Helen Mark visits Doddington Hall in Lincolnshire to talk about how the estate's shoot forms part of the landscape management and a desire for locally-sourced produce. It also provides the farm shop and restaurant with festive fare, including pigeon burgers. James Birch is Doddington's owner, (his wife's family have owned the estate continuously for around four hundred years). Shooting has always been part of life here and even now there's a full-time gamekeeper, who doubles as security guard an...
Dec 26, 2013•24 min
The Royal Haslar Hospital in Gosport was created in the 18th century to provide care for the sick and injured from naval conflicts. It later treated other military personnel and in the last few decades before its closure in 2009 went on to treat civilian patients. The site bursts with centuries of history, having seen patients from battles including Trafalgar, the Crimean War, both World Wars and many others. The staff treated allied troops and prisoners of war. Felicity Evans explores the site,...
Dec 19, 2013•25 min
Felicity Evans travels along the backwaters of the Shropshire Union Canal meeting people who've adopted a new area as their own. Starting out near Beeston she joins Wirral Autistic Society who have adopted a 2 mile stretch of the canal, which they've used regularly, to maintain its upkeep. She sets to work and finds out how it's changed how they feel about the area. Along the way she helps monitor the hedgerows which were introduced when the canals were created to stop stock entering the waterwa...
Dec 12, 2013•25 min
Tales of smuggling and 'lookers huts' unfold as Helen Mark explores Romney Marsh in Kent. Historically, this great coastal marshland was the result of reclamation of land from the sea, and is the site of an on-going battle to drain it and keep the sea from taking it back. Throughout the centuries life on the Marsh had been difficult, but by the 19th century the economy and the landscape was dominated by sheep; the Romney Marsh sheep. Today, alongside the sheep the area boasts a Nuclear power sta...
Dec 05, 2013•24 min
The Holy Island of Lindisfarne is probably best known for its medieval religious heritage and in the summer months pilgrims from all walks of life flock to the island and swell its community of 160 to over 650,000. But in the winter it's the birds that flock here, taking refuge on this holy land during their winter migration. Helen Mark arrives on Holy Island just as the birds do and learns about their unique relationship with this island. Bird Historian, Ian Kerr has been visiting the island fo...
Nov 21, 2013•24 min
Felicity Evans visits the land that inspired Tolkien's Middle Earth and discovers how this Birmingham Bog also kick started the Urban Wildlife Movement. From the ages of four to eight , J.R.R. Tolkien, author of 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings', lived with his mother and brother opposite Sarehole Mill on the Wake Green Road in Birmingham, a short walk from what is now Moseley Bog and 'Joy's Wood', a local nature reserve. As a boy, it is into this unexpected patch of woodland that Tolkien...
Nov 14, 2013•24 min
The sport of geocaching has become increasingly popular. The modern twist on a treasure hunt involves using GPS to solve clues and follow trails to find caches and the rise of the smartphone has seen its popularity soar. Helen Mark joins hundreds of geocachers in the Salcey Forest in Northamptonshire where people have travelled from across the world to be at the 'mega-event'. The ancient hunting forest was used by Henry VIII but also once saw elephants roam the land. Will the clues help her find...
Nov 07, 2013•25 min
Helen Mark rides a mile and quarter of old railway line that the local people of Mountsorrel in Leicestershire have been restoring over the past six years. It was Steve Cramp who was out walking one weekend that first noticed the over grown and disused railway - he then had a crazy idea to restore the track to it's former glory. Built in 1860 it was used to carry granite and stones from the quarry. Helen spends a day on the railway track and discovers how the project has benefited some volunteer...
Oct 31, 2013•24 min
Once strewn with apple, pear and plum orchards the Vale of Evesham has been famous for its fruit since the middle ages. Helen Mark visits the Vale to see the work being done to continue the area's heritage of fruit production. In Pershore she spends the day at the annual plum festival, a celebration of the close association the town has had with the fruit for hundreds of years. Here, she meets comedian and conservationist, Alistair McGowan, and hears about his memories of growing up in the area ...
Sep 12, 2013•25 min
Helen Mark explores the newly safeguarded 'Laurie Lee Wood' and meets the people who inhabit the 21st Century 'Cider with Rosie' Landscape. Earlier this year Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust had an unprecedented response to its appeal to save a plot of ancient woodland. It had once belonged to Slad Valley's beloved son, Laurie Lee. Having become too much for the author and playwright's remaining family to maintain, the trust launched an appeal to take it over. In this week's Open Country Helen Mar...
Sep 05, 2013•25 min
The history of Britain's cathedrals is celebrated but much less so that of the quarries and quarrymen, who hewed the stone they're built of. On this week's Open Country, Helen Mark rectifies that. With her hard hat to hand she goes underground in the South West. She explores Devon's Beer Quarry Caves which supplied Exeter cathedral with the highest quality limestone, reserved for some of the finest carvings in this and many other medieval churches. Helen meets John Scott who fought hard to make ...
Aug 29, 2013•24 min
The skiff - a four-person, coxed rowing boat - was traditionally a common sight in the seas off Scotland's coastal communities. Changes in the populations of these towns and villages, many losing their traditional links with the sea altogether, has meant, though, that the racing of skiffs was becoming less common - until, that is, the advent of the self-build kit skiff. Named the St. Ayles skiff (in honour of the Scottish Fisheries Museum, where the idea was born and which is built on the site o...
Aug 22, 2013•24 min
Helen Mark visits Longshaw Estate in Derbyshire to meet some very special ants... The northern hairy wood ant has an international, near-threatened conservation status with England's two main populations found in the Peak District (including Longshaw) and in the North York Moors. In a cutting edge experiment in communication and conservation, Samuel Ellis, a biologist from the University of York, will be attaching a one millimetre radio receiver to each ant in a bid to understand how the ants co...
Aug 20, 2013•24 min
The profiles of the two Forth bridges, rail and road, are a familiar and much-loved part of the Edinburgh landscape. Spanning the Firth of Forth between North and South Queensferry, the cantilevers of the rail bridge stand as a monument to Victorian ambition and achievement in engineering and building. Learning lessons from the great Tay Bridge disaster of 1879, its architects took bridge building into an entirely new era and the vision and physical toil involved in its construction leave presen...
Aug 08, 2013•25 min
Felicity Evans visits Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. It boasts the largest expanse of chalk grassland in Europe and is home to over two thousand prehistoric sites, including Britain's most iconic pre-historic Stonehenge. Until recently it was thought that Stonehenge was built as an astronomical calendar or observatory but new theories suggest the site was used for ceremonial cremations. Felicity also discusses plans for its future with a new visitor centre and re-direction of a nearby road, reuni...
Aug 01, 2013•25 min
Woodlands are often the setting for fairy stories but also for the creation of a new childhood game, a secret adventure or a new den and are cherished places. Helen Mark heads to Gloucestershire to see how children, large and small, share a love for the forest. In Berkeley she meets children from a 'forest school' where lessons are taken outside and children are taught to use axes and saws, to identify trees and create and build. While the children teach her how to get involved, she hears it's n...
Jul 25, 2013•25 min
James Herriot's books about life as a country vet in the 1970s sold 60 million copies worldwide. Later many of the stories were made into feature films and a very popular TV series, 'All Creatures Great and Small'. Herriot's real name was James 'Alf' Wight, and he was known as 'Alf' by local people. He practiced as a vet in Thirsk, a small market town just a few miles from the North York Moors, as did his son, Jim Wight. Felicity Evans visits 'Herriot Country' to meet Jim Wight and talk about hi...
Jul 18, 2013•25 min
Felicity Evans introduces Open Country from the Teifi Valley in West Wales and finds that the River Teifi once supported the growth of the 19th century woollen industry and sustains traditional coracle making today. In search of the elusive lamprey she discovers a diversity of wildlife found in the river. At Cenarth Falls she meets Peter Davis, the last coracle maker in the village, and talks about the traditional hand crafting process of this ancient vessel. Peter holds one of only twelve licen...
Jul 11, 2013•25 min
Helen Mark takes a day at the seaside to visit the romance of piers. They have been hailed as great examples of Victorian architecture but the cost of maintenance and repair from weather damage or fire can run into millions. She visits Weston-super-Mare in Somerset where the now hi-tech restored Grand Pier overlooks the damaged remains of Birnbeck. Actors Timothy West and Prunella Scales join her in Clevedon to visit the 'pier of the year' which was once only a vote away from demolition. It was ...
Jul 04, 2013•25 min
The image of a keeper leading a pony off a heather-clad hill, a deer carcass slung across its back, may sound like something from a Landseer painting, but in 21st century Scotland, Highland ponies - or garrons - are still a valued part of the deer stalking business. Helen Mark visits the Reay Forest estate in Sutherland to find out what ponies can offer which even the toughest off-road vehicle cannot. Garrons were a fixture of most estates until the 1970s, when in many places they were deemed to...
May 17, 2013•25 min
Jules Hudson goes to Cannock Chase in Staffordshire to find out about its military past. A major training camp during the First World War, he visits a mock-up of part of the Western Front that was built in order to familiarise troops with the concept of trench warfare, before they were sent to France and Flanders. Now covered in scrub, county archaeologists will begin clearing the site, a model of Messines Ridge, this summer. This is in preparation for the centenary commemorations next year that...
May 17, 2013•24 min
Felicity Evans visits the Minack Theatre at Porthcurno, in the far west of Cornwall. Built into the rocky cliffs overlooking the sea, the theatre was planned, built and financed by one determined woman - Rowena Cade. Local storyteller Mark Harandon has researched and re-created the character of Billy Rawlings, Cade's gardener, who worked for her for 40 years and helped to build the theatre. Mark, as Billy, leads Felicity around the theatre telling stories collected from the family and people who...
May 16, 2013•25 min
What is phenology? Felicity Evans visits Fenland Cambridgeshire to learn about an influential but largely unacknowledged Victorian vicar - the Reverend Leonard Jenyns - who made a lasting contribution to science. Jenyns is certainly not as well known as Charles Darwin, even though he passed up the chance of sailing on HMS Beagle as the ship's naturalist. In fact, Jenyns never set foot outside the UK, yet his contribution to science was enormous. Felicity hears how phenology has become a key aspe...
Apr 25, 2013•24 min
Helen Mark visits Lyme Regis, along Dorset's Jurassic coast, to explore the Undercliffs, a fascinating jungle-like terrain that's been created by 200 years of landslips, and is still evolving today. She learns that the exceptional rainfall of the last twelve months has increased the geological instability of this area that lies to the west of Lyme Regis, through which passes the South West Coast Path. Helen meets geologists, naturalists, and the wildlife artist Elaine Franks, all of whom are pas...
Apr 18, 2013•28 min
Graham Sutherland talked of Pembrokeshire as the place where 'I began to learn painting'. In this week's Open Country, Felicity Evans follows in his footsteps, discovering the landscapes that inspired his work. The abstract shapes and colours of his art are revealed through conversations with a self confessed 'Sutherland Groupie' also known as art historian Sally Moss and geologist and writer Dr Brian John. Felicity also meets with Susie and Nicky Philipps of Picton Castle who recall Sutherland'...
Apr 15, 2013•25 min
The Dumfries and Galloway 10th annual Wild Spring Festival takes place this month and Helen Mark is there to find out what's on offer in south west Scotland as the days lengthen. Helen rides on horseback around the Craigengillan Estate, Dalmellington, to hear how Mark Gibson has involved the local community in his restoration of the 3000 acre estate. Craigengillan falls within the United Nations designated UNESCO Biosphere for Galloway and Southern Ayrshire, which celebrates the area's combinati...
Apr 04, 2013•25 min
Solar panels and sheep may not be the first things that spring to mind when you think of a monastery but at Stanbrook Abbey you'll find these alongside a woodchip boiler and a roof covered in sedum grass to insulate the building and attract local wildlife. The sisters at Stanbrook Abbey (and the sheep) live very much in harmony with their North Yorkshire Moors National Park surroundings. The community of sisters embraced their new, high tech, high spec, eco-friendly home after leaving their more...
Mar 28, 2013•24 min
In a year when Derry-Londonderry takes centre stage as the UK City of Culture, Helen Mark steps out into the city's back garden to explore the hidden gems of the Inishowen Peninsula. Located at the northernmost tip of Ireland where it meets with the Atlantic Ocean, and with Lough Foyle to the east and Lough Swilly to the west, Inishowen is rich in history, heritage and landscape, with more than its fair share of undiscovered delights. Helen Mark begins her journey at the Glenevin Waterfall with ...
Mar 21, 2013•25 min
Tiny Johnsons Island sits in contrast to the hustle and bustle of Brentford and West London surrounding it. At the confluence of the Rivers Thames and Brent and the Grand Union Canal, the area was important historically for the barges that had carried goods from Birmingham. Nearby boat yards continue to repair and renovate vessels of all types while shiny new developments overlook the island - a mixture of old and new alongside one another. Helen Mark meets the community of artists who work on J...
Jan 31, 2013•25 min
Felicity Evans visits the Black Isle to hear how residents are collecting memories of the landscape, before they are forgotten forever. The Killearnan Memories Group meets to share their knowledge of this part of the Eastern Highlands in order to preserve it for future generations. Members of the group have grown up on the Black Isle and have memories and stories about the physical landscape which they are using to create a written archive. This movement has been inspired by a project run by Cai...
Jan 24, 2013•24 min
