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00:04the lake district england's largest national park absolute perfection i don't actually think
00:11it gets better than this every year over 18 million people flock to its spectacular landscape
00:20but if any of them lose something precious here finding it can be tough i was absolutely distraught
00:28gave me a heart attack it was a devastating day wasn't it it gone i thought no i hope there's
00:35a
00:35chance so i brought together local detectorists and underwater explorers it's like avengers assemble
00:42isn't it to scour lake and fell for treasured lost possessions no way sometimes our searches
00:51bring up surprises it looks like it's been in a while other times i've got a hair curler
00:58what we pull up is just rubbish that's not the same bike ready to be transformed into new treasures
01:06oh that's beautiful by some of the finest crafters from the region run away
01:12the best of all this is our guy does it get better than this is when we can reunite our
01:18finds
01:21with the people who thought they were lost forever
01:26this is really special good now get back to the lake and find more stuff
01:38on today's episode we search for precious pictures and memories lost to the lake it was
01:47a literal sinking feeling because i knew it had gone crafter lucy creates something fantastic from our
01:53forgotten finds a little bit of red on my brush for the cherries and a world war one medal found
02:01in a field one of these soldiers have survived his kill and they did throw it and he survived the
02:05war
02:06can we fight the soldier's family i've got my work cut out now
02:16first we're heading to grass near at just one mile in length it's one of the lake district's smallest
02:22bodies of water it's a magical place that wordsworth said could not be improved upon
02:30and it was another writer polly who came here with a waterproof camera to take pictures of the scenery
02:36and the water itself the lakes mean everything to me i absolutely love it here it's just so beautiful
02:43i like to swim so being able to live in grasmere where i can swim in the lake
02:47is just like heaven to me in 2018 i just started freelancing as a writer and i got a little
02:54grant
02:55from the society of authors to help me write a book and part of that book was swimming
03:02but whilst out on the water disaster struck it was a cold gray day and i was going for a
03:10swim
03:11in the lake with my friends we got to the lake we set off into the water swam a couple
03:18of strokes
03:18beautiful calm strokes and i felt my camera just fall away from me glug glug glug
03:27with that awful sinking feeling that you feel when anything terrible happens but it was a literal
03:33sinking feeling because i knew it had gone i felt the weight go and it was vanished and it wasn't
03:39just
03:39the camera itself that polly was so upset about the things on the camera were the things that i was
03:46really sad to lose more than the camera itself photos of a trip to crestwell crags in nottinghamshire
03:53which was for research for my book and i went to spend halloween with my twin nephews who were five
04:01at the time and it was their last halloween that they had in nottingham before they moved away and
04:07they were so cute so i took all of these amazing photos of them trick-or-treating and i just
04:12lost all
04:12of those photos we are so keen to try and find polly's camera and return those precious photographs and
04:20memories to get going on the search i've brought our free divers angus james and renee down to grasmere
04:29i mean it's a very wet day but you don't care because this is what you do well already today's
04:34mission we are looking for polly's camera remember these remember an actual camera rather than your
04:39phone these are coming back into style a lot of young kids having these days okay well then that's
04:43more motivation to get it back out there she wants it back now polly did lose the camera in 2018
04:49that
04:50could be problematic i'm thinking of the silt and the sinking hopefully it's not been too busy it
04:55shouldn't have got pushed down too much because it shouldn't be well trafficked or as well trafficked
04:59as other areas this is why the metal detectors are so important but findable with detectors we hope yeah
05:04we are going to get our camera back i want to get our camera back right go on then you
05:09look ready for
05:10action
05:13what i love about these guys is that they they're just having a lovely time
05:25polly has health problems that made the images and her time in the water even more important to her
05:32swimming is so important to me so i'm chronically ill and i have a lot of joint pain but for
05:37me that
05:37release from gravity is really important so just being able to float and to kind of disappear into
05:43the landscape but also that sense of being part of something that's bigger than you
05:52for me swimming outdoors is is to do with that it's that feeling of being
05:56a tiny thing and a big thing sadly it's already clear that this is not going to be an easy
06:03search
06:05how is it looking we're having to dig quite deep to find the items when they're coming up on the
06:10metal detectors we're having to do multiple dives because it's so deep it's also then branches and
06:16at least there's tons of branches and leaves here she comes with a bag of treasure i mean i feel
06:27like if we'd found polly's camera you would have told me i would have probably been making more
06:31excited noises instead i have a medley of bits what look at that i mean that's nice
06:43what have you found just a bracelet oh what is it precious
06:48nothing of any importance i don't think but it'll be important to someone
06:55then when the team's metal detectors go off
06:58there's a moment of real excitement they found a signal in the exact spot
07:03that polly lost the camera
07:07there's a big metal pole
07:10things are not going well for angus renee and james
07:15the problem is they're struggling to stay down long enough to clear and then search through all
07:21the debris on the lake bed i think i might have to call for reinforcements
07:28while we wait for them to arrive across the fells sam is responding to a message we've received from
07:34a detectivist called jake he's got in touch saying he's found something fascinating
07:40it's a 1914 1915 uh star medal and it was awarded to world world one veterans and this one was
07:48awarded to
07:50pte herbert collinson 2084 of the lancashire royal regiment does it say it on it or have you done some
07:58research yourself it's on the back here but you can't really see it as such you have to get it
08:02in
08:02certain light to see it and on the front it's a star with the cross swords it says 1914 to
08:101915
08:11and with the crown on there i assume he is the british soldier and yeah yeah okay but so where
08:17did you
08:17find this so i found it in uh goldgate which is just outside lancaster in the middle of a field
08:23next
08:23to a canal from what i gather he wasn't a farmer a lot of these soldiers had survived his guilt
08:27and
08:28they did throw it and he survived the war and how deep was it below the surface it was pretty
08:33much
08:33like an inch or two below it was one of my earlier finds because i love anything to do with
08:38world war one
08:38and world war ii i'm fascinated by it so when i found out i could find out his name and
08:43his record and
08:44he was from lancaster it's just it's fantastic fine you know for the city as well and i hope
08:50it can get returned to a direct family member that's that's what i really want the most thank
08:55you so much if you could send me over photographs of that get into the archives see if we can
09:01find a
09:01bit more about him and his family and help you reunite that with his family great thank you so much
09:07jake and i'm really excited to find out more about it thanks very much jake's really laid the groundwork
09:13there he's given me loads of details so we do still have some work to do i cannot wait to
09:19help
09:20jake get this back to who it belongs to back at the search at grasmere and there's still no sign
09:26of polly's lost camera it's a pokey bit of metal holly's gonna love that i know right
09:35the amount of debris on the lake bed is making searching almost impossible and reducing visibility in
09:43the water but thankfully our reinforcements in the shape of scuba divers mike and darren have arrived
09:51right here comes the cavalry hello gentlemen the free divers are in but i feel like you guys
09:59come on this is your fine i feel like this is right off to your playground bring me back a
10:04camera
10:05you have to reverse i really hope that the scuba team make the difference and we find the camera
10:14for polly so most of the time when i go swimming i take a camera with me and part of
10:21the reason i do
10:22that is that i have memory problems with my chronic illness and sometimes i can't go out so being able
10:29to
10:30look at those photos gives me that memory of the fact that it's possible really as much as anything
10:35else very often i'm taking pictures not of me in the water but of the the light and the movement
10:47and the way the water looks and that's what i like to look back on
10:56mike and darren get to work but they soon start struggling with the exact same problem
11:03darren um how is it down there it is like a forest down there there's a lot of debris still
11:08down there
11:08but the business is pretty good unfortunately there's a lot of a lot of leaf coverage that's
11:12come down so we've we've had a right good look over the top of those can't see it
11:17it is so frustrating but no one wants to give up so darren comes up with a new plan
11:24he's going to clear the area where we think polly's camera is most likely to be
11:31so what i've done is got the sticks in you know like a couple of meter square
11:36area and moved them all to one side so down there at the moment the visibility is zero okay
11:41silt he's moved all the sticks and twigs which has stirred everything up and made visibility bad
11:47we know that polly went out and lost the camera in this area you've cleared it and seen a lot
11:53of
11:53things on the bottom yeah at last some encouraging news there are lots of things visible in the area
12:01that darren has cleared this could be the breakthrough that we've been waiting for once the silt has
12:07settled all the divers will head back in meanwhile 19 miles away and back at the boathouse sam has
12:17been researching the mysterious medal this represents incredible service to the country and incredible
12:25service during the first great war it means so much that these people served and it always means so
12:34much to the family i do feel that this should get back to its rightful owner to the family of
12:41h collinson
12:42who served in this war and that is ultimately our goal
12:48sam has been going through the archives to try and trace our herbert collinson
12:56we can really narrow it down to the royal lancashire regiment and i'd love to speak to
13:00them and see if they have any records of who actually was issued this but after calls to the
13:06regiment hq and the imperial war museum sam was still drawing a blank thank you bye the only other
13:13advice these military institutions could offer was to contact museums um we have the royal anglia regiment
13:30of the museum as well yeah yeah try those as well and they might buy a bit more information okay
13:35but
13:35yeah all right brilliant thank you so much so sam dropped phil at the local fusiliers museum a line
13:44and today across the fells and back at sam's research hub she's heard back
13:49phil has come to our rescue and he's written to me i'm afraid herbert collins's army service record
13:56were destroyed in the 1940 london blitz this was the only copy so that makes much more sense of why
14:03we're having trouble locating him but phil accessed some medical records that had survived and have
14:09really moved this search on based on a surviving army medical document which gives his age as 32 in 1915
14:18so this is really great this is a great lead which will really help us narrow down which herbert
14:23collinson this is that herbert collinson was also wounded by a gunshot to one of his knees
14:29okay so that's quite a specific injury which again might be a really good thing when we track down a
14:35relative is this the right herbert collinson it's incredibly exciting to find this and there's another
14:41important nugget of information that helps tell herbert's story the star medal was not the only medal
14:49that herbert collinson received we can see on this document that he's actually been awarded the
14:56victory medal possibly another british war medal that might throw out jake's idea that this is
15:03survivor's guilt because why would he why would he throw one medal in the field and not the other
15:08sam can now try calling all the collinsons she can find in the area of lancaster we know herbert lived
15:14i've got my work cut out now i just hope all that extra information about his service and injury
15:21sounds familiar does that ring any bells no it doesn't i've not heard of a herbert collinson okay
15:31that's two collinsons down the herbert doesn't ring a bell i can't really give you any further details
15:39thank you bye we've tried a number of leads and i've spoken to a lot of collinsons now
15:46hopefully the word will spread in the collinson community and in the future we will find the
15:51rightful owner for right now i think we're at a dead end it is such a shame sam was so
15:58close
15:59but we just haven't been able to crack it but we won't give up and with all this brilliant information
16:05i am sure will get a breakthrough soon the right collinson family could even be watching this
16:11right now back at grassmere the scuba team has been focusing on the area polly told us she lost her
16:19camera i feel mike like everybody looks a little bit deflated once you get a metal detector then you have
16:27to dig down and find all this stuff but uh we haven't found any camera there they've cleared our search
16:33area of lots of rubbish and debris and now it's time to send the free divers in for one last
16:39effort
16:39to find the camera and pictures that means so much to polly look at you three like little coiled springs
16:49there you go i want to say that the path has been cleared for an easy find i think that
16:58might be wildly
16:58naive of me but that's what i'm channeling do you know what i've enjoyed about this sometimes we have
17:03a running joke that it's scuba divers versus free divers whereas today it has been a complete dovetail
17:10approach they have been sitting out waiting for mike and darren to do their thing but they stand the
17:15best possible chance it really is teamwork and soon that teamwork starts to pay dividends with all
17:22manner of items coming up from the cleared lake bed but despite all of the team's work and so many
17:30items
17:31being found there is still no camera all of the sticks and leaves at the bottom of the lake were
17:37just
17:37sat on top of deep silty mud which the team fear the camera could have sunk into making it impossible
17:45to
17:46retrieve the only concern is the bottom is very very unstable and you put your hands in and it just
17:53collapses back down on you so i'm convinced it'll be buried but it's been quite a few years now we've
17:59had some storms it's definitely going to be under the silt yeah i went about that deep and i still
18:06wasn't
18:06at the bottom i wasn't on solid ground time on this search is running out as the temperature falls
18:14renee is going to give it one more shot i've got a torch yep i'm going to go out a
18:20little bit deeper
18:21if there's anything that glints okay with with the flashlight and i think that's the plan
18:29despite both our scuba and free diver teams diving for hours we're going to have to call off the search
18:37there's only a finite amount of time that these guys can keep bobbing up and down
18:42before it gets silly
18:47we couldn't find the camera go and get warm and thank you very much
18:51raise like the shakes of the shivers that are actually now taking over me thanks guys
18:58i feel like everybody came here really optimistic relatively small area big item
19:06it just wasn't to be it is what it is there's a lot going on underneath the surface there's been
19:10a lot
19:10movement under there and who knows where that camera is on this occasion it didn't happen
19:14but hopefully we can put a smile back on polly's face we were so disappointed not to find polly's
19:22camera but i do know someone who can make something special to help i want the thing we make to
19:29reflect
19:30polly a super smart woman who is full of heart and lucy has come up with what could be the
19:37perfect idea
19:38so my original idea was to make an octopuses tea party i love making octopuses they're so intelligent
19:45they have multiple hearts they have multiple hearts they are adaptive and it doesn't stop
19:51at the octopus using broken crockery we found on various searches lucy is going to make this
19:57a wonderfully whimsical undersea tea party first comes the cake stand there we have it
20:05and with the stand complete now we of course need some cakes to go on it and for the cake
20:13making lucy calls
20:14on a little assistant i've got a very special helper who's on her way now my granddaughter blossom
20:22oh my goodness oh my goodness come on in little pop it blossom has a taste of the reference materials
20:32i'll taste the a one that's a pink one is that nice yeah good don't tell mummy will you i'm
20:40just
20:40checking the flavor okay then it's time to get making sleeves up i'm going to give you a lump of
20:47clay
20:47and i need you to roll it flat with the rolling pin give it a good roll and then i
20:52take my old bits of
20:54lovely bits of tray cloth and lace the green one yeah okay nice and flat squash it down
21:01now take your rolling pin and roll it really hard really hard so can you pull the lace off
21:13it's lovely it is it's a lovely pattern so do we need something round to cut the macaroons
21:19i'm going to give it a little twist and we'll lift it up that's it do another one please
21:27that's it good girl i'm gonna pop it inside there a french fancy it is it's a french fancy do
21:34you want
21:34to put the raspberry on top of the french fancy lovely darling we've made this french fancy darling
21:42they look a little bit like ones i've made earlier these have been fired in the oven already chocolate
21:49so let's declare strawberry tart five six french fancies to go on our lovely cake plate darling that looks
21:57lovely look at that so there we go glossy a beautiful little cake plate covered in handmade french fancies
22:07for our octopus tea party and i have a cuddle well done next stage is glazing bit of glaze on
22:21top of my
22:22cherries there we go that'll give that a nice glaze and you won't see the red until after the firing
22:29so with the octopus tea party cakes and even the cherries to go on top glazing in the oven over
22:37at the
22:37boat house it's now time to meet polly and tell her the sad news about the search for her photographs
22:45i really hope the tea party lucy has created will help hello good to meet you lovely to meet you
22:52take me
22:53back to the day that you lost your item because it was the opposite weather today it was it was
22:57the
22:57darkest dankest most miserable december day that you could imagine just like wall to wall gray to be
23:04in the water in that time of year that's brave i was swimming and it was the first year that
23:11i'd done
23:11swimming all the way through the winter but i had my full wet suit on and i was with three
23:15friends
23:16and i just felt the camera fall away as i got into the water tell me about swimming what is
23:22it that you
23:23enjoy about it that feeling of being kind of protected and floating because i have a connective tissue
23:27disorder and i fall over a lot and i break bones a lot can't fall over in the water and
23:33i think it
23:34is really important that there is that kind of sense of being held and for me it's a great release
23:39to be
23:40floating in it tell me about that then because that sounds like it must be quite a challenge
23:44yeah it is so i'm always in pain it's not easy but it's also just a fact of life so
23:50you kind of have
23:50to deal with it i have my crying days as well as my laughing days and i have to be
23:54quite careful not
23:55to injure myself in other ways as well but swimming is really good because it kind of takes the pressure
24:01of gravity off all of my joints and are you still going to are you yeah yeah yeah all year
24:07round and
24:07i'm slightly slightly better with the cold now as well the search we sent divers and free divers
24:16to grassmere you had a brilliant description of where you were searching they don't give up easily
24:21our divers they were so invested in your story it was a very very difficult search and i'm so sorry
24:28to
24:28say that we were not able to find your camera it's all right i think the lake the lake ate
24:33it basically
24:34didn't it it doesn't surprise me i had hope because you have to have hope yeah yeah but very
24:41unmuch understand how they didn't find it as well and i think the guys wanted to give you a bit
24:46of
24:46closure but that term the lake ate it is is exactly right and when you think about the time it
24:52was in
24:53there it just wasn't possible i'm so sorry in some ways it makes me feel better though because i did
24:57try
24:57to find it myself and i i failed completely so the fact that they couldn't find it actually it does
25:03give
25:03me closure because it makes me think look it's just gone it's okay i remember those moments that's
25:09enough well that is very gracious of you we wanted to create something for you because you are such an
25:15inspirational lady we asked one of our inspirational ladies lucy to create a piece of art for you
25:21so we hope you like it this has been made out of things that have been fished out of the
25:28water
25:31it's quite unique because we think you are
25:36that is amazing wow that is phenomenal we know that you are managing this pain every day so we wanted
25:48you to have a little treat so this is an octopus's tea party of course it is
25:54i often think of myself as like kind of squid-like or octopus-like in many ways so i feel
26:00like this
26:00is me why i sometimes think my brain is like a kind of octopus brain that it's going in lots
26:05of
26:05different directions but also the way that they can kind of change in their environment and camouflage
26:12themselves i feel a lot of kinship with octopuses that makes me very happy and he's also my colors
26:19as well you know he is like it is me a little cherry cake and the strawberry tart is actually
26:25one of my
26:26favorites as well little fondant fancy there this is probably 10 000 times more beautiful than my pictures
26:32would have been to be honest so i don't know do you know what all we wanted to do is
26:37put a smile
26:37on your face and thank you for sharing your story and that is yours to to take and enjoy and
26:42hopefully
26:42when you look at this you will a be kind to yourself and b think of your octopus-like tendencies
26:49that sounds
26:50like an insult i'm so relieved that you like it thank you so much look after yourself you're an incredible
26:58lady do you know what i feel like you're the woman i want to be so can i pick your
27:01brain on this
27:02fantastic outlook on life you have i thought i'd be really disappointed but actually it's almost like
27:08a sense of relief in some ways that i just i just know that it's gone there's nothing i could
27:12do about
27:13it and i just have to kind of put it away now i cannot believe the gift from the lake
27:19i was not
27:19expecting anything like that and this absolutely beautiful octopus which is exactly my favorite colors
27:25and i love octopuses as well they mean so much to me in a strange kind of way so beautiful
27:31it's put a
27:32massive smile on my face i couldn't have imagined anything like that coming out of this day so it's
27:36really special next time i don't actually think it gets better than this two treasured possessions
27:46at the bottom of windermere one lost recently i felt it drop off my finger i watched it disappear
27:52and one for nearly 40 years if we finally get that thing out it would mean the world can we
27:59find them
27:59again all right in they go one two three oh and this nearly went in as well then
28:09so
28:11so
28:25you
28:26You
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