and this lad from Scarborough, who was a fireman,
he put the hosepipe on the anchorages.
People have added to the thing over the years,
and we've got what we've got today you know.
ls your name really Big Cliff?
Oh, no. l like me cliff fishing, though.
Used to end up on a big cliff fishing off the top.
So when l thought of like a name for myself,
l thought Big Cliff, you know, so...
But me real name's Alan, but, you know...
Why do you find this coast so special?
Well, l think you're so like off the beaten track.
You've got to put yourself out a little bit to be able to come here.
lt's the sort of place that an awful lot of people never ever see.
They're all zooming past in the car on their way to different places.
Do you find it harder to come down here now?
lt's not the getting down, Nick, it's the getting back up.
Our sea cliffs are the setting for daring pursuits,
a grownup's adventure playground where danger brings delight.
lt's a far cry from those dark days of the Second World War,
when cliffs became a frontline.
But sea cliffs still present an obstacle for our military.
A challenge looms at Whitsand Bay.
This tranquil shoreline is where families play by day.
By night it hosts more dangerous manoeuvres.
Ex-soldier Andy Torbet is heading into battle,
where cliffs test the mettle of our armed forces.
When l was in the military,
part of my training was to scale sheer cliffs like these ones,
and once you've done it, it's an experience you'll never forget.
AND Y: lt takes strength, skill and sheer will to succeed.
This cliff is a challenge you've got to conquer
if you want to be a Royal Marine.
But if that's not tough enough,
these would-be marines have to do it all at night.
And when they reach the top, they'll be facing enemy fire.
The Royal Marines specialise in amphibious assault.
For decades climbing sea cliffs has been part of the job
and a critical challenge in their training.
Today this cliff is what stands between a new generation of recruits
and their coveted green beret.
Replicating a real war situation,
an advance party is already setting ropes on the beach.
Sergeant Chris Lewis is about to fire the first shot.
Can you run me through what you're about to do?
We're gonna fire this grapple launcher from the bottom
up to the top there to establish the cliff head.
l'll get out of your way and let you crack on.
Thanks a lot.
Cliff assault training, how important is that to the training of Royal Marines?
ln my view, it's extremely important we set the standards.
lt's what we train to do, it's a key skill
and it's something we can't really let go.
AND Y: At the Plymouth HQ
the commando recruits make ready for tonight's mission.
This is rehearsal for real war and it carries real risk.
l've got painful memories ofjust how dangerous exercises can be.
During training l suffered a serious spinal injury
which at the time the doctors thought was unfixable.
But with a bit of hard work and effort,
l managed to get myself back to the front line.
lt's gonna come full circle.
1 5 years later l'm back on a Royal Marines recruit exercise again.
So we'll have to wait and see if the old body is still up to the challenge.
Because on tonight's raid, l'm not just observing, l'm taking part.
l'm gonna be embedded with the Royal Marines as a reporter,
which means l've gotta climb up there too and record the action.
ln an attack, the next man can't follow until you reach the top.
You've got to be fit and fast.
What you're looking for is to find the least steep part of the cliff,
and once you start climbing, get as much of the weight as you can
on your legs and off your hands,
and keep your grip nice and loose and then just power up.
And tonight the marines will be carrying all the kit they need to do the attack.
The mission is to reach and destroy this communications tower.
And tonight that tower will be guarded by over a dozen serving marines.
Over at Plymouth HQ the recruits are embarking.
Soon we'll rendezvous under war conditions
as night falls and they hit the beach.
The troops are out there somewhere and the cliff is waiting for them.
And now darkness has fallen, you can really appreciate
just how hard a test this will be.
Out of the gloom, shadowy figures emerge.
Night vision reveals what the darkness conceals.
Silence is key for this next phase.
Any noise will alert the enemy to the lads' positions.
lt's time to go.
ln stealth, they regroup on the cliff top.
(Whispers) So the troop's split into three sections.
lt's the third section l'm going to be attached with.
lt's them that are gonna be taking that communication tower.
As the last men assemble, attack hour looms.
lt's one minute to H hour. That's when the attack starts.
That's when it moves from a stealth operation
into something entirely more noisy.
Cover's broken. The cliff top is now a battlefield.
MARlNE: Guys, move on me.
MARlNE: Sit!
The objective is overrun. The comms tower is secured.
Mission accomplished.
(Shouting)
- One section's ready to move. - What's the plan from here?
We'll be straight out of this position ASAP and back down to the beach.
Abseil down.
AND Y: Job done. They dissolve into the darkness.
lt harkens back to the days of my youth,
but it was nice just to be able to keep up.
This cliff has had a taste of war and put us all through our paces.
NlCK: Scaling our coastal cliffs can test brains as well as brawn.
There's more than one way to rise to the top.
One final uplifting experience awaits me back in Yorkshire,
here at Saltburn-by-the-Sea.
This Victorian seaside resort is sitting pretty on the cliff edge.
And it's the spectacular cliff lift that's the secret of the town's success.
This glorious invention allows holidaymakers to reach the beach.
The two carriages might look independent,
but they're ingeniously linked on a pulley system.
As one falls, its twin rises.
l'm meeting Paul Wakeford to get the full lowdown.
- Hello there. - Hello.
Mind if l have a snoop? What an incredible engine room.
- lt is. - How does it work?
Well, these trams weigh the same as each other.
l've just filled one with water and it gets heavy and down it goes,
pulls the other one up.
Close the doors...
..turn the tap on, start filling it.
How do you know when it's heavy enough?
There you go. lt's now heavy enough with water.
- lt goes off on its own. - Yes.
Down she goes. The sheer weight of it, gravity, is making it work.
lt can be people.
lf you had 1 2 people going down and no one coming up,
you wouldn't need water.
The tram, when it gets to the bottom,
will empty all the water out automatically.
But now all the water's down the bottom.
Yes, it collects in a tank at the bottom and then we set the pump going.
That's the only power needed is to pump the water
from the bottom tank back up to our top tank.
NlCK: What do you call it? Not carriages...
PAUL: lt's a funicular tramway.
And it's funicular, not ''funny colour''. Funicular.
There you go. Thank you very much.
NlCK: lt was in 1 870 that the first cliff lift opened the beach to tourism.
But it took a few goes to get it right.
PAUL: Originally it did have a vertical drop of 1 20 feet,
but the walk out to the gantry to get it down,
you would have to be brave.
NlCK: The gantry out to the lift dissuaded Victorians
from braving a visit to the newly built pier below.
But the lone hotel in this photo is now one of many.
Tourism took off thanks to the funicular railway.
And on rainy days, when holiday business is slow,
Paul finds a way to raise spirits if not passengers.
Till a certain little lady comes by
Oh, me Oh, my
She's absolutely wonderful Marvellous and beautiful
And everyone will understand why
l'm leaning on the lamppost at the corner of the street
Till a certain little lady comes by
Originally the Victorians would career down the cliff in 33 seconds,
a white-knuckle ride.
Today, for health and safety reasons,
it's a much more leisurely 55-second journey.
While the lift did the hard work,
the visitors could relax and take in the view
until they were deposited safely beside the seaside.
- Hello there. - Hello, gents. Thank you.
NlCK: As l reach the end of my journey,
perhaps l've arrived at the best secret of all.
How we've managed to surmount the challenges presented by our sea cliffs.
Coming up with solutions to coastal conundrums
has created some of our most exciting environments.
Cliffs might look like dead ends,
but they're where we think outside the box.
Where the edge of land is steepest, we're really tested.
On our sea cliffs, a secret and surprising world awaits.