Episodes
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Jon Gower is in Aberaeron, Ceredigion, to explore how mackerel (and other fish) have shaped the people and landscape.
Jon joins the pretty harbour townâs annual mackerel festival, where the humble mackerel is given thanks at the end of its season with a funeral procession, complete with wailing widows, a blessing from the local reverend Dilwyn Jones and, most years, a sunset cremation on the beach. Here, Jon meets local townsfolk to hear how fishing connects the generations far back in their families and how livelihoods, mackerel populations and the landscape of this town are changing with the climate crisis.
Jon also speaks to Elinor Gwilym from the Cymdeithas Aberaeron Society, who talk about how the charming aesthetic of the town is influenced by its connection to fishing, with the colourful harbour houses originally built for sea captains.
Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio, Bristol
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The growth of wildlife documentaries and social media has boosted our interest in wildlife. Footage of whales, birds and mammals shot by keen nature lovers around the British Isles has alerted us to the presence of apex predators such as the Orca in the waters around northern Scotland. It's not surprising that people visit the island of Mull in the hope of spotting some of the abundant wildlife. Otters are especially popular at the moment. The creation of the Hebridean Whale Trail has also highlighted the presence of the different cetaceans in the sea around Mull and visitors can take boat tours or walks around the island in search of dolphins, porpoises, minke and humpback whales. If they're lucky they may spot the remaining two West Coast Orca - John Coe and Aquarius. But while nature tourism is welcomed, those who work in wildlife conservation on Mull are keen that visitors are respectful and responsible towards the creatures they've come to see.
Producer Maggie Ayre takes a walk from Tobermory on the Hebridean Whale Trail with Morven Summers and her colleague Sadie Gorvett to learn about the work they do in encouraging visitors to log their cetacean sightings on their app and take part in a Citizen Science survey of marine mammals. She meets Mull's Wildlife Warden Jan Dunlop on Calgary Bay to hear why Jan is concerned about the presence and proximity of too many people to the island's otter population and the impact that can have on the animals. All three advocate a kind of slow nature tourism that means appreciating the beauty of all the wildlife on the island as opposed to going with a checklist of creatures to spot.
Produced and presented by Maggie Ayre
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Episodes manquant?
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Helen Mark discovers a wilderness in the heart of Penzance, in West Cornwall. It's a rocky headland loved by local people, with steps into the open water and views of St Michael's Mount. If you set up a time-lapse camera here at Battery Rocks, you'd see a steady stream of people arriving at this unobtrusive place from sunrise to sunset. It's popular with swimmers, snorkellers, rock-poolers and poets, and it's a haven for wildlife.
Battery Rocks is a haven for people too, a life-saving place of joy and community, according to snorkelling instructor Katie Maggs. Helen goes snorkelling with Katie and discovers how this place inspired poet Katrina Naomi's new collection 'Battery Rocks'. Lucy Luck takes Helen on a rock pool ramble and Mike Conboye leads her in a sunrise swim at the rocks, with music from his acapella group, Boilerhouse.
Producer: Mary Ward-Lowery
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Nadeem Perera presents this week's Open Country from Richmond Park. He's with two young footballers from West Ham and Birmingham City. Nadeem is nature mad and wants to share his passion for birdwatching with the young players as a way of using nature as a tool for better sportsmanship. As a football coach as well as wildlife presenter, Nadeem believes an appreciation of nature can be incorporated into football clubs' daily outdoor training sessions. He's in Richmond Park where he first discovered his love of the outdoors and takes Manny Longelo and Liam Jones on a walk around the park guided by Assistant Park Manager Peter Laurence. Along the way he sets the boys a task of spotting as many birds as they can in order to be crowned the inaugural Open Country Man of the Match.
Producer: Maggie Ayre
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The people and wildlife that shape the landscape of the British Isles
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Unlikely as it sounds Anneka Rice has long been part of a small painting group run by the extraordinary artist, Maggi Hambling. Over the years they've developed a strong bond. As Maggi puts it, the painting group is 'like family' to her. In this special episode of Open Country, Anneka travels to Suffolk to find out more about the county that has inspired Maggi's work: from her brooding seascapes, to the once controversial but now lauded Scallop on Aldeburgh beach.
They start the day in a dank, dark, tree-covered ditch where Maggi hid as a teenager when she was too nervous to attend a painting class. Then to Maggiâs home, where - leaving the verdant overgrowth of her garden - they enter her studio where green (a colour she hates) disappears⊠there are blacks and greys and just a bit of pink.
Next, onto the bleak but beautiful beach at Sizewell, itâs here in the shadow of the nuclear power plant that the churning North Sea most speaks to Maggi. And finally to the huge steel sculpture of the Scallop on Aldeburgh beach⊠a tribute to Benjamin Britten and now one of the areaâs most popular attractions. As Maggi drives Anneka from location to location, the warmth, humour and friendship between the two shines out.
Please see the 'related links' box on the Open Country webpage for this episode to find more info about the Cedric Morris/Arthur Lett-Haines exhibition in July 2024.
Presenter: Anneka RiceProducer: Karen Gregor
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Wiltshire has more chalk hill figures than any other county in the UK, with no fewer than eight white horses carved into its rolling hills. They're all slightly different, and were carved into the hillsides at different times, often to mark an important occasion such as the coronation of Queen Victoria. In this programme, Helen Mark visits some of them - from the oldest and probably best-known one at Westbury, to the much smaller and less prominent horse at Broad Town near Swindon. She finds out about their history and significance, and asks why they became so popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. The tradition continues into the present-day, with the most recent horse, at Devizes, created in 1999 to mark the Millennium. The white horses are a key feature of the Wiltshire landscape, and have become an unofficial emblem of the county.
The horses have to be regularly maintained. Left unattended, they would gradually revert to nature, become overgrown with weeds and lichen and simply disappear. In Broad Town, Helen meets up with a team of volunteers who are spending their Sunday morning perched on a steep hillside, weeding and putting fresh lime powder onto their horse, to keep it white and visible.
As well as its horses, Wiltshire is also home to carvings with a military connection - in the shape of regimental badges and insignia. There's also a map of Australia, a YMCA logo, and even a giant kiwi. Helen visits some of the military carvings at Fovant near Salisbury, and finds out how they were created by soldiers stationed at training camps in the area during the First World War. She discovers that they're still important to the county today, more than a century on.
Produced by Emma Campbell
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Martha Kearney visits Whitstable to discover the fascinating and mysterious story behind Guy Maunsellâs sea forts at Shivering Sands. Built in the second world war as air defences, these towers can still be seen from the shoreline, although they are now in a state of disrepair.
Martha discovers their incredible and strange history. Once home to up to 265 soldiers, these huge metal boxes on stilts later became the base for a broadcasting revolution. In the 1960s, pirate stations such as Radio City, Invicta and the short-lived Radio Sutch (run by the musician and parliamentary candidate Screaming Lord Sutch), broadcast from the sea forts to huge audiences who wanted to hear the latest pop and rock records.
Tom Edwards and Bob Leroi are two of the DJs with fond memories of their time aboard the sea forts at Shivering Sands, but there is also a darker history. David Featherbeâs father was lost at sea after visiting the Red Sands fort and foul play was suspected. These mysteries and the forts imposing physical architecture fascinate historian Flo McEwan and many artists such as Stephen Turner and Sue Carfrae.
Today the forts lie empty and are slowly being lost to the sea, but they remain a source of inspiration to artists and photographers, as Martha discovers.
Produced by Helen Lennard
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Martha Kearney is in Cambridge to explore wildlife at night. She takes an evening trip on a punt to see and hear the creatures which come out after the tourists have gone to home bed. She learns about the bats which at this time of year are just emerging from hibernation - hungry and on the hunt for insects. They swoop low over the waters of the Cam, their echo-location picked up and relayed for human ears by the clicking of a bat detector. A bat enthusiast from the Wildlife Trust tells Martha about bats' habits and identifies the species flitting through the trees around them.
Punts have not always been used in this benign way around wildlife. At the Museum of Cambridge, Martha is shown a punt gun - a huge weapon which was widely used in the 19th and early 20th century. It would have been mounted on a punt, with the huntsman paddling into a flock of wildfowl in order to shoot them in large numbers for food.
Martha also visits Cambridge University Botanic Garden, where a long-running moth research project is in progress. She watches as a moth trap is set out in the evening, and then returns early the next morning as a team of volunteers checks which moths have turned up in the trap, before releasing them back into the wild. She learns about the importance of these nocturnal species, and asks why night-time creatures like bats and moths always seem to get such a bad press.
Produced by Emma Campbell
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Martha Kearney explores the shifting sands of Gibraltar Point on the Lincolnshire coast, to witness the effects of beach erosion on both birds and people.
At Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve, wardens go to extraordinary lengths to protect shore-nesting birds from habitat loss caused by beach erosion. They build wooden platforms for the nests of little terns and cages to protect the nests of ringed plover, as well as mounting overnight patrols to keep predators away. In 2023 they tried the platform technique with oystercatchers for the first time, meticulously moving the nests in stages so as not to spook the birds. The shingle where these striking birds prefer to nest is threatened with inundation from high tides, as well as from foxes, sparrowhawks and curious humans with dogs. The birds raised a successful brood and now the wardens are preparing for another season, hoping for more fledgling oystercatchers.
Reserve wardens aren't the only people to take extraordinary measures to deal with beach erosion. The sand on Lincolnshire's beaches has to be replenished every year to protect the coastal population from flooding. Like sandcastles on an enormous scale, 400,000 cubic metres of sand are pumped onto the beaches from offshore dredgers and a sand profile created, in what's known as 'beach nourishment'. It's become a tourist attraction in its own right. The sand works its way a few miles down the coast to Gibraltar Point with the tides, literally shoring up the sea defences.
And then there are the inland pumping stations at every seaside town, which 'evacuate' water from low-lying areas, of which there are many in Lincolnshire: one third of the county is below sea level. Without them, this landscape would be marshland. Martha compares the historic diesel pumps (made in Lincoln) with the automated electric pumps (from Holland).
Producer: Mary Ward-Lowery
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Helen Mark is in Dorset to investigate the county's ancient sunken roads, known as holloways. They're deep, steep-sided tracks formed when soft rock erodes and are often overtopped by a canopy of trees. The erosion over centuries creates remarkable, often otherworldly spaces, that come with their own unique flora and fauna. On her trip to the Symondsbury estate near Bridport Helen hears about how the cave spider and goblin's gold moss can thrive in the cracks of these unlikely rockfaces. She is joined by Andy Jefferies and Rosie Cummings from Natural England who are behind a project to map Britain's extensive network of holloways. The holloways often come with their own folklore too. Local storyteller Martin Maudsley recounts the legend of the Dorset colpexie - mischievous sprites that can taunt the unwary traveller!
Producer: Robin MarkwellPresenter: Helen Mark
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Jude Piesse moved to Shrewsbury in Shropshire when her job changed, but it was only when she went for a walk alongside the river near her new house that she discovered she was living beside what had once been the garden where Charles Darwin spent his childhood. Much of the original 7 acres of the garden has been built on, but the original house, The Mount, still exists. It has been used as offices for many decades and has only recently been bought and is being renovated with a view to opening it up to the public with a museum and café.
Whilst some local people know about the existence of the house and garden, most people associate Charles Darwin with Down House in Kent where he brought up his own family. Inspired by her discovery, Jude researched the story of the house and garden, learning about the women and the gardeners who were also a part of Darwin's upbrigning.
What becomes clear in this revealing journey is the enormous influence the garden had on a young boy in inspiring his curiosity and fascination with the natural world, which ultimately led to the publication of The Origin of Species.
Featuring Bibbs Cameron, researcher at Shrewsbury Civic Society; John Hughes, Darwin House Museum Project Manager and Dr Cath Price, Engagement Officer at Shropshire Wildlife Trust.
Producers: Eliza Lomas and Sarah Blunt. For BBC Audio in Bristol.
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Martha Kearney hears stories of recovery from the Firth of Forth. First, she takes to the water with guide Maggie Sheddan and skipper John McCarter to explore the iconic Bass Rock, a volcanic island just beyond the shores of North Berwick in East Lothian. A decade ago, Bass Rock became the worldâs largest colony of Northern gannets, home to over 75,000 breeding sites. Then, in 2022, Avian Flu hit the colony at the height of the breeding season. By 2023, the total population was estimated at just under 52,000 breeding sites, a decrease of over 30% from the count in 2014. But now, at the beginning of a new breeding season, hope is in the air as the gannets return to the rock.
Meanwhile, back on dry land, another story of recovery unfolds. Over the winter months, North Berwick was hit by huge storms. Four-metre waves, in combination with spring tides, left behind a huge hole in the harbour wall. Martha speaks to Andrew Duns from the North Berwick Harbour Trust and harbour master Ricky Martin about the repairs that are now underway. The storms also shifted the sand dunes on the beaches around North Berwick. Emma Marriott, Conservation Assistant at the Scottish Seabird Centre, tells Martha about the post-storm beach cleans which unearthed ancient litter from the 1960s.
Presented by Martha Kearney Produced by Becky Ripley
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Up until the 1970s, postmen and women in rural areas walked their delivery rounds - taking routes through the hills dubbed "postal paths". Some routes, and fragments of others, still survive today. In this programme Helen Mark explores one of them, near the village of Shap in Cumbria, with author Alan Cleaver who is writing a book about these old paths. So far he's identified over thirty of them up and down the UK. Others have now been built over and are gone forever. Alan tells Helen about the cultural significance of the postal service in the past, recounting the poignant story of a man who used to write letters to himself, just so that the postman would call by and he would have a visitor. Alan and Helen discuss the disappearing role of postmen and women, in the age of electronic communication.
Helen also explores part of Shap's old Corpse Road, which linked Swindale Head with Mardale - a village which didn't have its own cemetery until the mid 18th century. Before that, bodies had to be carried over the fells to Shap for burial - a distance of about eight miles. The last body was carried along the Corpse Road in 1736. Local historian Jean Scott-Smith tells the story of the Corpse Road and shows Helen part of the route.
Produced by Emma Campbell
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The Broomway has been dubbed the âdeadliest footpath in Britainâ, claiming more than a hundred lives. Helen Mark takes a cautious walk along this treacherous Essex seapath with Peter Carr and John Burroughs from the Foulness Island Heritage Centre. Sheâll hear how people can easily become disoriented on the vast mud flats and tragically caught out by the rapidly advancing tides of the Thames Estuary. Helen will also be joined by Thea Behrman, the director of the Estuary Festival, to reflect on how this meeting point of land and sea can provide creative inspiration through its bleak beauty.
Presented by Helen MarkProduced by Robin Markwell
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Rose Ferraby joins geologist Dr Claire Cousins, visual artist Ilana Halperin and art historian Dr Catriona McAra as they explore the artistic and scientific terrains of both Orkney and the planet Mars. From the windswept Orcadian cliffs to the Martian landscape, they discover the surprising similarities of these two locations and explore how both science and art can interpret time, space and history in new and insightful ways.
Produced by Ruth Sanderson
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Over the centuries the River Quoile has carried Vikings, steam ships and cargoes of coal and timber from as far afield as the Baltic and Canada. Today it's a river for leisure pursuits â popular with canoeists, anglers and wildlife enthusiasts.
Cadogan Enright is a councillor, environmental campaigner and chairman of the local canoe club. He takes Helen Mark out on the river to sing its praises, but also to point out concerns. He tells her that Downpatrick and the surrounding countryside were prone to tidal flooding in the past, but now the threat comes from the land - with increasing winter storms leaving the land saturated. Helen meets Robert Gardiner, chairman of the railway museum, who shows her how the water flooded their exhibition gallery last year and has threatened the museum's financial future.
Back on the riverbank, Helen meets Stephen O'Hare, a member of the River Quoile Trust which campaigns for improvements to the river. He shows her the remains of quays along the riverbank, which were once busy dockside areas for cross channel steam ships during the industrial revolution. Trade died out because of the unpredictability of the tides and the difficulties of navigating Strangford Lough out to the Irish sea, and came to a halt in 1957 when a flood barrier was built at the mouth of the river.
As for the Vikings â they haven't quite disappeared. Viking historian Philip Campbell and a group of enthusiasts have built a re-enactment village and a replica longship which they sail on stretches of the Quoile. He tells Helen that, as its dragon head noses through the waters which wind around the gentle drumlin countryside, he is filled with appreciation for the beauty of the river and its importance through the centuries.
Produced by Kathleen Carragher
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Bernard Bishop has lived and worked on the Cley marshes for his whole life. It's the Norfolk Wildlife Trust's oldest reserve and home to a plethora of birdlife, sealife and grazing saltmarsh cattle. Bernard and his family have been cutting reeds to be used for thatching from the marsh for five generations and counting. Bernard talks to Ruth Sanderson as he cuts this year's reed crop with his son and nephew. With birds calling overhead, he reflects on a life spent working in and loving this very special landscape.
Produced and presented by Ruth Sanderson
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For over two decades presenter and wildlife expert Philippa Forrester has lived in a house with a river flowing through the garden. It's home to an abundance of species including Kingfisher, Mink and Egrets, and it's been the backdrop to a remarkable period of time when Philippa helped raise two orphaned otter cubs ready to be released back into the wild.
In this programme Philippa tells some of the stories of this river, and remembers how whole trees and even a car have come floating past after particularly heavy rains. She talks about how the river changes in the seasons, but also how she's seen legions of Signal Crayfish marching down after the sluice gate has been opened. Philippa drops down to Keynsham to speak to Simon Hunter about what can be done to help tackle this invasive species, and Ben Potterton from The Otter Trust pops over to the house to talk about those enigmatic and elusive carnivores.
Presenter: Philippa ForresterGuest: Ben Potterton, The Otter TrustGuest: Simon Hunter, Bristol Avon Rivers Trust
Producer: Toby Field for BBC Audio Bristol
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"In the winter when the snow is there it's a different world, escaping into the silence. It has a hint of the forbidding too because you feel you're going on true adventures." Andrew Cotter.
It's almost two years now since Iain Cameron and Andrew Cotter took producer Miles Warde on a lengthy summer mountain hike. They all agreed they'd love to come back in the winter, in the snow, kitted out and accompanied by at least one of Andrew's famous dogs. Olive stayed at home for this one; but buoyed up by endless biscuits and chicken bits, Mabel made it over four Munros in the ice and snow near Glenshee. It was a grand day out.
Andrew Cotter is a sports broadcaster and author of Olive, Mabel and Me. His friend Iain Cameron is a snow patch researcher and author of The Vanishing Ice.
The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.
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