00:16Hello and welcome to Kent Chronicles live here on KMTV where we turn back time on all of Kent's
00:24history from the Mesolithic era to the Industrial Revolution and everything in between. I'm Lucy
00:30Keane and join me as we turn back time and discuss all things history. And this week we are exploring
00:37all things natural in the Garden of England looking at the stories behind some of the natural
00:42history in the county. First for this week's A Town Through Time our reporter met with Coralie
00:49Clover from the Folkestone Museum to discuss what we can learn about the history of the town through
00:56its fossils. So let's jump back to the Jurassic with Zach Smith. We're here today in Folkestone a town
01:04famous for its seaside cliffs and local art but this week we're going to take a deeper look at its
01:09natural history. I spoke to Coralie Clover at the Folkestone Museum to find out a bit more about
01:14Folkestone's past. The oldest fossils from Folkestone are about 120 million years old. The fossils found
01:21in Folkestone all come from the seabed which is which is why they're all marine animals so the green
01:28sand or Kent ragstone was a sandy seabed and so we find animal burrows and oysters there. Our most important
01:35fossil we have in our collection is our dinosaur footprint. British dinosaurs became extinct long
01:41before the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid 60 million or so million years ago. No one thought
01:49that there were fossils in the layers that we find in the geology in Folkestone and then in 2017
01:57Phil Hadland who's a brilliant local geologist identified the first dinosaur footprints on the
02:04warren. Fossils can tell us a huge amount about Folkestone and how it's changed over time. For example,
02:09one of our dinosaur footprints you can see the suction inside it where a dinosaur stepped down
02:15and the sand stuck to their foot as it was as they were moving and that's really important because
02:21it shows us that they were walking on wet sand which we didn't really know before we found that
02:26footprint. And we can also see climate change in Folkestone in the collection. We have a wonderful
02:32set of fossilised remains from about 40,000 years ago from the bale bone bed which includes a hippo and
02:42a hyena and lots of other animals which now we'd only really expect to find in Africa but who were
02:49wandering around in Folkestone all that time ago. I always think of seeing a dinosaur like a T-Rex wandering
02:57across the sand and that's my image that I get from about 50 million years ago.
03:05Now for this week's periodic profile we take a look at Charles Darwin who is widely known for his
03:11contributions to evolutionary biology. Earlier I spoke to our reporter Obafemi Odomayo to find out a
03:18bit more of what Darwin got up to at his family home and laboratory. Let's take a look.
03:33Thank you so much for joining us today. To start off please could you tell us a bit about our
03:38periodic profile for this week? Sure well our periodic profile for the week is Charles Darwin who was a
03:44natural biologist who was born in 1809 who studied at the Christ College in Cambridge and he gained
03:52notoriety for proposing the theory of natural selection and challenging the beliefs that were
04:00widely accepted at the time. Could you tell me what links Darwin to our local history here in Kent?
04:05Of course when he was in his mid-30s Darwin moved his wife and kids down to Down House in
04:12Down. She was
04:13actually part of Kent until 1965 but then they they redrew the Kent and London boundary
04:20and the village of Down is brimming with natural life and vast ecosystems and he moved down there
04:27because he wanted to be he wanted an increased space and to be closer to the countryside. So how did
04:33he actually use the gardens for his research? Well how he used the gardens well certain parts of the garden
04:39became that where he used as like his outdoor laboratory but he had a greenhouse in the garden which allowed
04:46him to grow a vast number of plants and to conduct and to conduct
04:51hand-on experiments and he also had a large bay window which he installed in the house which gave him
04:58great view of the garden and the countryside.
05:01So I suppose my next question is what are some examples of his work? What were his main contributions to
05:07the theme of the week, natural history?
05:08Well to answer that question his most notable example at Down House is his book that he wrote called The
05:16Origin of Species which was which pretty much presented his voyages that he went on in South America Cape Verde
05:25at the Cape Verde Islands and the Galapagos.
05:28And it basically talks about like natural selection and survival of the fittest which is ways that
05:37animals and different types of species can basically adapt in the wild over time. This revolution is how we view
05:45natural history.
05:52Now it's time for this week's Tea Time Trivia with Nathan Hardy to see if the people of Rochester know
05:59about the teary twist moth.
06:04For this week's trivia we took to Rochester High Street to see how well the public knew their natural history.
06:09Last year Kent was part of a historical rediscovery when the thought to be extinct teary twist moth
06:14it was discovered in England for the first time in 73 years. So we asked this.
06:19Where was the teary twist moth rediscovered?
06:22A. Blean Woods
06:23B. The White Cliffs of Dover
06:25or C. Linden Temple Yule
06:27I'm going to go, on advice, Blean Wood.
06:31Mine go for the Blean Woods.
06:33I'm going to go B. The White Cliffs of Dover.
06:35I'm going to go with C. Linden Temple Yule.
06:37I want to say woods because it's a moth.
06:40The answer? C. Linden Temple Yule.
06:42It was previously known as the Dover Tortrex.
06:45And since 1952, the species have been believed to survive only on the remote Scottish island of Teary.
06:51Temple Yule.
06:52Oh no.
06:54Oh god.
06:55Second go round, retake, retake.
07:00And now, our reporter Manjosh Zahota went to Sean Woods Country Park which is the home to the Sean Pony.
07:07This statue is made from several artefacts found in the park built to honour the historic woodland and the people
07:14who helped shaped it.
07:26The Sean Pony is a statue stood at the entrance of Sean Woods Country Park made out of tools and
07:32other historic artefacts found on site by the Sean Woods Archaeology Group.
07:36We spoke to Timothy Bell and Andrew Mayfield to learn more about it.
07:40We need something that symbolises humans' impact on the landscape with a Kent context.
07:46So we've got the pony, we've got the sort of the wooden panels behind the pony that have depictions of
07:51different times within humans acting in the landscape.
07:55It might be farming, it might be mechanisation, industrialisation, and then even the stones it sat on represent the geology
08:01of Kent.
08:02The geological history is as important as the human history and then it all links together.
08:06And that was the whole idea.
08:07It needs to tell the story of human impacts across Kent but then also relate to the context of the
08:13geology of the landscape.
08:14The pony is made from sort of parts from the clay works.
08:18So the clay works was in operation in the park between the 1930s and 1960s.
08:22So you've got everything from the rails from the narrow gauge railway, which the pony is, on the pony and
08:28around the pony that's been carrying that piece of wood behind the timber.
08:32And then we have bits of sort of axle boxes, there are spanners in there, there are hooks, there are
08:38axes, there are pickaxes, and they're all parts of the sort of equipment that were being used by the clay
08:42workers in the park.
08:44And we're also lucky that in the park we've got more than one sculpture, so we have the Sean pony,
08:48we've got the spider tickling the worm as well, which also reflects the industrial history of the park.
08:52And then up on the knoll we have the hand sculpture, the hand holding the flint, and that's all reflecting
08:58the Mesolithic activity that was in the park.
09:00And these are also unique parts of Sean's history, right from the prehistoric through to the present, that we're trying
09:06to reflect through the sculptures as well.
09:25And finally, for this week's long-standing landmark, as we are focusing on the natural history of Kent, it was
09:31only right to take a look into one of the most largest and iconic the county has to offer.
09:37Earlier, I was joined by our reporter, Corey Miller, to tell us more about not only the formation of the
09:43White Cliffs of Dover, but its surrounding wildlife as well.
09:46Let's take a look.
09:55Thank you so much for joining us today. So, can you please tell me a bit about the Cliffs of
09:59Dover, and how they came about, and also why specifically are they white?
10:03Of course. So, the rocks itself are made out of chalk and limestone, hence why it's got its white colour.
10:09So, the way they came about was millions of years ago, when the sea was overriding everything, we would have
10:17just small deposits of these calcium carbonate, and they would sink to the bottom of the sea floor.
10:22But due to the sheer weight of the waves in the ocean, that would push down and compress the rock
10:28into the sedimentary rock that we have today.
10:31However, as the seas then began to lower, these sort of rock formations would then start to show.
10:37So, you can see the White Cliffs of Dover, but also you can see France from that point.
10:42A long time ago, these boats used to be the same land mass, but due to the mega floods, that
10:47actually is what caused the separation.
10:50How about the wildlife and the ecosystems surrounding these cliffs?
10:53Now, primarily it's popular for two forms of bird, but in regards to the red kite, it's got a very
10:58unique sort of biology.
11:00It doesn't really use its wings to flap, rather it uses its wings to soar.
11:04Also, we have the peregrine falcon, which is the fastest bird in the world, and its home is of course
11:10the White Cliffs of Dover.
11:19Well, it looks like that was one for the history books.
11:23You've been watching Kent Chronicles, live on KMTV.
11:26Don't forget though, there's always history happening around us, and if you have a story you think we should be
11:31covering, then please get in touch.
11:33But from me, have a very good evening, thank you so much, and goodbye.
11:51Thank you so much.
11:53Thank you so much.
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