1
00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:09,600
We're about to discover
a secret season.

2
00:00:12,280 --> 00:00:15,280
I've explored our shores
over many summers,

3
00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:18,960
but there's one coast I've never
shown you -

4
00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:21,400
our winter coast.

5
00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:23,440
When it's savaged by storms...

6
00:00:25,880 --> 00:00:28,080
..yet buzzing with life,

7
00:00:28,080 --> 00:00:29,480
if you know where to look.

8
00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:34,200
The team will reveal the winter
wonders of our shores.

9
00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:40,560
We're going to the extremes,
the four corners of our isles.

10
00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:45,600
Way out in the wild west there's
a magical isle abandoned by man,

11
00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:49,560
where it's winter warfare for Andy.

12
00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:50,960
The rut is on!

13
00:00:52,360 --> 00:00:57,360
These sheep live or die without the
help or interventions from humans.

14
00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:02,440
A different winter ritual
awaits in the frozen north.

15
00:01:04,480 --> 00:01:07,520
Neil unleashes his inner Viking...

16
00:01:07,520 --> 00:01:09,560
Raargh!

17
00:01:09,560 --> 00:01:13,600
..for the greatest fire
festival in our isles.

18
00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:17,880
To put on something on this scale,
I think it's genuinely breathtaking.

19
00:01:22,960 --> 00:01:28,240
It's the secret season of a seaside
resort on our eastern edge.

20
00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:33,720
Wildlife cameraman Richard
Taylor-Jones reveals Margate's

21
00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:36,680
mysterious winter world.

22
00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:42,640
And I'm heading south-west, based
at storm capital central - Cornwall.

23
00:01:45,600 --> 00:01:50,120
This is our Coast's secret season.
Welcome to winter.

24
00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:18,520
To experience winter's extremes,

25
00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:22,280
I'm exploring our wild Atlantic
coast, Cornwall.

26
00:02:25,120 --> 00:02:28,560
We imagine a shore of endless
summer,

27
00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:30,600
sheltered beaches,

28
00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:32,000
tranquil water.

29
00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:35,880
But Cornwall's a
Jekyll and Hyde coast.

30
00:02:38,920 --> 00:02:42,000
Another character
emerges in the secret season.

31
00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:50,120
Winter grips the land
with an icy hand.

32
00:02:54,760 --> 00:02:58,440
Then the Cornish shore is battered.

33
00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:06,760
I'm basing myself here to discover
some surprising benefits that

34
00:03:06,760 --> 00:03:09,000
also roll in with winter waves.

35
00:03:11,640 --> 00:03:14,920
But first, it's the power of this
angry sea

36
00:03:14,920 --> 00:03:17,320
to claim lives that concerns me.

37
00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:22,080
A winter tragedy haunts
the picturesque little

38
00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:23,400
port of Mousehole.

39
00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:34,160
This is the loveliest village
in England - that's what the poet

40
00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:38,040
Dylan Thomas said, anyway, and a
host of holiday-makers would agree.

41
00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:44,440
When the sun shines, Mousehole is
a tourist hot spot.

42
00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:50,440
But this is the winter view
that few get to see.

43
00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:55,320
When a more unwelcome visitor comes
knocking -

44
00:03:55,320 --> 00:03:57,160
wild Atlantic water.

45
00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:04,960
As the year draws to a close,
the village withdraws into itself.

46
00:04:04,960 --> 00:04:07,680
Wooden barriers are used to
block the harbour mouth

47
00:04:07,680 --> 00:04:09,920
from the raging seas outside.

48
00:04:14,160 --> 00:04:17,240
Mousehole fears winter with
good reason.

49
00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:21,520
It brought this village
its greatest tragedy.

50
00:04:24,280 --> 00:04:28,880
One terrible night in December
1981 will never be forgotten

51
00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:30,840
along this coast.

52
00:04:30,840 --> 00:04:34,320
Events centred on this
building here,

53
00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:36,160
the old Penlee lifeboat station.

54
00:04:37,360 --> 00:04:41,800
Grim headlines told
a heart-breaking story.

55
00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:47,320
A coastal community engulfed in
grief a week before Christmas 1981.

56
00:04:49,360 --> 00:04:54,800
The worst lifeboat disaster for over
60 years unfolded in a winter storm

57
00:04:54,800 --> 00:04:57,200
of unprecedented ferocity.

58
00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:02,520
A rescue helicopter hovered
above a stricken ship trying to save

59
00:05:02,520 --> 00:05:03,960
those trapped on board.

60
00:05:05,640 --> 00:05:09,040
But 100mph winds forced
the chopper back.

61
00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:13,800
The only hope of rescue was
the Penlee Lifeboat.

62
00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:20,520
She was here on this slipway,
the Solomon Browne.

63
00:05:20,520 --> 00:05:25,080
Her crew had a proud record of
coming to the aid of those in peril.

64
00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:30,160
And here's the board listing
the last rescues

65
00:05:30,160 --> 00:05:33,000
the Solomon Browne returned from.

66
00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:35,000
They went out on December 6th

67
00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:37,720
to help a fishing vessel called
Quo Vadis.

68
00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:44,600
But the Penlee crew's last callout
was the rescue attempt

69
00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:47,760
on December 19th 1981.

70
00:05:51,520 --> 00:05:56,040
In the midst of pre-Christmas
celebrations, over 12 crewmen

71
00:05:56,040 --> 00:05:59,920
volunteered to brave the worst
seas they'd ever seen.

72
00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:06,520
The lifeboat coxswain picked
just seven to go with him.

73
00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:16,680
When these storm-proof doors were
opened that night,

74
00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:20,760
the seas out here were
absolutely mountainous.

75
00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:26,440
They had to wait for a gap
in the waves before launching

76
00:06:26,440 --> 00:06:30,880
Solomon Browne down here, into what
was effectively a hurricane.

77
00:06:33,560 --> 00:06:37,960
The lifeboat headed for the cargo
ship in distress - the Union Star.

78
00:06:39,320 --> 00:06:43,080
Her engine had failed, the sea
crashing her against the rocks.

79
00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:46,960
The Union Star was helpless.

80
00:06:46,960 --> 00:06:50,160
There were eight people on board as
well as the ship's crew

81
00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:52,440
and her skipper, the skipper's wife
were there

82
00:06:52,440 --> 00:06:54,440
and two of his step-daughters.

83
00:06:58,520 --> 00:07:01,800
I've got here a recording
of the rescue on that awful night.

84
00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:21,280
RECORDING STOPS

85
00:07:22,680 --> 00:07:25,320
"There's two left on board."

86
00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:30,200
That was the last the coastguard
heard from the Penlee lifeboat.

87
00:07:30,200 --> 00:07:33,480
'Penlee lifeboat, Penlee lifeboat.
Falmouth Coastguard, over.

88
00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:36,920
'Penlee lifeboat, Penlee lifeboat...
Falmouth Coastguard, over.'

89
00:07:37,920 --> 00:07:42,600
All aboard the Union Star, including
the skipper's family, died.

90
00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:46,160
And eight volunteer life boatmen

91
00:07:46,160 --> 00:07:49,920
lost their lives in that winter
storm trying to save others.

92
00:07:51,920 --> 00:07:55,560
The Penlee lifeboat station
was closed,

93
00:07:55,560 --> 00:07:59,280
but remains as a tribute to
bravery beyond imagining.

94
00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:04,320
Nothing has changed here
for more than 30 years.

95
00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:08,400
It's been left exactly as it
was on that night.

96
00:08:10,040 --> 00:08:13,600
The old lifeboat station stands
defiant to the sea.

97
00:08:14,680 --> 00:08:19,960
But the spirit of her lost souls
lives on in the next generation.

98
00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:28,720
Newlyn Harbour is the new base
for the Penlee lifeboat.

99
00:08:28,720 --> 00:08:30,960
The Coxswain is Patch Harvey.

100
00:08:32,240 --> 00:08:35,640
When you go past the
Solomon Browne's old lifeboat house,

101
00:08:35,640 --> 00:08:37,960
it's a poignant sight, isn't it?
Yeah,

102
00:08:37,960 --> 00:08:40,080
and it just reminds you that
things can go wrong.

103
00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:42,720
What's it like going out
here in winter?

104
00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:46,080
We get a lot of deep depressions
that come through, big waves

105
00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:49,400
and a big swell.
Conditions can be quite testing.

106
00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:54,480
In mid-December, I'm with the
volunteers on a training exercise.

107
00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:58,360
In the middle of the night,
no matter what they're doing,

108
00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:00,080
if the lifeboat's called, they come.

109
00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:02,640
It's hard for me to pick a crew
sometimes, cos so many turn up.

110
00:09:02,640 --> 00:09:04,480
The commitment is amazing.

111
00:09:04,480 --> 00:09:06,920
There you go, look,
there's the stricken fishing vessel

112
00:09:06,920 --> 00:09:08,240
The Sovereign.

113
00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:12,600
It's now turning into a man
overboard situation.

114
00:09:25,800 --> 00:09:28,640
I wouldn't like to do
this in a force eight at night,

115
00:09:28,640 --> 00:09:30,760
he weighs a tonne.

116
00:09:30,760 --> 00:09:33,320
That's all so incredibly fast.

117
00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:37,760
We've got the line, man!

118
00:09:37,760 --> 00:09:40,240
We've got the tow line to the
stricken vessel

119
00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:43,080
and pulling it back to the
safety of port.

120
00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:46,600
It's only blowing force five or six
and it's daylight.

121
00:09:46,600 --> 00:09:49,960
You've got to imagine what it would
be like in hurricane force winds,

122
00:09:49,960 --> 00:09:51,600
at night.

123
00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:55,760
This almost unimaginable
level of commitment.

124
00:09:56,880 --> 00:10:00,440
Cornish lifeboat crews
prepare to be busy

125
00:10:00,440 --> 00:10:02,800
in and out of port as winter
approaches.

126
00:10:05,400 --> 00:10:09,000
At the same time, over
on the far-flung shores of Scotland,

127
00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:11,200
there's a mass exodus going on.

128
00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:15,960
As the chill winds blow,

129
00:10:15,960 --> 00:10:18,400
summer-loving sea birds
take to the sky.

130
00:10:19,840 --> 00:10:23,680
They fly south to see out
winter in warmer climes.

131
00:10:25,720 --> 00:10:28,960
But there's a flock of four-legged
creatures who've been

132
00:10:28,960 --> 00:10:31,600
stuck on an island
since the Bronze Age.

133
00:10:33,160 --> 00:10:38,920
In winter, far in the west, they run
wild on the isles of St Kilda.

134
00:10:40,760 --> 00:10:43,880
Andy is taking up a seasonal
challenge.

135
00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:48,880
Because of the severe weather the
winter brings the scheduled boats

136
00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:51,800
are all cancelled,
so I've had to find an alternative

137
00:10:51,800 --> 00:10:55,560
method of transport,
and I'm hitching a lift on that.

138
00:10:58,520 --> 00:11:02,600
This flight is ferrying vital
supplies to isolated isles

139
00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:04,080
in the North Atlantic.

140
00:11:08,360 --> 00:11:13,040
After 40 miles, I catch my first
glimpse of the craggy islands

141
00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:15,400
of St Kilda peeking through
the mist.

142
00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:21,720
Look closely and there's evidence
of houses. People once eked out

143
00:11:21,720 --> 00:11:26,520
a living here. But there's no longer
any permanent residents.

144
00:11:26,520 --> 00:11:28,880
With all the people gone,
who's left?

145
00:11:30,520 --> 00:11:35,880
St Kilda is home to Britain's only
truly wild population of sheep.

146
00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:42,680
Foul wintry rain is
our welcome to the most remarkable

147
00:11:42,680 --> 00:11:45,560
flock of sheep in our isles.

148
00:11:45,560 --> 00:11:48,080
What's unique about these sheep
is they're left totally

149
00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:49,240
to their own devices.

150
00:11:50,480 --> 00:11:54,080
They live or die without help or
intervention from humans.

151
00:11:55,520 --> 00:11:58,960
They've had to fend for themselves
and survive out here.

152
00:11:58,960 --> 00:12:02,600
There's not another flock of sheep
like this anywhere in the UK.

153
00:12:05,240 --> 00:12:08,640
I'm here to explore a mystery
surrounding these Soay sheep.

154
00:12:10,200 --> 00:12:12,960
There's a puzzle at the heart
of this feral flock.

155
00:12:14,400 --> 00:12:17,040
The sheep are getting smaller.

156
00:12:17,040 --> 00:12:18,760
No, they're not shrinking

157
00:12:18,760 --> 00:12:23,320
in the rain, but over generations
their average weight is falling.

158
00:12:23,320 --> 00:12:27,760
What's going on? The flock's been
studied for decades.

159
00:12:27,760 --> 00:12:31,320
He's a lovely normal horned male,
big horned male.

160
00:12:31,320 --> 00:12:33,680
They're researching
the genetics of breeding.

161
00:12:35,520 --> 00:12:40,600
Take a circumference and length
of his testicles. 349.

162
00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:43,440
Jill Pilkington knows the flock
better than most.

163
00:12:44,840 --> 00:12:46,960
These sheep are unique

164
00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:50,320
because man hasn't managed them
for thousands of years.

165
00:12:50,320 --> 00:12:52,800
There's no immigration or
emigration from the island

166
00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:54,600
so we have a closed population.

167
00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:56,040
These are the original sheep.

168
00:12:56,040 --> 00:12:59,480
All those white fluffy animals you
see prancing around the fields...

169
00:12:59,480 --> 00:13:02,080
Yes, man saw a bit of white on one
and said, oh I'll

170
00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:05,960
breed from that. Every sheep breed
came from the Soay sheep.

171
00:13:07,600 --> 00:13:10,240
A Bronze Age farmer would
recognise these sheep.

172
00:13:11,880 --> 00:13:15,320
They've lived virtually
unchanged for at least 3,000 years.

173
00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:22,440
So why now have the new generation
started to get smaller?

174
00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:26,080
November is the ideal time to
study their breeding habits.

175
00:13:27,600 --> 00:13:31,680
I've been told as winter approaches
love is in the air, because as

176
00:13:31,680 --> 00:13:36,040
the females come into oestrus
right about now, the rut is on.

177
00:13:42,880 --> 00:13:46,000
During the rut, rams lock horns.

178
00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:50,040
They fight for the right to have a
female all to themselves.

179
00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:56,760
OK, so here we have two males
outside a cleet where there is

180
00:13:56,760 --> 00:14:00,200
a very big horn dominant male,
holding a ewe in oestrus.

181
00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:04,680
He's guarding her from these boys
until he's ready.

182
00:14:04,680 --> 00:14:07,720
So if they were to try and...
That's not a good idea. Yeah.

183
00:14:07,720 --> 00:14:10,600
Before the rut
they go in male groups

184
00:14:10,600 --> 00:14:14,800
and they're quite friendly with
each other, but as soon as the rut

185
00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:20,040
starts they want to pass their genes
on, and they will fight to the kill.

186
00:14:31,920 --> 00:14:36,160
At this time of year, the sheep
are horny in more ways than one.

187
00:14:36,160 --> 00:14:38,080
It's the size of these horns

188
00:14:38,080 --> 00:14:41,240
that have aroused the interest of
scientists.

189
00:14:41,240 --> 00:14:44,680
So, could it be their horns
are the key to understanding why

190
00:14:44,680 --> 00:14:47,120
the sheep are getting smaller?

191
00:14:47,120 --> 00:14:52,120
You can have boys with very, very
big horns or very small horns

192
00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:55,680
which we call skers and they don't
mate as well with the ewes.

193
00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:01,760
The skers don't have the genes to
produce big horns, the rams with

194
00:15:01,760 --> 00:15:06,560
that large horn gene fight better
for females and have much more sex.

195
00:15:08,400 --> 00:15:12,360
I had expected the more aggressive
horny males would be bigger,

196
00:15:12,360 --> 00:15:16,600
so the average size of the sheep
would increase with breeding,

197
00:15:16,600 --> 00:15:19,640
but there's a twist in this
winter's tale.

198
00:15:19,640 --> 00:15:23,200
The mean size of the sheep is
getting smaller.

199
00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:24,120
23.4.

200
00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:29,160
Research actually shows
the size of the horns doesn't affect

201
00:15:29,160 --> 00:15:31,600
the body weight of the rams.

202
00:15:31,600 --> 00:15:35,120
There's no genetic reason
for the sheep to be getting smaller.

203
00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:41,160
Maybe the fact they're shrinking has
to do with their winter diet.

204
00:15:41,160 --> 00:15:44,400
They forget to eat for the month
of November, shall we say,

205
00:15:44,400 --> 00:15:47,040
they can lose
a third of their body weight.

206
00:15:47,040 --> 00:15:48,680
They're too busy mating?

207
00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:50,520
That's right, yes.

208
00:15:50,520 --> 00:15:54,400
And therefore when they remember to
eat, for some of them it's too late.

209
00:15:56,400 --> 00:16:00,280
Winter is traditionally tough
for the starving rams,

210
00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:04,960
and the new lambs,
but recent winters have been warmer,

211
00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:07,360
kinder on the flock and their grass.

212
00:16:09,080 --> 00:16:13,440
With climate change, the winter
is starting later

213
00:16:13,440 --> 00:16:17,640
and ending sooner, so that period of
non-growth of grass is very short,

214
00:16:17,640 --> 00:16:20,560
so the sheep are surviving
through the winters.

215
00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:26,520
I'm surprised it's no longer
just survival of the fittest.

216
00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:30,040
It's a bit of a shock that life is
getting easier out here.

217
00:16:30,040 --> 00:16:35,000
Warmer winters make more grass,
so weaker sheep cling on.

218
00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:37,640
We're getting the little tiddlers
coming through

219
00:16:37,640 --> 00:16:39,760
being weighed in the spring
or the summer

220
00:16:39,760 --> 00:16:44,440
and we know that that is bringing
the mean weight down.

221
00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:47,160
More of the smaller ones
are surviving through winter.

222
00:16:47,160 --> 00:16:48,640
Absolutely.

223
00:16:51,640 --> 00:16:55,520
It seems as winters warm up,
St Kilda's sheep shrink.

224
00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:58,960
Let's hear it for the little guys!

225
00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:05,600
It's been a privilege to see
the sheep and to watch them

226
00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:08,080
as they go through their annual
ritual

227
00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:11,600
and cling to life at the very edge
of the most remote part of the UK.

228
00:17:29,040 --> 00:17:32,680
We're exploring what
becomes of our coast in winter.

229
00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:43,640
To experience a secret season
of wild rough seas,

230
00:17:43,640 --> 00:17:46,080
I'm based in Cornwall.

231
00:17:48,120 --> 00:17:52,960
When wild waters are in a mood
they're best left alone.

232
00:17:52,960 --> 00:17:54,840
Mariners make for shore.

233
00:17:56,760 --> 00:18:00,400
Newlyn is officially designated
a harbour of refuge -

234
00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:02,760
a very welcome port
in a winter storm.

235
00:18:04,080 --> 00:18:08,600
The harbour earned its title because
it has water in it at all times and

236
00:18:08,600 --> 00:18:15,560
seasons - a safe haven that's been
reinforced since the 14th century.

237
00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:20,000
Harbours can save ships, but
sometimes it's the harbour itself

238
00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:22,880
that's in peril
from the wild winter seas.

239
00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:32,720
Not even Newlyn's defences can
withstand the worst winter storms.

240
00:18:38,560 --> 00:18:41,960
Recently, the sea's done a
smash-and-grab raid

241
00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:43,560
all along our shore.

242
00:18:47,640 --> 00:18:50,520
Coastal communities are left to
count the cost...

243
00:18:50,520 --> 00:18:54,640
of what's been washed up,

244
00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:56,560
and washed away.

245
00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:05,440
The sea's been coming in the night
to claim houses for centuries.

246
00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:11,920
In search of a whole settlement
wiped off the map in winter,

247
00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:14,440
scour the shingle at Lilstock.

248
00:19:17,680 --> 00:19:19,960
Mark's unearthing how a port

249
00:19:19,960 --> 00:19:23,160
and its people can vanish with
a winter storm.

250
00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:33,560
This may seem an empty and barren
beach, but as the tide goes out what

251
00:19:33,560 --> 00:19:35,600
is revealed are traces

252
00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:39,760
of a long-forgotten and enigmatic
structure.

253
00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:45,120
You can see the slabs of stone set
upright all the way along,

254
00:19:45,120 --> 00:19:50,840
and the flat paving stones.
And it's built to withstand the sea.

255
00:19:50,840 --> 00:19:57,360
And at low tide it goes right
out for literally 100 yards or so.

256
00:19:57,360 --> 00:20:01,120
I suspect it's some
sort of breakwater or other.

257
00:20:01,120 --> 00:20:06,240
Further up the beach are other
ghostly reminders of a time

258
00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:08,600
when this was a working landscape.

259
00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:13,560
From all this shingle that's been
thrown up by the sea,

260
00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:17,880
this structure is emerging, it's a
bit like a Middle Eastern ziggurat,

261
00:20:17,880 --> 00:20:22,600
it's all carefully laid stones,
curving around to the side.

262
00:20:22,600 --> 00:20:25,320
And I suppose here on the beach
it must be some

263
00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:28,400
remains of a harbour or wharf or
something like that.

264
00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:36,840
These structures start to make
sense on this map from 1903.

265
00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:42,000
Built out into the sea,
here's the breakwater.

266
00:20:44,600 --> 00:20:49,320
And look - the harbour wall,
now it's buried in shingle.

267
00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:55,600
It appears this was a working port.

268
00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:01,720
There should be a lime kiln
and buildings hidden in the bushes.

269
00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:06,560
The archaeologist who has explored
the remains is Alex Copsey.

270
00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:09,840
Hi Alex. Hi.

271
00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:11,880
Only now in winter,

272
00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:16,120
with the vegetation dying,
is its overgrown history revealed.

273
00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:20,880
It must be a nightmare to see
any of this in the summer.

274
00:21:20,880 --> 00:21:23,440
Yes, my first trip here
was in mid-summer wading through

275
00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:25,080
undergrowth to find things. Now that

276
00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:28,000
it's winter it's a lot more visible.

277
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:31,400
There's the lime kiln around the
corner. Oh, look there it is.

278
00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:33,000
With lime still here.

279
00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:35,520
From the last firing. Yes.

280
00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:38,560
If you stand above it, there's a
big cylindrical hole which

281
00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:40,280
goes down inside it and that's where

282
00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:42,640
they would have
fed the limestone and coal inside,

283
00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:45,160
and then they would have raked out
the lime from underneath.

284
00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:47,800
Well, of course lime burning is
a very important industry

285
00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:50,640
in the 19th century for agriculture,
lime for the fields and...

286
00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:52,480
Yeah, and whitewashing houses...

287
00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:54,760
just really used in many different
aspects.

288
00:21:54,760 --> 00:21:56,960
There's limestone behind, you can

289
00:21:56,960 --> 00:21:59,400
take it to the Welsh, who
don't have much.

290
00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:02,640
I can see a fireplace.
A very large fireplace.

291
00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:06,480
Huge. There was a pub in Lilstock
called The Limpet Shell

292
00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:07,720
and this is probably it.

293
00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:12,280
Hang on, I want to look up
the chimney. Oh, look there we are!

294
00:22:12,280 --> 00:22:17,560
This pub, The Limpet Shell, was
buzzing with workers enjoying ales

295
00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:20,320
around the fireplace.

296
00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:25,400
Now, it's a lost industrial
landscape that once prospered

297
00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:27,640
thanks to the sea.

298
00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:29,560
The lime kiln,

299
00:22:29,560 --> 00:22:34,040
that lime was probably shipped
out from Lilstock

300
00:22:34,040 --> 00:22:37,400
over the Bristol Channel to Wales,

301
00:22:37,400 --> 00:22:40,040
and coal brought back to the
harbour.

302
00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:45,280
The community
thrived for generations

303
00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:49,000
but then disappeared completely.

304
00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:49,960
What happened?

305
00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:56,280
This charming Victorian port once
attracted day trippers

306
00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:59,000
stopping off on the steamer.

307
00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:06,240
How did the winter seas blow them
and the workers away?

308
00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:10,000
To find out, I'm going to travel
further along the coast.

309
00:23:13,320 --> 00:23:17,800
Only a pebble throw away is
the harbour at Porlock Weir.

310
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:23,720
When the tide's out it's a
sleepy spot,

311
00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:28,760
but the locals are wary
when the winter sea rolls in.

312
00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:35,680
Storms have a habit of causing
havoc, as Derek Purvis knows.

313
00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:38,240
So was this once
the channel into the harbour?

314
00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:39,720
That's right, Mark, yes.

315
00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:43,840
You've got this picture...
Gosh, it's changed so much.

316
00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:45,360
Yes over the years, yes.

317
00:23:45,360 --> 00:23:48,840
There's the lock gates there
and the hotel.

318
00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:51,120
The channel came
from there right down there,

319
00:23:51,120 --> 00:23:53,960
and that was the original entrance.

320
00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:57,000
And there's the channel coming up
through from there right up through.

321
00:23:57,000 --> 00:23:58,440
Underneath all this shingle?

322
00:23:58,440 --> 00:24:04,320
Yeah. The storm of 1910, it changed
the harbour completely.

323
00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:06,920
A winter storm just shifted
all this shingle.

324
00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:10,240
That's right, Mark, yes,
yeah. One night, just on high water.

325
00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:18,760
The devastating storm of 1910 pushed
this huge pile of pebbles

326
00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:20,560
up from the beach,

327
00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:25,440
completely blocking the old entrance
to the harbour,

328
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:29,480
forcing them
to dig a new channel to the sea.

329
00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:34,360
Is this the channel they cut after
the big storm in 1910?

330
00:24:34,360 --> 00:24:35,600
That's right, yeah.

331
00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:38,240
And I can see there's a shingle bank
there already developing.

332
00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:41,480
Well, that shingle ridge came
about three weeks ago after that

333
00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:43,960
storm we had,
and that's what happened.

334
00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:46,360
So you're going to have to shift it
again for the summer?

335
00:24:46,360 --> 00:24:48,800
That's right, yeah.

336
00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:54,120
The powerful winter sea plays cruel
tricks on this coast,

337
00:24:54,120 --> 00:24:57,560
waves ruin livelihoods on a whim.

338
00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:03,240
The workers back here at Lilstock
woke up one morning

339
00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:06,480
and their harbour was history.

340
00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:11,360
Now I've been to Porlock I can begin
to understand how this place works.

341
00:25:11,360 --> 00:25:15,520
You can kind of imagine ships
all moored up along the end,

342
00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:20,200
and here on the 1880 Ordnance Survey
map is marked "sluice".

343
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:25,800
I think this must be it,

344
00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:28,600
these are the abutments
of probably a pair of lock gates

345
00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:33,040
that would have retained the
water and they would have kept the

346
00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:37,640
channel clear by sluicing the water
out through the harbour out to sea.

347
00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:40,400
But look,
something terrible has happened.

348
00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:52,400
On December 28th 1900, a massive
winter storm

349
00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:54,600
roared in from the Bristol Channel

350
00:25:57,880 --> 00:26:02,960
and threw up this shingle bank,
closing the harbour for ever.

351
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:08,640
It cost too much to create
a new harbour.

352
00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:15,560
The people were left high and dry.
Livelihoods lost, they drifted away.

353
00:26:15,560 --> 00:26:19,800
Lilstock disappeared,
the coast moved on.

354
00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:28,960
This Victorian railway in Devon
has its own long-running battle

355
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:30,360
with winter seas.

356
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:34,640
In summer it makes glorious sense.

357
00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:39,480
But when it was built the locals
warned that storms could

358
00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:40,840
derail everything.

359
00:26:42,440 --> 00:26:46,040
Yet Isambard Kingdom Brunel
pressed on with his plans,

360
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:52,280
and in 1847, it connected
the southwest to the main line.

361
00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:00,840
This track has been at war with
winter weather ever since.

362
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:09,440
In February 2014, a storm struck
a decisive blow.

363
00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:13,640
The service was severed for weeks.

364
00:27:15,120 --> 00:27:18,520
But at the end of the line

365
00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:23,080
a secret wealth of winter riches
awaits in Cornwall.

366
00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:32,920
Despite the sea's destructive power,
amazingly the Cornish also

367
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:37,160
welcome winter waves,
for the warmth they bring.

368
00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:45,520
It may seem crazy going for a winter
paddle but the water's not

369
00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:51,000
actually that cold. After
months of being warmed by the summer

370
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:55,680
sun our seas are actually warmer
in November than they are in May.

371
00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:02,800
A satellite thermal image shows
the relatively red-hot winter sea

372
00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:04,000
around Cornwall.

373
00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:07,880
The Gulf Stream brings warm water,

374
00:28:07,880 --> 00:28:11,840
and it also warms the air
around our south-west shore.

375
00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:20,880
Look at Cornwall
surrounded by water.

376
00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:26,160
The sea around it acts like a giant
hot water bottle, warming the land.

377
00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:31,200
So a relatively warm climate is
a winter secret canny coastal folk

378
00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:32,640
make the most of.

379
00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:40,160
On the mainland behind St Michael's
Mount, there's a strip of green

380
00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:43,800
that's known as the golden mile.

381
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:47,200
A piece of farmland that
profits in winter.

382
00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:51,560
Here on the hillside,
the farmers have a lofty advantage

383
00:28:51,560 --> 00:28:54,000
over their rivals inland.

384
00:28:56,280 --> 00:29:00,400
Warm sea air bathing sunny
south-facing slopes keeps

385
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:03,520
the temperature up deep into winter.

386
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:07,600
Which is crucial to farmer
John Wallis.

387
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:10,720
So John,
we're a week away from Christmas

388
00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:12,440
and you're out here harvesting food.

389
00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:14,800
Yeah, well, we've got a
microclimate,

390
00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:16,120
that's what it's all about,

391
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:17,840
that's
why this is the golden mile.

392
00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:21,560
The risk of frost is a lot less than
the rest of the country.

393
00:29:21,560 --> 00:29:25,080
Look, if you imagine that.
That is beautiful.

394
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:28,880
If we had a frost last night,
that would be ruined.

395
00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:32,000
The people who traditionally grow
lots of cauliflower

396
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:35,640
up in Lincolnshire wouldn't risk
planting too much during the winter

397
00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:39,880
because it is a very high risk for
them, but it is a low risk for us.

398
00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:43,960
But a good cauli needs more
than a good climate.

399
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:45,800
This is very dark soil, isn't it?

400
00:29:45,800 --> 00:29:48,560
Yeah, well, it's
because it's full of seaweed.

401
00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:50,760
Seaweed? Yes, seaweed.

402
00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:52,080
Why seaweed?

403
00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:57,440
It's such a rich source of organic
material, full of trace elements

404
00:29:57,440 --> 00:30:01,800
and minerals, and it's really good
compost for growing crops.

405
00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:04,320
This is an old picture, have a
look at this.

406
00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:06,120
This is these guys on the beach.
Oh, wow.

407
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:09,160
And you imagine how many trailer
loads you would have to

408
00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:12,720
put across here,
to build up just one inch of soil.

409
00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:14,880
So how thick is this
layer of fertile soil?

410
00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:17,040
It averages 18 inches deep.

411
00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:18,760
That is amazing.

412
00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:21,840
It is amazing. You've raised the
land surface 18 inches. Yeah.

413
00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:26,000
Before the age of fertilisers this
was land management

414
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:31,480
on a massive scale, improving the
poor topsoil around St Michael's.

415
00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:38,880
This 200-year-old illustration
shows horse-drawn carts for
carrying seaweed.

416
00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:44,080
But it was the arrival
of the railways opening up new wider

417
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:49,560
markets for fresh produce that put
Operation Seaweed into overdrive.

418
00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:55,000
We owe them
such a debt of gratitude.

419
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,480
We wouldn't be able to farm the way
that we farm now without that.

420
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:04,600
The mild Cornish winter
lets John steal

421
00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:07,040
a march on his cauliflower
competitors.

422
00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:14,160
But the farm's real secret is
the ability to plant seed
potatoes in winter.

423
00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:17,400
What advantage are you
getting by putting

424
00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:19,120
these in the ground in winter?

425
00:31:19,120 --> 00:31:22,080
We can get them out of the ground
earlier than anybody else, and

426
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:26,320
into the market when there's hardly
any British produce in the market.

427
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:30,840
'In a good year John
plants in mid-December to

428
00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:35,440
'harvest in late April, beating most
other farmers to get the best
price.'

429
00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:41,160
The first potatoes, they can be
around £1,000 a tonne. Yeah.

430
00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:45,440
And the price will crash and crash
and crash so quickly. As more

431
00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:49,240
produce comes into the market it
will drop £100 a tonne a day.

432
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:52,600
What?!
Yeah, £100 a tonne a day.

433
00:31:52,600 --> 00:31:55,760
So when you're
tucking into your first British

434
00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:59,920
potatoes of the year, piping hot,
sweet, glazed in butter

435
00:31:59,920 --> 00:32:02,480
and sprinkled with mint, you know
who to thank.

436
00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:10,800
For most of our coast the big
money-spinner isn't soil.

437
00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:16,120
Converting sand and sea into cash is
the trick for successful resorts.

438
00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:20,360
As the sun sets on summer,

439
00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:25,240
spectacular light shows extend
the season at places like Blackpool.

440
00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:32,120
They brighten up Autumn,
bringing a last wave of tourists.

441
00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:37,840
But in winter when we leave
the seaside, a secret season

442
00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:39,800
begins for wildlife.

443
00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:46,160
To see the natural wonders we miss,
we're off to Margate.

444
00:32:55,920 --> 00:32:59,720
Wildlife cameraman
Richard Taylor-Jones reveals a rich

445
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:01,120
variety of creatures.

446
00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:09,080
I'm proud to call this Eastern
corner of Kent home.

447
00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:14,880
Yet for many it's a winter
coast left behind.

448
00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:15,920
A coast forgotten.

449
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:26,160
But this very special seaside has
secrets, natural secrets,

450
00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:28,720
and they bring this winter
world to life.

451
00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:46,480
Wading birds, feathered migrants
on the wing from their Arctic

452
00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:47,880
summer breeding grounds.

453
00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:52,760
Our coast is a much warmer
winter home,

454
00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:55,280
and here they'll stay until spring.

455
00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:07,000
Sanderlings and turnstones
are the most common sight.

456
00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:12,280
Pecking and prodding at whelk egg
cases washed in by the sea.

457
00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:19,560
And as the sea washes out, tidal
rock pools are revealed.

458
00:34:22,640 --> 00:34:27,320
Oystercatchers hunt the pools,
a low winter tide making them

459
00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:30,040
more accessible for them and me.

460
00:34:36,640 --> 00:34:40,720
Starfish prowl with touching
tentacles.

461
00:34:40,720 --> 00:34:43,160
A hermit crab sits filtering
microscopic

462
00:34:43,160 --> 00:34:50,280
food from seemingly empty space,
and a shanny looks on hungrily,

463
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:56,560
waiting for what heavy winter
seas surge in.

464
00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:02,880
And one more seasonal
secret to share,

465
00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:08,760
from more exotic shores,
wild ring-necked parakeets.

466
00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:14,800
It may be winter,
but these birds are already

467
00:35:14,800 --> 00:35:19,920
thinking about breeding, seeking
nests next to our wintry seas.

468
00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:26,840
Whether they were released into the
wild, or took flight themselves,

469
00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:30,280
they bring colour
in the bleakest of seasons.

470
00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:40,240
So, Margate, an empty winter world?

471
00:35:40,240 --> 00:35:46,920
No, I don't think so.
I don't think it's empty at all.

472
00:35:54,040 --> 00:35:56,240
We're in the deep midwinter.

473
00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:03,160
As the land freezes, the coast
rises to the challenge.

474
00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:14,960
Our ports keep us
fuelled up with gas, oil and coal.

475
00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:23,720
Fleets of boats also keep us fed.

476
00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:30,400
In Cornwall there's a little
band of fishermen who only set sail

477
00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:32,280
when winter arrives.

478
00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:38,040
In search of a seasonal catch
I'm on the Fal Estuary.

479
00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:45,040
It's a chilly December morning, but
there's a warm air of anticipation.

480
00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:50,720
Out in the estuary is a prize
fishermen have been
eyeing for months.

481
00:36:50,720 --> 00:36:53,120
Now winter's here,
the hunt is on for oysters.

482
00:36:56,360 --> 00:37:00,080
Harvesting shellfish is an age-old
pastime in these parts.

483
00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:04,320
But why wait for winter to
cast-off for oysters?

484
00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:07,440
And why do fishermen
insist on doing it under sail?

485
00:37:10,520 --> 00:37:13,760
I'm hooking up with a fifth
generation oyster man.

486
00:37:15,480 --> 00:37:20,000
'Tim Vinnicombe goes winter dredging
for the shellfish on his classic
boat, the Boy Willie.'

487
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:24,440
If you can take her about, Nick,
I'll get the dredges ready, to see

488
00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:27,280
if we can catch a few oysters later.

489
00:37:27,280 --> 00:37:30,320
Tim, how long have you worked
with this boat?

490
00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:32,960
Well it's been in my family
since 1923,

491
00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:37,160
it's the oldest boat in the harbour
by far, and here we can see,

492
00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:42,800
this is Boy Willie probably in
about 1950 I would guess.

493
00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:44,960
And who's that
standing in the deck...?

494
00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:47,200
That's my father.
He always wore his beret.

495
00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:50,400
So what I'm going to do now, Nick,
is we're about to start dredging.

496
00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:52,680
Ready to go?
Yeah, all ready to go.

497
00:37:53,720 --> 00:37:55,200
Perfect.

498
00:37:56,840 --> 00:37:59,600
The oysters are found on the
sea bed.

499
00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:03,440
To harvest them a dredge is
dragged along under power of sail.

500
00:38:05,680 --> 00:38:10,160
So why, Tim, are you using sailing
boats in this day and age?

501
00:38:10,160 --> 00:38:13,520
You know many years ago obviously
they did use sailboats

502
00:38:13,520 --> 00:38:16,480
all the time, and it's obviously
been a very successful method

503
00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:18,160
to conserve the stock.

504
00:38:18,160 --> 00:38:20,440
There was a big panic
when they brought engines out

505
00:38:20,440 --> 00:38:23,120
and they thought, "they're going to
ruin everything".

506
00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:24,960
Of course in some places
that was right.

507
00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:30,640
For these slow moving wind-powered
dredgers winter is crucial -

508
00:38:30,640 --> 00:38:34,120
there's less growth on the sea bed.

509
00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:36,960
Basically you wouldn't be able to
fish in the summer anyway cos

510
00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:40,080
you get a lot of weed on the bottom
and the dredges clog up,

511
00:38:40,080 --> 00:38:43,240
and the oysters they wouldn't be fit
to eat then cos they're spawning.

512
00:38:43,240 --> 00:38:47,080
Not a bad haul. Yeah, got lots of
shells anyway. Yeah.

513
00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:49,320
All the shells we call cultch.

514
00:38:49,320 --> 00:38:52,800
So the cultch are all the empty
shells that have been chucked
back in over the years.

515
00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:55,600
That's right. Some of the
oysters die naturally you see.

516
00:38:55,600 --> 00:38:58,280
You can see how an oyster,
he lands on a piece of cultch

517
00:38:58,280 --> 00:39:01,720
and he grows there, so this is
a cultch tack, and then we...

518
00:39:01,720 --> 00:39:03,160
Knock that off.

519
00:39:03,160 --> 00:39:06,800
We clean that up,
and that's a perfectly good oyster,

520
00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:09,280
that's about an 80 gram oyster,
I suppose.

521
00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:10,680
OK.

522
00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:13,680
We actually have a ring here
just alongside you,

523
00:39:13,680 --> 00:39:16,360
that we actually check
the size of the oysters now.

524
00:39:16,360 --> 00:39:19,760
He's OK. And how old would this one
be roughly?

525
00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:22,680
I think that oyster is
probably six or seven years old.

526
00:39:22,680 --> 00:39:26,720
So they've got to grow for six or
seven years before you can take them
out of the sea? Yeah.

527
00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:41,960
Very difficult to tell
an oyster from a rotting shell.

528
00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:43,840
It all looks the same to me.

529
00:39:43,840 --> 00:39:45,400
Bingo, I've got one.

530
00:39:52,920 --> 00:39:56,360
It's incredibly labour intensive.

531
00:39:56,360 --> 00:39:59,560
If you're trying to sail a big old
heavy wooden boat

532
00:39:59,560 --> 00:40:02,280
and operate two dredges,
do you do this on your own?

533
00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:04,880
Yeah, yeah, I mean a lot of the guys
do it on their own,

534
00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:06,920
you get used to it, you know.

535
00:40:11,160 --> 00:40:16,520
After a hard day's graft in
December, time to sample the reward.

536
00:40:16,520 --> 00:40:17,680
Well, I hope it's rewarding.

537
00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:22,320
I think it was
Jonathan Swift who said

538
00:40:22,320 --> 00:40:26,080
"he was a brave man that first ate
an oyster." Well, this is a bravery
test

539
00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:30,960
for me because I've got to confess
I've never eaten an oyster
and erm...

540
00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:34,080
You eat them completely raw? Yeah.
No salt, nothing on at all?

541
00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:37,920
Personally I like them natural
and just chew them up
and savour that taste.

542
00:40:37,920 --> 00:40:40,640
OK.
Watch out for a bit of shell.

543
00:40:42,920 --> 00:40:46,360
Mm. You'll find them quite salty.

544
00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:49,800
All right, here goes.

545
00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:56,080
Mm...

546
00:40:59,360 --> 00:41:01,000
That's an experience.

547
00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:03,840
It's an acquired taste.
That's a very strong taste.

548
00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:07,840
That's the strongest tasting seafood
I've ever had. Yeah.

549
00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:11,600
It's fleshy, isn't it?

550
00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:15,440
Yes, very fleshy. Some people like
it with a squeeze of lemon,
Tabasco sauce, what have you.

551
00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:19,000
A squeeze of lemon perhaps for you
on your first attempt might have
been better.

552
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:21,280
It's the slithery slimy texture
that gets you first,

553
00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:24,720
if you've never had one before. It's
like eating a sort of crushed slug.

554
00:41:24,720 --> 00:41:29,200
The French eat snail, don't they?
Now I couldn't eat a snail to save
my life, but oysters, yeah.

555
00:41:31,400 --> 00:41:34,800
The bitter December winds Cornish
oystermen put to good use

556
00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:39,960
also blow over the frozen
peaks of the Scottish Highlands.

557
00:41:42,800 --> 00:41:46,080
Winter daylight is in short
supply this far north.

558
00:41:46,080 --> 00:41:49,240
Long nights need livening up.

559
00:41:49,240 --> 00:41:53,760
On the northeast coast at Stonehaven
it's the last night of the year.

560
00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:56,000
MUSIC PLAYS

561
00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:59,880
And on Hogmanay they go hog wild.

562
00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:05,960
Yay! Woo-hoo!

563
00:42:05,960 --> 00:42:08,920
Great balls of fire indeed.

564
00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:15,720
But for the greatest fire festival
in Europe keep heading north.

565
00:42:15,720 --> 00:42:17,280
And north.

566
00:42:19,480 --> 00:42:20,800
And even further north.

567
00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:32,960
Until you can travel no further.

568
00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:39,480
Then you've arrived at Shetland.

569
00:42:43,360 --> 00:42:48,840
Here on the last Tuesday in every
January, the sky burns.

570
00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:52,440
An experience to warm Neil's heart.

571
00:42:52,440 --> 00:42:56,000
"Now is the winter of our
discontent."

572
00:42:56,000 --> 00:42:59,600
And the glorious Shetland summer
is a distant memory!

573
00:43:05,080 --> 00:43:08,520
In this bleak season
some of Britain's strongest winds

574
00:43:08,520 --> 00:43:10,680
whip over the island's
flat table top.

575
00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:19,040
The land is scoured by driving rain
and hail in winter.

576
00:43:19,040 --> 00:43:23,680
On the shortest day there's
just six hours of daylight.

577
00:43:29,080 --> 00:43:32,560
No wonder the good folk of Shetland
feel the need of a party to

578
00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:35,160
ward off the winter blues.

579
00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:37,560
And what makes a party go
with a real bang?

580
00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:40,120
Vikings.

581
00:43:44,040 --> 00:43:48,160
These guys are upholding
a long-standing island tradition.

582
00:43:48,160 --> 00:43:53,560
A love affair with Viking warrior
ancestors, and a festival of fire.

583
00:43:53,560 --> 00:43:56,440
You've got to see this, it's a
little film that was shot

584
00:43:56,440 --> 00:44:00,560
in the 1950s. You can see hundreds
of Vikings with horned helmets, each

585
00:44:00,560 --> 00:44:03,720
one of them is carrying a flaming
torch, and look, there's a

586
00:44:03,720 --> 00:44:07,960
dragon-headed longship being hauled
through the streets of the town.

587
00:44:10,480 --> 00:44:14,160
This epic Viking celebration has set
Shetland alight every

588
00:44:14,160 --> 00:44:19,320
winter for over a century.
This is Up Helly Aa.

589
00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:21,920
CHEERING

590
00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:29,200
Today's photo-call is
about publicity for the Up Helly Aa
fire festival.

591
00:44:30,800 --> 00:44:33,960
Everything about it suggests it's a
genuine Viking tradition.

592
00:44:33,960 --> 00:44:36,280
Even the name Up Helly Aa is
suitably Scandinavian.

593
00:44:36,280 --> 00:44:41,000
But I know a wee bit about Vikings,
and I've always suspected

594
00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:45,120
that something about Up Helly Aa
isn't all that it seems,

595
00:44:45,120 --> 00:44:50,000
so I want to discover the real truth
about Shetland's festival of fire.

596
00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:57,080
The leader of this Viking horde is
the so-called Guizer Jarl.

597
00:44:57,080 --> 00:44:59,840
'This year the honour falls
to Ivor Cluness.'

598
00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:06,360
Ivor, how long does it take every
year to get this organised?

599
00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:10,400
Well, we've been designing and
making our suits for two years now.

600
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:12,920
Two years.
Does it take over your life?

601
00:45:12,920 --> 00:45:15,800
I don't think so but my wife would
probably agree with that.

602
00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:17,320
Really it's fun,

603
00:45:17,320 --> 00:45:20,440
but is there kind of a deeper
significance for you guys?

604
00:45:20,440 --> 00:45:23,320
'I think definitely. People
from Shetland believe that there's

605
00:45:23,320 --> 00:45:25,640
'still a little bit of Norse in
them.'

606
00:45:25,640 --> 00:45:28,800
I've got to ask you, are you or do
you think you are a Viking?

607
00:45:28,800 --> 00:45:32,440
Oh, I can't be dressed like this
today and not think that.

608
00:45:32,440 --> 00:45:33,960
THEY LAUGH

609
00:45:36,600 --> 00:45:40,720
'Vikings are literally
in the blood of folk here.

610
00:45:40,720 --> 00:45:44,920
'DNA tests have shown many
Shetlanders have Scandinavian
ancestors.'

611
00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:51,040
To get to the roots of Up Helly Aa
I'm going back over 1,000 years,

612
00:45:51,040 --> 00:45:56,280
to when the Vikings first
rolled in over the North Sea.

613
00:46:00,560 --> 00:46:05,240
This is Jarlshof, a remarkable
settlement at the Southern
tip of Shetland.

614
00:46:07,720 --> 00:46:11,760
People have hunkered down here
against winter weather
since Neolithic times.

615
00:46:14,600 --> 00:46:18,160
Then around AD 800
the Vikings moved in.

616
00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:22,960
Archaeologist Val Turner
knows how the Scandinavians made

617
00:46:22,960 --> 00:46:24,160
themselves at home.

618
00:46:25,680 --> 00:46:28,800
So this is unmistakably
a Viking long house,

619
00:46:28,800 --> 00:46:31,480
so with living down there
and the animals in here. Yeah.

620
00:46:31,480 --> 00:46:35,520
This is pretty brutal weather
even by Shetland standards,

621
00:46:35,520 --> 00:46:39,480
how are the Vikings living
and making themselves comfortable
and enjoying life?

622
00:46:39,480 --> 00:46:44,440
Well, they would have a huge long
hearth in the middle of the living

623
00:46:44,440 --> 00:46:48,800
area, and inside the stone and turf
walls you'd have timber lining,

624
00:46:48,800 --> 00:46:52,000
you'd probably have woven cloth
and skins and things on the wall.

625
00:46:52,000 --> 00:46:55,640
But you can very much imagine
that the focus of life would have
been the fires.

626
00:46:55,640 --> 00:46:58,280
Certainly in weather like this,
yeah.

627
00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:01,520
You see, I suppose, the inspiration
for the modern festival

628
00:47:01,520 --> 00:47:04,720
of Up Helly Aa because the Vikings
would have been all about fire.

629
00:47:04,720 --> 00:47:08,200
Well, these stones they're heat
shattered. You can see from the
colouring

630
00:47:08,200 --> 00:47:10,160
that they've been heated in a fire

631
00:47:10,160 --> 00:47:13,040
and then they've
come into contact with water.

632
00:47:13,040 --> 00:47:17,360
And they may have been for cooking,
and it may have been from a sauna.

633
00:47:17,360 --> 00:47:18,800
Oh, really?

634
00:47:18,800 --> 00:47:23,280
Yeah, and one of the outbuildings
here looks as if it was a sauna.

635
00:47:23,280 --> 00:47:27,520
Wow. That gives a nice unexpected
angle, cos you think about life here

636
00:47:27,520 --> 00:47:30,080
being very harsh,
but a sauna sounds like luxury.

637
00:47:33,120 --> 00:47:36,040
The Vikings carried their hothouse
tradition with them

638
00:47:36,040 --> 00:47:39,480
when they left the frozen fjords of
Norway in the ninth century.

639
00:47:43,800 --> 00:47:48,440
Exactly why they struck out from
their icy motherland is still
shrouded in mystery.

640
00:47:50,200 --> 00:47:54,120
But we do know how
they got to the Scottish Isles.

641
00:47:55,520 --> 00:48:00,000
I rode in a replica longship
when I was in Norway for Coast.

642
00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:02,480
Such craft propelled
the Vikings to Britain.

643
00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:08,960
The torching of a longship
has for over a century been

644
00:48:08,960 --> 00:48:12,160
the climax of Shetland's Up Helly Aa
fire festival.

645
00:48:13,720 --> 00:48:17,560
Is burning the boat a tradition
they've inherited from the Vikings?

646
00:48:17,560 --> 00:48:21,040
Would Vikings have done that?
Would they have disposed of such

647
00:48:21,040 --> 00:48:24,480
a valuable creation as a ship
in that way?

648
00:48:24,480 --> 00:48:27,640
Well, of course they did
bury their dead in ships and there's

649
00:48:27,640 --> 00:48:33,120
plenty of evidence of that,
but there's only one documented

650
00:48:33,120 --> 00:48:38,040
example of them having buried
someone and set fire to the ship.

651
00:48:39,600 --> 00:48:42,880
Looks like the long ship ritual
has gone up in flames.

652
00:48:42,880 --> 00:48:45,200
If that's not historically accurate,

653
00:48:45,200 --> 00:48:48,040
how about the dress of the modern
day Norsemen?

654
00:48:48,040 --> 00:48:51,640
Clearly there's a bit of showbiz
involved in what they're

655
00:48:51,640 --> 00:48:55,280
wearing, but how close to anything
authentic have we got here?

656
00:48:55,280 --> 00:48:58,760
Well, certainly they could have had
the cow skin cloaks

657
00:48:58,760 --> 00:49:02,600
and the tunics. The helmets with
wings on, I think that would

658
00:49:02,600 --> 00:49:06,120
probably hamper you going
into battle, so that's not very

659
00:49:06,120 --> 00:49:09,600
authentic. But don't take it too
seriously, it's a piece of fun.

660
00:49:11,360 --> 00:49:13,320
'And the Shetlanders love it.

661
00:49:13,320 --> 00:49:16,280
'Every January these local
celebrities live it up,

662
00:49:16,280 --> 00:49:18,280
'come what may.'

663
00:49:18,280 --> 00:49:23,640
Apparently it's the worst weather
for an Up Helly Aa in 21 years
or more.

664
00:49:23,640 --> 00:49:26,760
'But come on, they're Vikings,
so they can probably take it.'

665
00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:29,480
CHEERING

666
00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:37,120
Oh, looks just the part.
There's a beard missing though.

667
00:49:37,120 --> 00:49:40,280
Go on give us your roar.
Come on, Neil!

668
00:49:40,280 --> 00:49:43,080
THEY ROAR

669
00:49:43,080 --> 00:49:46,920
'Real Norse warriors wouldn't
recognise themselves in Up Helly Aa.

670
00:49:46,920 --> 00:49:52,160
'These are party Vikings in playful
dress with made-up traditions.

671
00:49:54,760 --> 00:49:58,560
'It's a whole lot of fun right
enough, but who made it up?'

672
00:50:04,120 --> 00:50:07,720
The origins of the fire festival
go back two centuries,

673
00:50:07,720 --> 00:50:11,400
to veterans returning
from the Napoleonic wars,

674
00:50:11,400 --> 00:50:15,320
or so I'm told by Up Helly Aa
expert Brian Smith.

675
00:50:17,560 --> 00:50:20,600
Young men came back to Shetland
having seen all that action,

676
00:50:20,600 --> 00:50:23,000
all that fire, all that light

677
00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:25,200
in the Napoleonic Wars.

678
00:50:25,200 --> 00:50:30,960
These guys decided that they wanted
to liven things up in dark,
boring Lerwick.

679
00:50:30,960 --> 00:50:35,280
First of all they went around with
guns. There are accounts

680
00:50:35,280 --> 00:50:40,280
of small bombs being placed
on people's doorsteps, and then they

681
00:50:40,280 --> 00:50:44,840
got burning tar barrels and pulled
them around the town in sledges.

682
00:50:44,840 --> 00:50:48,800
So it was a real lawless rabble?
It was utterly lawless.

683
00:50:48,800 --> 00:50:51,280
When do we get
anything that we would

684
00:50:51,280 --> 00:50:55,320
recognise as the Up Helly Aa
festival that we see today?

685
00:50:55,320 --> 00:51:00,200
What happened is in the early
1870s the promoters,

686
00:51:00,200 --> 00:51:05,040
people like Sandy Ratter and his
friend Willie Sinclair wanted

687
00:51:05,040 --> 00:51:10,920
to try a festival with disguise in
it, and they called it Up Helly Aa.

688
00:51:10,920 --> 00:51:14,600
The Viking idea arrived on the scene

689
00:51:14,600 --> 00:51:20,200
when a translation of the Orkneyinga
Saga into English was produced.

690
00:51:20,200 --> 00:51:24,080
The Orkneyinga Saga is a written
account of Viking

691
00:51:24,080 --> 00:51:26,760
adventures in the Northern Isles.

692
00:51:26,760 --> 00:51:31,040
It was translated
into English in 1873.

693
00:51:31,040 --> 00:51:34,720
It was then that the islanders
rediscovered their Norse heritage.

694
00:51:36,080 --> 00:51:40,840
And the Shetlanders really get
stuck into that Viking theme.

695
00:51:40,840 --> 00:51:45,640
So for something that feels so old,
it's actually quite a fresh
and evolving idea.

696
00:51:45,640 --> 00:51:49,960
Yes, it's the perfect
example of the invented
tradition in the 19th century.

697
00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:56,960
From humble and recent beginnings
it's grown to become Europe's
largest fire festival.

698
00:52:02,160 --> 00:52:04,800
HE ROARS

699
00:52:04,800 --> 00:52:08,040
'For Ivor, the Guizer Jarl
and his squad, the wait is over.'

700
00:52:12,120 --> 00:52:15,160
Now that is an impressive sight.
I don't know how many

701
00:52:15,160 --> 00:52:17,400
torches that is but it looks
and feels like a thousand.

702
00:52:25,880 --> 00:52:29,760
CHEERING

703
00:52:32,680 --> 00:52:36,480
'I just wish you were here
because as well as the sight
of it, you know, it's the smell

704
00:52:36,480 --> 00:52:39,560
'of the paraffin from the torches,
and it's the heat from them.'

705
00:52:39,560 --> 00:52:42,760
You can actually feel the warmth,
and then the air is filled with
these

706
00:52:42,760 --> 00:52:46,840
red hot ashes that are just being
carried in this incredible wind.

707
00:52:46,840 --> 00:52:49,960
For such a small island
and a small community,

708
00:52:49,960 --> 00:52:53,920
to put on something on this scale, I
think it's genuinely breathtaking.

709
00:52:53,920 --> 00:52:56,760
And it's what everybody's wearing.

710
00:52:56,760 --> 00:52:59,640
You tend to think of it all
being about Vikings, but it's not.

711
00:52:59,640 --> 00:53:02,480
There's people in every manner
of fancy dress, there's people

712
00:53:02,480 --> 00:53:05,400
in suits, there's men in dresses.
You name it they're all here.

713
00:53:05,400 --> 00:53:09,880
MUSIC: "Firestarter"
by The Prodigy

714
00:53:16,280 --> 00:53:19,440
After the blazing procession,
the Jarlsquad

715
00:53:19,440 --> 00:53:22,440
and their long ship
arrive at the burning site.

716
00:53:25,160 --> 00:53:28,280
One of the many things that
amazes me about this is all these

717
00:53:28,280 --> 00:53:31,760
torches - there's hundreds,
thousands of them, and every single

718
00:53:31,760 --> 00:53:34,760
one of them is going
to end up pitched into that galley.

719
00:53:43,080 --> 00:53:47,800
It's not exactly authentic,
but even for real Vikings,

720
00:53:47,800 --> 00:53:50,080
winter was long and dark.

721
00:53:50,080 --> 00:53:54,080
Maybe that's the real
root of Up Helly Aa,

722
00:53:54,080 --> 00:53:58,240
a rage against the endless night,
with flaming light.

723
00:54:03,800 --> 00:54:08,080
It's the dying embers for the
tourists, only a few get to join

724
00:54:08,080 --> 00:54:14,240
the private after-hours celebration,
and party like it's AD 800.

725
00:54:14,240 --> 00:54:15,600
Ya-a-ay!

726
00:54:15,600 --> 00:54:20,800
# Sha la la la la la la la la di da

727
00:54:20,800 --> 00:54:21,880
# We sing

728
00:54:21,880 --> 00:54:27,280
# Sha la la la la la la la la di
da... #

729
00:54:27,280 --> 00:54:30,640
THEY CHEER

730
00:54:30,640 --> 00:54:32,920
How are you doing?

731
00:54:32,920 --> 00:54:35,360
I hope you've enjoyed
the Up Helly Aa experience?

732
00:54:35,360 --> 00:54:37,440
Oh, yeah, fantastic.

733
00:54:37,440 --> 00:54:39,920
Who cares about weather?

734
00:54:39,920 --> 00:54:41,080
There you go.

735
00:54:43,240 --> 00:54:44,440
I belong now.

736
00:54:53,560 --> 00:54:55,760
This is almost certainly going
to go on all night,

737
00:54:55,760 --> 00:54:58,360
it'll probably go on all day
tomorrow as well, but you see

738
00:54:58,360 --> 00:55:02,000
I'm not a Viking, I'm a Celt, so I
think I'd best be off to my bed.

739
00:55:04,760 --> 00:55:07,400
I'll leave the islanders to party.

740
00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:10,160
This is their long winter night
to shine.

741
00:55:16,760 --> 00:55:19,880
At the height of summer,
it's full-on for coastal folk.

742
00:55:24,040 --> 00:55:26,120
Whether you're above it

743
00:55:26,120 --> 00:55:28,120
or in it,

744
00:55:28,120 --> 00:55:30,560
the sea is a tough place
to hang out.

745
00:55:32,280 --> 00:55:36,440
On Cornwall's front line
they welcome a wind-down in winter.

746
00:55:38,640 --> 00:55:43,560
As Christmas closes in, it's
time for celebration at Mousehole.

747
00:55:47,160 --> 00:55:50,600
It's mid-December
and they've shut up shop on the sea,

748
00:55:50,600 --> 00:55:54,320
in preparation for some
seasonal sparkle.

749
00:55:56,840 --> 00:56:00,120
How many fisher folk does it take to
change a light bulb?

750
00:56:00,120 --> 00:56:04,080
Well, here in Mousehole it
takes 25 people four months.

751
00:56:04,080 --> 00:56:06,600
That's because this little village
is home to one of the most

752
00:56:06,600 --> 00:56:10,760
spectacular coastal
illuminations in Britain.

753
00:56:10,760 --> 00:56:15,920
Over 7,000 bulbs will be used to
create a winter seascape

754
00:56:15,920 --> 00:56:17,840
like no other.

755
00:56:17,840 --> 00:56:21,640
Martin Brockman is
the Mousehole Lights' technician.

756
00:56:21,640 --> 00:56:23,160
OK, you're looking pretty busy.

757
00:56:23,160 --> 00:56:25,360
Yeah, last-minute
running around changing bulbs,

758
00:56:25,360 --> 00:56:27,840
we've got a couple out here.
Want to change that one for me?

759
00:56:27,840 --> 00:56:29,880
Yeah, that one's dead. So have you
got a lot to do

760
00:56:29,880 --> 00:56:32,120
before the big switch-on?
Yeah, quite a bit now.

761
00:56:32,120 --> 00:56:35,360
Unfortunately the weather's come in
which brings with it a few problems.

762
00:56:35,360 --> 00:56:36,560
Are you going to be ready in time?

763
00:56:36,560 --> 00:56:39,080
We'll be stressed but we'll be
ready in time, definitely.

764
00:56:39,080 --> 00:56:41,240
Who started this wonderful
tradition?

765
00:56:41,240 --> 00:56:45,080
It was started in 1963 by a lady
called Joan Gilchrest who was

766
00:56:45,080 --> 00:56:47,960
a local artist,
and it just grew and grew and grew.

767
00:56:47,960 --> 00:56:49,440
Who pays for it all?

768
00:56:49,440 --> 00:56:51,960
All comes from voluntary
contributions.

769
00:56:51,960 --> 00:56:53,840
They estimate that
while the lights are on

770
00:56:53,840 --> 00:56:55,680
Mousehole will receive in excess

771
00:56:55,680 --> 00:57:00,320
of 30,000 visitors, so if every
one of them puts a pound in the box

772
00:57:00,320 --> 00:57:03,880
we'll be able to run a really,
really nice light show next year.

773
00:57:05,080 --> 00:57:07,640
If Martin hasn't got his wires
crossed

774
00:57:07,640 --> 00:57:09,880
we're in for a treat tonight.

775
00:57:12,760 --> 00:57:15,120
This is mid-winter, Cornish style.

776
00:57:15,120 --> 00:57:18,040
The streets
of this tiny fishing village

777
00:57:18,040 --> 00:57:21,480
are absolutely packed on a wild and
furious night

778
00:57:21,480 --> 00:57:25,640
when there's a gale
blowing out there - quite amazing.

779
00:57:27,560 --> 00:57:31,200
And finally, the big switch-on!

780
00:57:36,000 --> 00:57:38,320
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

781
00:58:08,440 --> 00:58:14,080
Winter can be a dark time, but
coastal folk know that the secret

782
00:58:14,080 --> 00:58:19,360
of this season is to find the chinks
of light in the long cold months,

783
00:58:19,360 --> 00:58:23,480
to relish the beauty of Christmas
lights twinkling on the waters

784
00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:27,480
of a safe haven, and to remember
that the brightest lights of

785
00:58:27,480 --> 00:58:32,360
all shine in the eyes of the people
who make our coast what it is.