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Archaeologist Ben Robinson visits the Norfolk village of Cley next the Sea and discovers that due to Dutch settlers in the Elizabethan era, it's not as ‘next the sea’ as it once was. Ben finds a village green that was once a thriving port with big ships and surrounded by a thriving village. He visits the church and meets Matt Champion, an expert in medieval graffiti who has found some incredible links to past villagers.

A fire in the 1600s destroyed most of the original village, and Ben uses some detective work to try and date a house believed to be one of the only survivors. An exploration of the village reveals architecture that shows the influence of Flemish immigrants, but it's not only the buildings that were influenced by the so-called ‘Elizabethan strangers’.

Ben talks to historian Onyeka Nubia, who reveals that the village was part of a cosmopolitan community that introduced Britain to the canary and even the beer we drink today. But possibly the biggest influence these strangers brought to the village were their skills in land reclamation. Local historian Jonathan Hooton takes Ben to the site of the embankments that turned the waterways into farmland, and later, Ben meets the one of the villagers who are fighting to reverse the effects and reclaim Cley’s waterways.