Show Notes
The Sefton coastline stretches for around twenty miles between Liverpool and Southport. It has one of the largest sand dune systems in the country, but is also one of the fastest-eroding shorelines, shifting back by around four metres ever year. In this programme, Martha Kearney visits Sefton to explore the ways in which this ever-changing landscape has been shaped by both human activity and the elements. She walks along Blitz Beach, where rubble was dumped from buildings destroyed when Bootle and Liverpool were bombed during World War II, and finds out how this has affected erosion over the decades since then. She learns about the treacherous sands of Crosby, where the famous Antony Gormley sculptures on the beach have proved a huge tourist attraction, but where an RNLI lifeguard explains how it is all too easy for unwary visitors to get stuck in the quicksand and mud. A few miles further up the coast at Formby, she finds out how work is going on to restore degraded sand dunes and goes out looking for sand lizards with one of the National Trust rangers. She asks what the future holds for this coastline, with its diverse wildlife habitats and fascinating history. Producer: Emma Campbell Assistant producer: Jo Peacey
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Martha Kearney visits Walter Scott country. She traces the writer's footsteps through the Scottish countryside, visiting Abbotsford House near Melrose, where he built his Scottish baronial dream. Scott was the best-selling author of his generation, with Waverley station in Edinburgh named after one of his books. As Martha finds out, his writing explores Scotland’s environmental history, including deforestation, land use changes, and the human-nature relationship. He incorporates ecological themes in his novels, using landscapes as active components of storytelling and reflecting the Romantic view of nature as something to be revered. Scott advocated for the restoration of native woodlands and foresaw the potential for natural regeneration. His love of nature is expressed not only in the landscapes of his novels, but also in his personal passion for tree planting. Producer: Mary Ward-Lowery
Brett Westwood goes to meet ornithologist Jack Baddams and his fellow bird ringers in his home village Whitwell in Derbyshire, to find out how the practice of ringing has been passed down the generations there, and learns about the impact it has on nature conservation more widely. Most people know Jack as the young ornithologist who reports for BBC Springwatch. He’s also a bird ringer, licenced by the British Trust for Ornithology to catch and ring wild birds so we can learn more about their lives. His passion for birds started young, and as a teenager Jack was introduced to a group of bird ringers around Whitwell, where he was taught by Eleanor Wilkins who has been training the next generation. Brett goes to meet Jack and Eleanor early in the morning at one of the Whitwell group's favourite spots to see what turns up in the nets, and hear how the data they collect on bird populations and migrations contributes to conservation. Brett also hears the story of the remarkable history of this group and its members, whose personal records of local bird observations go back decades. Producer: Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol
Musician Kate Stables visits her favourite spots in Winchester to find out more about the area that she used to call home. From St Catherine's Hill you can see across the whole city. It's where Kate flew kites, and celebrated her wedding - and with the help of archaeologist David Ashby she finds out about the iron-age settlement and medieval chapel that once adorned the landscape. Dropping down to the River Itchen, Kate and conservationist Rachel Remnant dip their toes into chalk streams, before heading to Cowslip Field to find out how the ancient skill of scything can feel like dancing. She was still at school when the protests against the building of a section of the M3 motorway took place, but campaigner Chris Gillham joins Kate on Twyford Down to share his memories of the camps that sprang up in an attempt to prevent the road being built. Chris describes the personal cost of being involved in that action. Kate's day finishes atop Winchester Cathedral, gazing back across the city. Producer: Toby Field Special thanks to Ross Lovett, Winchester Cathedral and Rozi Plain.
Martha Kearney meets the people protecting and restoring rare arctic-alpine plants in Eryri, also know as Snowdonia. Robbie Blackhall-Miles is a conservation horticulturist working for the charity Plantlife. He shows Martha his secret nursery for rare plants where he's been propagating species such as the previously extinct rosy saxifrage, in preparation for reintroducing them to the mountains. Martha and Robbie travel to the valley of Nant Ffrancon where work has been happening in collaboration with farmers to change grazing practices, in order to help the arctic-alpine plants survive. This work has been happening as a part of the Tlysau Mynydd Eryri / Mountain Jewels of Eryri project, which is part of the wider National Heritage Lottery funded Natur am Byth (meaning Nature Forever) partnership project. We hear how the National Trust will be expanding Robbie's work in reconnecting habitats in their new Natur i Bobl Nant Ffrancon project (meaning ‘Nature for the people of Nant Ffrancon’).
Between the mainland and the Isle of Wight, when the tides are low enough and the days long enough, a sandbank emerges from the Solent. At some point each summer, in most summers since 1984, this exposed bank becomes the venue for an extraordinary event: a cricket match between two sailing club teams from opposite sides of the Solent. Test Match Special commentator Alison Mitchell joins the team setting off from Hamble, near Southampton, to witness this remarkable contest, which can only take place on a low-water spring tide. She talks to players including former England cricketer Norman Cowans and his teammate Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first person to sail single handed and non-stop around the world Arriving at Bramble Bank by boat at dawn, she follows and commentates on the action as it unfolds, before departing as the tide returns and the pitch disappears beneath the water once again. Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio Bristol