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From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Open Country travels the UK in search of the stories, the people and the wildlife that make our countryside such a vibrant place. Each week we visit a new area to hear how local people are growing the crops, protecting the environment, maintaining the traditions and cooking the food that makes their corner of rural Britain unique.
Email: open.country@bbc.co.uk
Postal address: Open Country,
大象传媒 Radio 4, Birmingham, B5 7QQ.
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| Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire | |
Helen Mark visits the scenic fishing village of Robin Hood's Bay in North Yorkshire. The coast curves along a rocky shore with scaurs of rock running out to the sea. The small town was once a more prosperous and important fishing centre than Whitby. In the 1820s there were 130 fishermen sailing 35 cobles and five large herring boats. But the bay itself isn't big enough for a proper harbour and, as the size of fishing boats grew, the industry declined. Today it's best known for its locally-caught crab. The origins of the name are unknown but it might refer to Robin Goodfellow, the original Puck.
It's a place also known for its wild winter weather - with the North Sea battering the coast. It was not until 1975 that a strong sea wall was built to protect the village from the sea and it's the highest in Britain, 40 feet high and 500 feet long.
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| Harry Collet | |
Harry Collet is a Story Walker and he shows Helen round the ginnels and alleyways of the village. Smuggling during the 18th and 19th centuries was rife and Robin Hood's Bay was ideal for the purpose. Harry tells tales of the ways the villagers secreted contraband away from the houses and inns with connecting cellars and cupboards and it was said that "a bale of silk could pass from the bottom of the village to the top without seeing daylight". Harry talks about the excise men being bamboozled by coffins being carried up the hill and across the moors containing, of course, smuggled booty rather than bodies.
Down on the beach, marine biologist Tom Mallows from English Nature takes Helen in search of seaweed. The Bay is a Special Area for Conservation and Scientific Interest, with a very diverse range of species. In the rock pools they find the very rare coraline algae, which has a skeleton and an outer shell looking like coral.
Back in the village outside a local pub Helen encounters Brian Kringel and John Grieves. Brian is a relative newcomer to the town - only living there for 30 years. John was born and bred in the area. Together the men reminisce about the village past and present, and sing songs of the Bay, both old and new.
As night falls, Helen walks out on to the sea wall to meet local UFO investigator Russ Kellett. The coast around the Bay is a fruitful one for spotters of strange things in the skies (there have been several sightings reported to local radio stations in recent weeks alone). And after experiencing a curious happening himself in 1988, Russ has devoted his life to following up and logging such sitings and incidents. Although a sceptic to begin with, he is beginning to think that there really is something out there.
The following day the sun shines bright again and Helen meets up with local fossil enthusiast Richard Bell. The geology of the area is largely Jurassic and the boulder clay contains a wealth of ancient marine life. Fossil stories abound in the Bay - after thunderstorms if people found cuttle-fish fossils they would believe they had discovered a thunderbolt. And squid fossils are known as "devil's toenails". Richard's passion for all things sedimentary led to his book Yorkshire Rock - a sort of comic strip version of 600 million years of Yorkshire's past, inspired by Herge's Adventures of Tin Tin.
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