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Countryfile - Season 38 - Episode 04: Menai Strait
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00:01The foundation stone is right in the middle there, on the bottom row.
00:06That was the stone that started everything.
00:08There's no plaque on it or anything, is there?
00:10I think that's a great idea. I don't think anyone's ever thought of that.
00:13Plaque on the foundation stone, definitely.
00:46That, John, is spectacular.
00:48Isn't it? It's fantastic.
00:50The Menai Suspension Bridge.
00:52And you know, it's been standing here for exactly 200 years.
00:56Well, this week we are on the banks of the Menai Strait.
01:00The powerful, sometimes treacherous, tides here have helped shape this whole area.
01:06And motivated the construction of this amazing bridge.
01:09An engineering masterpiece.
01:15The Menai Suspension Bridge is the physical connection over the Menai Strait
01:20between Bangor, or mainland Wales, and the Isle of Anglesey.
01:26Well, this is a view that not many people get to see.
01:29While John looks at the history of this feat of engineering.
01:34The suspension bit is spectacular.
01:37But the things that hold it up are also pretty amazing, aren't they?
01:41Nobody had ever done anything like this before.
01:45I'll see how the tide below keeps everything alive.
01:49You've made me firstly see these. I've never seen them before in my life.
01:53And you've made me look at them in a whole new way.
01:56They're a whole lot more exciting than I was expecting.
02:00Whether it's farming the land surrounding the strait.
02:02Do you think he likes it?
02:04I think he loves it.
02:06Or sailing its waters.
02:07We've done it hundreds and hundreds of times.
02:10It should be smooth as anything.
02:11It should.
02:11People here have always worked with the Menai Strait.
02:15Not against it.
02:16How easily could it go wrong?
02:18I hate to say things.
02:20OK, slowly down.
02:34The Menai Strait has always been more than just a stretch of water.
02:39It's a powerful tidal divide separating the island of Anglesey from mainland Wales.
02:45But 200 years ago Britain decided a crossing was essential.
02:51And what followed was one of the boldest engineering gambles the world had ever known.
03:00Nobody had ever attempted a project like this.
03:03A project of such scale and ambition.
03:06Until along came that great engineer, Thomas Telford, who took up the challenge.
03:15Telford was almost 70 by the time the Menai Bridge was complete.
03:20He'd already built an extraordinary engineering legacy.
03:24With thousands of miles of aqueducts, canals, locks and roads.
03:30But it was the Menai Bridge, a structure that appeared to float in the sky, that tested him most.
03:37The scale of the project was gargantuan.
03:39Suspending a stretch of roadway almost 180 metres long above the water.
03:45Using 16 huge, enormously heavy iron chains.
03:50When it opened in January 1826, people came from all over Europe just to look at it.
03:57It was the world's first iron suspension bridge built to carry a main road.
04:03Many sceptics said that it wouldn't work.
04:06But it did.
04:07And it still doesn't.
04:14I've always been fascinated by Telford's work.
04:18But to grasp its real impact at the time, I'm stepping back 200 years with historian John Cole.
04:25It's nice and calm today, John, isn't it, the Menai Strait?
04:29But it can be a vicious place, can't it?
04:31People took a chance when they crossed by boat before the bridge.
04:35They did. I mean, it was an incredibly difficult piece of water.
04:38And we've got this kind of quote, allegedly, from Lord Nelson,
04:42that if you could navigate the Menai Strait, you can sail anywhere in the world.
04:45So, yeah, very, very difficult piece.
04:47I mean, not only from the perspective of the currents, but also from the number of rocks.
04:51So you've got eddies and rocks, and you've actually got a double tidal system.
04:56And the tide goes in two different directions.
04:58One from the Carnarvon side, one from the Bangor side, meet in the middle.
05:01And just up the straight here, there's an area called the swellies.
05:04And that is really, really dangerous.
05:05Swellies, I like that.
05:06Because it's more than just a swell, I suppose.
05:09Much more than just a swell.
05:11The treacherous waters caused numerous shipwrecks, including six passenger ferries.
05:16But for farmers, this part of the strait was an essential, if perilous place,
05:22to swim their livestock between island and mainland.
05:26Obviously, there was a lot of demand for a bridge, but it took a long time to build it, didn't
05:31it?
05:32The economy demanded, really, a bridge be built, because this was a pretty rich area.
05:37Cattle being swum across the strait at this particular point where we are now.
05:40Yeah. And so, pressure economically to actually build a bridge.
05:44Anglesey didn't want to be isolated anymore, basically.
05:47Yeah, that's absolutely true.
05:48I mean, basically, what happened was that various landowners
05:51were losing money left, right and centre.
05:53Not only that, but like I say, with the cattle being swum across,
05:5615,000 head of cattle a year.
05:58Wow.
05:59Which, you know, mental calculation is over 40 or 50 per day,
06:03constantly coming across the strait.
06:05And several of them going missing, floating off, disappearing.
06:09And, of course, there's also the link to Ireland from Anglesey, isn't it?
06:13So, this little treacherous crossing was probably stopping a lot of people
06:17from getting to Ireland, or coming from Ireland.
06:19Hugely important.
06:20Hollyhead was the nearest port, in effect, to Dublin, going across the Irish Sea.
06:25And so, strategically, massively, massively important.
06:28And as, kind of, things evolved over the 18th, 19th century,
06:32became much more important to get people from Ireland down to London, in effect.
06:37And, of course, you've not only got incredibly bad roads,
06:40you've also got no way of crossing the strait.
06:51Approaching this bridge, the height is staggering,
06:54but it's shaped less by aesthetics, more by necessity.
07:00Of course, a big consideration, when it came to building the bridge,
07:04was that it had to be tall enough for big ships to sail underneath.
07:09Yeah. This was the Admiralty, basically.
07:11They considered the Menai Strait a strategic piece of water.
07:15It had to be 30 metres, 100 foot clearance,
07:17for double-masted, full-masted sailing ships to actually cross underneath the bridge.
07:21And that's what really caused all the potential problems,
07:24as far as the engineering and building the bridge was concerned.
07:28A suspension bridge of this height and length had never been attempted.
07:33When the first stone was laid, it broke new ground for engineering.
07:39On that island there, you can just see it on the right-hand side,
07:42that island is called Unnes-en-Moch,
07:43and the foundation stone is right in the middle there, on the bottom row.
07:48That was the stone that started everything, yeah.
07:50There's no plaque on it or anything, is there?
07:52I think that's a great idea. I don't think anybody's ever thought of that.
07:56A plaque on the foundation stone, definitely.
08:00After seven years of construction, the Menai Bridge was finally ready for its first crossing,
08:07200 years ago, on the 30th of January, 1826.
08:12What was the weather like on the opening day?
08:16It was atrocious. I mean, we're lucky today, but the wind was howling,
08:20it was a foresight gale, really, really bad weather, about as bad as it could be.
08:24Telford came and inspected it and said, yes, okay, I think the bridge will be suitable to be open.
08:29The ferrymen were actually told not to run the ferry, and at that point the ferry ceased.
08:35A senior site engineer flagged down the Royal Mail carriage, just outside Bangor,
08:41and persuaded the driver of the carriage, the Royal Mail carriage,
08:44to go across the bridge rather than going across the ferry.
08:47So they took the bridge instead?
08:48They took the bridge instead.
08:50And that was the start of everything?
08:52That's how it started, yeah.
08:56Telford's Menai Bridge held firm, transforming travel between Ireland and Great Britain.
09:04We've left the water to get a closer look at plans at the Menai Bridge Museum,
09:09where I'm hoping to find the answer to something that's always baffled me.
09:15So, what have we got here then, John?
09:18This is called the Atlas of Thomas Telford, and we're open here to a double page spread of the Menai
09:24Bridge.
09:25What's always intrigued me is how on earth did they get those huge chains suspended above the water?
09:3116th of April 1825, there's an enormous barge which is brought into place underneath the bridge.
09:38Right.
09:38So they floated underneath the bridge, and there's a section of the chain which is then lifted.
09:43And it's lifted by a capstan on the far side of the bridge.
09:47120 men on each of the capstans, there were two in all, slowly, slowly, slowly, winch it, lift it.
09:53And as the capstan moves around, there's a fife band.
09:56And what the fife band is doing is playing music until, gradually, the chains are taut across the top.
10:01So they were dragged up to the sound of music.
10:04Literally.
10:06So something that had never been done anywhere before must have given them sleepless nights.
10:12Well, it did, and incredibly, all the projects he'd worked with before.
10:15He was renowned for being incredibly calm.
10:17He'd just walk onto site, no problems whatsoever.
10:20When it came to this, the raising of the chains in 1825, he had many, many sleepless nights.
10:25And his biographer even said that he thought he was near to nervous collapse.
10:29But it all worked.
10:30And he was from very humble backgrounds, wasn't he, Telford?
10:35Completely, and almost entirely self-taught.
10:38And the incredible thing about Telford was that he went from being a mason to an architect
10:42to one of the senior, most important engineers that this country's ever known.
10:48Later, I'll be exploring how this 200-year-old icon has continued to adapt throughout the years.
11:01Two centuries on, the bridge stands firm above the strait's unending tidal motion.
11:13Around five miles northeast from the bridge, the tide reveals feeding grounds
11:18that become a vital refuge for migratory birds in the colder months.
11:25Trethlevan is a special protection area,
11:28and each winter it attracts more than 5,000 oyster catchers.
11:34The birds feed in Trethlevan when the tide is out,
11:38and at high tide, many settle to roost at the nearby Bangor Harbour,
11:43making it the perfect time and place for Rachel Taylor and her team
11:47from the British Trust for Ornithology to collect data
11:50that's crucial for monitoring the birds.
11:54Conservation research is normally a peaceful affair,
11:57but today they're using cannon netting.
12:02It's a specialist technique that's really good for catching wading birds.
12:06As the name suggests, small cannons fire projectiles
12:10that are attached to a net,
12:11gently catching the birds while they're on the ground.
12:14It's been used in the world of bird research for several decades.
12:19We're waiting for the birds to arrive on the beach.
12:21In fact, I think some of them are on the beach,
12:23which is why I'm talking so quietly.
12:25We have birds up to about four yards from the net,
12:30so we should get a reasonable catch.
12:33That's really promising.
12:34So that means that the birds are in the right place,
12:36they're on the right beach,
12:38they're at a sensible distance from the net.
12:41With the oyster catchers now safely in place,
12:44the team are ready and all eyes are on the firing box.
12:48Three, two, one, fire.
13:04This may look a little bit worrying,
13:07but it is a highly regulated routine technique
13:10used to track bird health over time.
13:14We have a catch of birds under the net.
13:17The team at the moment are assessing catch size.
13:20They're also checking that all the birds that we've caught are okay.
13:27Right.
13:29So the birds have caught in a certain amount of netting,
13:31which helps to keep them still.
13:33And our job now is to untangle them gently
13:36so that we can carry them up the beach
13:39and have them nice and dry.
13:41And you can see that,
13:42although this bird is a little bit grumpy with me,
13:45it's perfectly fine for its experience.
13:48We don't just try and catch as many birds as possible.
13:51What we're trying to do is to catch a sample
13:54that's representative of the flock that's here through the winter,
13:57because that's what the monitoring is based on.
13:59So we've probably caught a little over 10% of this wintering flock.
14:05So this is one of the big targets of bird ringing,
14:09is to recapture birds like this one that already have a ring on.
14:12So this bird comes with a history that we'll be able to check
14:15when we look at that ring number in our database.
14:19With all the birds now safely in boxes, the team process them.
14:23And with only a few hours until the birds must be released,
14:26there's no time to waste.
14:30Every bird that we've caught is first checked
14:33to see whether it has a metal ring on already.
14:36And if it doesn't, it has a new ring put on.
14:39And if its ring is old and worn and difficult to read,
14:42then we might replace it.
14:44Two, six, four.
14:47Each bird's age, weight, molt, wing length,
14:50and head measurement is meticulously recorded.
14:54The team are doing really well.
14:55We've got a number of people that are training to be ringers.
14:58So I'm supervising the vast majority of the cats are full adults,
15:04but we've had a small number of juveniles and a few sub-adults.
15:09We're just dealing with the last few birds now,
15:12so we're almost at the end of the process.
15:15The birds have been great.
15:17They're going away really nicely.
15:18And the team, I mean, what an amazing team.
15:21I think we're all going to need a well-deserved cup of tea after this.
15:30While Rachel goes through the data,
15:32I want to understand what the birds feed on here
15:35while they make their migratory pit stop.
15:39I'm joining Helen Carter-Emsall
15:41and her team of volunteers
15:43from the North Wales Wildlife Trust
15:45on the mudflats of Treithlevan.
15:49Helen, this mud is absolutely glorious, isn't it?
15:51It's wonderful, isn't it?
15:52What are you actually doing here?
15:53Apart from playing in the mud,
15:55we're actually just conducting a bit of a survey.
15:58to find out what the wader birds are eating
16:00that lives in the sand and the mud here.
16:02They eat a selection of things, bivalves.
16:05There's cockles and mussels
16:06and there's worms and there's sandhoppers.
16:10And, you know, you look down here
16:11and it just looks like a pile of mud.
16:13But it is actually a vital food source
16:15for these birds that come over here in the winter.
16:17Pop the spade in, turn it over and see what we find.
16:21Oh, here we go.
16:22Oh, look at that.
16:23Lovely.
16:24Hey.
16:24Worm?
16:25It is a worm.
16:26So they're a really vital food source
16:28for the birds that are out here wintering.
16:30So things like your oyster catchers.
16:31Yeah.
16:32Dig their beaks in,
16:33pull all those worms out.
16:34What does it tell you then, digging regularly here?
16:37So if we dig regularly in this same spot,
16:40it tells us species abundance.
16:41It gives us an idea of what is feeding here.
16:44And it also lets us know whether it needs to be protected
16:46or whether the protection is working
16:49and whether any special measures need to be taken
16:51and whether we need to limit access to that area
16:55and protect those special birds as well.
16:58Research on these mudflats is regularly carried out
17:02by this dedicated group of volunteers.
17:05Come rain or shine.
17:07Hi, how are you getting on?
17:09How are we good?
17:10It's a bit exciting the conditions today, isn't it?
17:12It is a bit, isn't it?
17:13What are you actually doing with this gritty thing?
17:15So that's a quadrat and the aim is to record everything
17:18that we find within that quadrat.
17:20So it's things like worms and sandhoppers?
17:23Yes, everything that's alive and seaweed
17:24and then anything that's hiding underneath the seaweed.
17:26Have you found much, Jordan?
17:28I've found a few little sandhoppers
17:30and a little periwinkle, I think,
17:32somewhere around maybe this corner of the shore,
17:34I think it was before.
17:36And everything else has popped up,
17:38taking one look at the weather and popped back down again.
17:40Yeah, I think so. It's not the greatest.
17:42What brings you out to do this?
17:44We love it. It's the fresh air. It's the company.
17:48You always find something different.
17:49There's loads of things that I'd never heard of
17:52before I started doing this.
17:53Oh, so always a little voyage of discovery, really.
17:56You're always finding lots of little critters
17:59that you're learning about.
18:00Some animals you'll find in one beach,
18:02some you won't find on another.
18:04And it's pools like this that really get you out
18:06and you're finding so many interesting things, really.
18:12While I've been digging up the reason these birds come here,
18:16Rachel's been working through the catch results.
18:18We caught over 190 birds, and 150 of them were new,
18:24and the rest of them had rings on.
18:26Mostly our rings from previous catches,
18:29either on the same site or in the same estuary.
18:31And probably the headline news is that we had a couple of birds
18:36that were first ringed as adults in the 90s.
18:40So they're actually 30 years old.
18:43I didn't realise they lived so long.
18:45Yeah, the age record for oyster catch is over 40 now.
18:48I brought with me some of the rings that we took off yesterday.
18:51And here we often have to take rings off and replace them.
18:54In the database they're marked as re-rings,
18:57and we have actually re-ringed birds more than once in their lifetime.
19:01These rings will last 12, 15, maybe 20 years, but they eventually wear out.
19:06I had no idea they lived so long.
19:09We didn't know that until we started ringing them.
19:12Were you surprised?
19:13I'm always surprised.
19:16It's amazing, it's like opening of a surprise present.
19:19Every time you catch a bird with a ring on,
19:21you're going to get its history, and all that history unrolls in the data.
19:26And you're pretty lucky to be able to sit and look at places like this.
19:31I think it takes a special person to look out at a muddy, weedy,
19:35scummy-looking estuary in winter
19:38and see how complex and how beautiful it is.
19:43But I think the birds tell us that.
19:51Winter tests everything here.
19:53Anyone who works this land knows how demanding life can be
19:57when the weather closes in.
20:01On the other side of the bridge, on Anglesey, Adam's meeting a farmer
20:05who's keeping a Welsh breed and a family tradition very much alive.
20:13On Anglesey, winters can be brutal.
20:16But the Welsh black breed of cattle have been standing up to this weather for generations.
20:21And they're just as tough and dependable as the farmers who keep them.
20:27I'm here at Treville Issaugh Farm,
20:29where Johan and his wife Helen are dedicated to keeping this breed going.
20:38Oh, here's your lovely Welsh black cattle.
20:40Oh, you've got a baby calf?
20:41Yeah, she's called Co-co.
20:43Co-co?
20:44Yeah, she's a little bit brownish, but I have a little grandson, he calls her chocolate.
20:50Oh, of course. How old?
20:52Three weeks old, yeah.
20:53Hello, Co-co.
20:55They're beautiful cattle, aren't they, these Welsh black?
20:58Oh, yeah, they're lovely cattle.
20:59And what is it you love about them?
21:01They're tied into everything I stand for.
21:04If you want to farm naturally, the native breeds are always the best breeds.
21:09And then you can do everything as naturally as possible then, can't you?
21:13They don't have to have this rocket fuel, you know?
21:17They don't need lots of hard food and grain and...
21:20No, well...
21:20...soyers and all those sorts of things.
21:22They can just live off grass.
21:23No, not really. I think it's the way forward, really, the native breeds.
21:27Joanne and Helen run their herd of Welsh blacks across 160 acres,
21:32farmland that's been in the family since the 1870s.
21:36I think I'm the fifth generation,
21:38and then I took over when I gave up teaching around 2002, 2003.
21:44Yeah.
21:44So you're teacher-turned-farmer, or farmer-teacher-farmer.
21:47Yeah, yeah.
21:49Is farming your true love?
21:51Yeah, yeah, since I could walk, really,
21:53all I ever wanted to do was be a farmer.
21:55And the Welsh black, it's the historical breed.
21:59It's put the shirt on the backs of every family.
22:02Yeah.
22:03When you go back through their ancestry, really,
22:05everything goes hand in hand.
22:07Part of the culture, isn't it?
22:09It is indeed, yeah, yeah.
22:10My mum was Welsh, came from the Rhonda Valleys,
22:13but she never really taught me any Welsh,
22:15apart from she used to call me a dirty mochen.
22:18Which I assumed was a compliment.
22:21No, I don't think you are.
22:22Well, if you like pigs, it is.
22:27Before the suspension bridge, farmers would swim their livestock,
22:31including pigs, moch, and cattle, Guartheg,
22:35some 200 metres across the strait to sell them on the mainland.
22:42In places, the water reaches 20 metres deep,
22:45and partway across, the animals would pause on Unis Amoch,
22:51literally, pig island.
22:55That small, rocky outcrop is now the very spot
22:58where the bridge's foundation stone stands.
23:09Much like they walk, cattle swim with all four legs,
23:12and they've got an impressive set of lungs
23:14that, when they're full of air, will help keep them afloat,
23:17which is really important when they're crossing
23:20such a treacherous and tidal body of water as the Menai Strait.
23:25You'd still need a brave cow to take the plunge.
23:30But Johan, drawing on his experience
23:32of working his herd of 100 Welsh blacks,
23:35has a theory about how farmers might have managed it.
23:39They used to have these old cows, I think,
23:41that were kept to swim, get in first.
23:45You the worst. Yeah.
23:46They'd have to swim back, I suppose.
23:48Because the Menai Strait, there's quite a strong current there, isn't there?
23:52There's a strong current in whirlpools.
23:54You know, Llanfair Pwll Gwingyll, Gogern, Chwyrn Drobwll.
23:58Chwyrn Drobwll is very difficult to say,
24:01but it means the whirlpool.
24:04Drobwll is whirlpool.
24:06Chwyrn means turning very fast.
24:08So it would have been very dangerous, I suppose.
24:11Isn't that true? Yeah, yeah.
24:12Remarkable cattle to be able to just swim across like that.
24:15Well, yeah, yeah.
24:16They're tough and robust.
24:18You can throw them at anything and throw anything at them.
24:21Do you fancy a swim, girls?
24:24The breed was so highly valued that it was once known as black gold.
24:29In the past, Welsh black cattle were truly multi-purpose,
24:34prized for beef, milk and even pulling ploughs,
24:37though there were slight regional differences
24:39between animals bred in North and South Wales.
24:43You had the Pembrokeshire type, which were more milky,
24:47and the Anglesey type, which were more stocky and beefier, you know.
24:51And over the years, they've been crossed and intertwined,
24:55you know, all of them, to produce the animal we've got
24:59in the modern day now, which is, you know, a fantastic cyclocow.
25:04And fit for purpose in an environment like this.
25:06Yeah, of course.
25:06So you've been passionate about this breed ever since you were a little boy.
25:09Yeah, you know, I remember when I was, oh, 13, 14,
25:12my dad getting me a pillowcase full of her old herd books,
25:18you know, and it's not very trendy, so I didn't tell anybody.
25:22But that was the best Christmas present I ever had.
25:26Really?
25:26Only a few thousand Welsh blacks are registered each year,
25:30but what they lack in numbers, they make up for as brilliant mothers
25:34and a steady, dependable milk supply
25:36that sets them apart from many continental beef breeds.
25:40So these are your mature cows?
25:41Yes, yeah. They do a hell of a good job.
25:44The calves, eight months old, 400 kilos, no creep.
25:49A lot of people would be creep feeding, so feeding hard,
25:51concentrated food to the calves, but you don't have to give them anything?
25:54No, no. We don't feed them until they're nearly ten months old, really.
25:57Wow.
25:58Because a lot of farmers would be taking the calves off at six months, wouldn't they?
26:01Yeah. It's due to the social history of Wales.
26:05Because the Welsh black is the traditional cow of the smallholders
26:09and they would turn the milk into butter
26:11and they couldn't afford to feed a cow that wasn't producing anything for six months.
26:16Yes.
26:17That cow would have to produce milk for at least ten months.
26:21The modern day Welsh black has a lot of milk with high butter fat.
26:27Very rich milk that does a good job.
26:30Yeah, great for the calves.
26:31Yeah, long, even lactation.
26:33And that is all important for a good cyclic cow.
26:38Johan and Helen hold on to the females
26:40to keep the genetics they want on the farm.
26:46The best bulls get sold on
26:48and there's one Johan's getting ready for an upcoming show.
26:53Who have we got here?
26:54This is Marchog.
26:55What a great name.
26:56Marchog, yeah, it means night.
26:58Machoch.
26:59Machoch.
27:00Machoch.
27:00A G at the end.
27:02Machoch.
27:02Machoch.
27:04Oh, he's a magnificent animal, Johan, isn't he?
27:07How old is he?
27:08Er, he's 20 months old now.
27:10He's well grown.
27:11What sort of weight?
27:12Well, he's around 820 kilos, I'd guess.
27:15Is he?
27:16Yeah, last time he was on the waistgales.
27:18That's it.
27:19Back in on.
27:20Tell me through the finer points of a Welsh black.
27:23You need good length, good top line,
27:25but the coat is very important.
27:28The old breeders, they like to have a
27:30coat ag wascod, they used to say in Welsh, which means coat and waistcoat.
27:35OK.
27:35So this, the long hair, is the coat.
27:38Yeah.
27:38And that's what protects them from the wind.
27:41But the really important one is the one underneath, the wascod, the waistcoat,
27:47and that's what protects them from the rain.
27:50Oh, really?
27:50Yeah.
27:51Yeah.
27:51So really...
27:52So a bit like a highland?
27:55Er, yes.
27:55Or is that an insult?
27:58No.
27:58I'm upset a Welshman telling him his cattle are like highlands.
28:01No.
28:02No, so the highland is a sort of longer, shaggier coat, isn't it?
28:06This is a bit shorter, I'd say.
28:08Yeah, yeah.
28:08Am I recovering from that blunder?
28:13So can we do anything to smarten him up a bit?
28:15Or is he ready to go?
28:17We can give him a blow dry.
28:18You hold on to that.
28:19OK.
28:20Usually they hurt it when you start at the back here.
28:23OK.
28:24You can see the dust coming out of it, can't you?
28:29Do you think he likes it?
28:31I think he loves it.
28:33Do you like that fella?
28:36He's usually much more grumpy with me.
28:39I must have a magical touch.
28:41You must have.
28:43He likes that.
28:44Look at that.
28:45Oh, you're a good boy.
28:46He's so quiet, isn't he?
28:48He's lovely.
28:48I would quite like to buy some Welsh Blacks.
28:51Or we can soon fix you up.
28:54You offered £10,000 for this one.
28:59Great value for money.
29:00And thanks to the suspension bridge,
29:02I wouldn't even have to swim him off the island.
29:06Spending time with Helen and Johan,
29:08you can see that it's not just about the cattle,
29:10it's about their passion for Welsh heritage.
29:12And the Welsh-backed cattle aren't just any old breeds.
29:16They're a living link to the past.
29:19And thanks to their care,
29:21that link should stay strong for generations to come.
29:43In January 1826, a bridge opened that changed life in North Wales forever.
29:51Many thought the Menai Suspension Bridge wouldn't last.
29:54But two centuries on, and with a few nips and tucks, it's still going strong.
30:01Kerry Evans is a chartered engineer and highways director.
30:05She's general manager of the team responsible for the bridge.
30:09Kerry, from down here, you really get the grandness of Telford's conception.
30:15It's only when you're down here that you realise that sense of scale
30:20and the audaciousness of the whole design.
30:25The suspension bit is spectacular,
30:27but the things that hold it up are also pretty amazing, aren't they?
30:32Nobody had ever done anything like this before.
30:35Everything about this bridge was new.
30:37So the way that the masonry was cut, the way that the arches were built,
30:41the way that the towers were built.
30:43The stone used all comes from a quarry just down the way called Penmon.
30:49They nickname it Anglesey Marble because when it's buffed up,
30:52it looks like marble.
30:53And that means, really, this bridge is built of the land that it currently sits on.
31:00Let's go up onto the bridge, shall we?
31:02Fantastic.
31:07And does it ever wobble?
31:08Yes, it does.
31:10The purpose of a suspension bridge is to accommodate that movement.
31:14And, of course, steel, it moves, it expands and it contracts
31:19depending on the ambient temperature.
31:21Not much, but it's enough.
31:23By the late 1930s, as the shadow of war loomed over Europe,
31:28the flexibility of the bridge was tested in ways that Telford
31:33could never have imagined.
31:35Well, war so often forces innovation, doesn't it?
31:39The Second War in particular, did it have any impact on the bridge?
31:43It's absolutely pivotal to the way the bridge was redesigned in 1938
31:48on the eve of the Second World War.
31:51The bridge was originally designed for horses and carts.
31:54So the idea of large military vehicles coming along this bridge,
31:59it could never have accommodated those.
32:01And was Telford's original design and engineering able to cope with these changes?
32:08The masonry viaduct and the towers are still in place and that's what Telford gave us.
32:16What changed was the steel work around it to accommodate our needs today.
32:23We do think that there was a vision of how would this bridge behave with an entire column of military
32:30vehicles going across it at any one time.
32:32Yeah.
32:33And so you needed that stiffening in the actual bridge to accommodate that.
32:39In 1938, Telford's 16 suspended iron chains that had caused him many sleepless nights became redundant.
32:47And new chains made from steel were installed.
32:52They had a program of works which meant that if they put the new chains, which is what we've got
32:59today,
32:59on the outside edge of the towers, the bridge could be supported.
33:05Then they removed the inner chains, the original Telford inner chains,
33:10which allowed us to make the roadway wider and carry all of the weight of the bridge that we see
33:16today.
33:16I mean, that again must have been a huge engineering challenge to put these huge new chains in.
33:23Extraordinary.
33:26Well, with this bridge, you've got not only a vital archery, but you've got a kind of historic monument as
33:33well.
33:33The legacy Telford gave us is something we must cherish.
33:38Yes, we've built on it. We've adapted it to modern day needs.
33:43But ultimately, Telford provided us with the foundation of connection between the mainland and the island of Anglesey.
33:56Alan Jones of the Welsh Government Transport Department is responsible for keeping the bridge up to date.
34:04I suppose you're in a bit of a quandary really, because you have to make the bridge as modern as
34:09possible to deal with all the needs of today,
34:13and yet you don't want to destroy its history.
34:15No, no, exactly. Maintaining its history is key. It's a grade one listed structure.
34:21Therefore, any modernisation of any piece of the bridge requires careful consideration.
34:27So what's the current state of restoration on the bridge?
34:30Well, we've reached the 20 years, 25 years that the bridge needs repainting.
34:34The coats will be a three coats paint system applied to it, and it will have a zinc primer base
34:41to give it that security it needs from the marine environment.
34:44And will it be Battleship Grey again?
34:46It will be Battleship Grey, yes. It has regular wind and weather here.
34:51It has its own little climate, and it has significant impact from sea salt.
34:55So the steel work has a lot to deal with.
34:58Now, that three coat system will give it its key protection and requirements for the full 25 years.
35:04And it's 200 years old this month. Will it last another 200 years?
35:10Oh, I hope so.
35:16Thomas Telford worked tirelessly throughout his career.
35:20His ambition and his capability left a lasting legacy, for his structures still stand strong to this day.
35:29We still drive along his roads, we still travel along his canals, and we still cross his bridges.
35:36Ever since I first heard about him, Thomas Telford has been one of my heroes.
35:56While Telford's Bridge rightly steals the spotlight here, there is a remarkable hidden world to discover in the waters beneath
36:04it.
36:05Because of the fast running tides here, the rock pools are full of life.
36:10So I'm going right down underneath the bridge in search of something special.
36:18Nudibranchs, also known as sea slugs.
36:21I can't say I know anything about them.
36:24But I'm hoping Dr Charlotte Colvin and her students from Bangor University can fill in the blanks.
36:32So a nudibranch is a sea slug.
36:34So same mollusk like our land slugs.
36:37I would say they're much more glamorous, they're much more snazzy looking.
36:41And we'll have a look at some up close.
36:42And how big are we talking, sort of this big, this big?
36:45Oh no, we're going to have to look very up close.
36:48So some of the ones might only be about a millimetre or so.
36:51They can get a bit bigger, but typically what we're finding are those smaller individuals.
36:56And you've got some students?
36:58Yeah, absolutely.
36:59We've got Yolanda and Adriana out there.
37:00They're out looking for nudibranchs, other really small creatures that are living in those rock pools under the bridge.
37:06Yolanda's a third year student and Adriana's doing her Masters by Research.
37:10Exploring these pools isn't without risk.
37:14The Menai Straits' fast running tides mean conditions can change quickly.
37:18So this work is done carefully, under expert guidance and following strict safety measures.
37:25Yolanda, what have you got?
37:26I've got nudibranchs.
37:28OK.
37:29So we've got quite a few species in here.
37:32So this one is Aeolidiella aldrii.
37:35And what you'll notice between this one and the big brown one is that they have these finger-like appendages
37:42called serata.
37:43Almost like they're doing that.
37:45Yeah.
37:46The serata acts as gills, but they also contain the digestive glands as well.
37:52And what's really cool about this one, there are white tips at the end of the serata.
37:57And these are called nidosacs.
37:58So nidosacs are really, really cool because these nudibranchs, they'll eat other animals with stinging cells,
38:08then steal the stinging cells and then store them in the nidosacs and use it as a defence mechanism.
38:13That's amazing.
38:14So they eat something that has a stinging bit.
38:18Yeah.
38:18And then they take the stinging bit and store it.
38:20Yes.
38:21That's so clever.
38:22Yeah.
38:23I didn't expect them to be highly coloured.
38:26Yeah.
38:27So many of our species are actually quite beautiful and colourful.
38:31One species we have here is called Tenelia cuenensis and their serata are actually iridescent blue.
38:37You've made me firstly see these.
38:39I've never seen them before in my life.
38:41And you've made me look at them in a whole new way.
38:44They're a whole lot more exciting than I was expecting.
38:47I always phone up my granny and she goes,
38:50Yolanda, I can't believe you're finding slugs.
38:53How disgusting.
38:55And I show her all these pictures of beautiful colours.
38:58She goes, oh, I get it now.
38:59They're actually quite lovely.
39:01They are.
39:03What really surprises me is that you've got all these different,
39:07different sea slugs.
39:08And yet you find them all here in the Menai Strait.
39:10Yes.
39:11That's insane.
39:12Oh, it's amazing.
39:13It's such an amazing diversity.
39:15You know, the strait, it brings in so many nutrients, strong currents.
39:18It enables this amazing, amazing diversity.
39:20We'll go up there and we'll find bobtail squids.
39:24We've found curled octopus.
39:26And then we'll go further down there and we'll find completely different species as well.
39:30And it's just amazing how, even in the span of a few, few, you know, 10, 20 metres,
39:37the diversity patterns change, which I think is so cool for this region.
39:43Out on the shore, the nudibranch's vibrant colour is a little tricky to see with the naked eye.
39:49So to really appreciate their intricate details,
39:52we're heading to the School of Ocean Sciences at Bangor University.
39:58Adriana, what have you got under here?
39:59So here I have Fasalina auriculata, which is a really, really common species in the UK.
40:06So these are one of the species nudibranch.
40:09Quite a lot of people will find when they go out looking for them.
40:13Let's have a quick look.
40:15Oh, my gosh.
40:16Yeah.
40:16Wow, it's so brightly coloured when you look up close.
40:18Yeah.
40:19And then it's got, well, it looks like two sets of feelers, for want of a better word.
40:25Yeah.
40:25So the two in front that are lower down, those are going to be just two tentacles.
40:31And then the two that are like pointing upwards.
40:34Yeah.
40:35Those are it's riphonophores, which is they're like, they're really used for chemosensory to smell each other.
40:43And when they smell each other, do they attack or, I mean, will they fight with each other?
40:47It will be mostly for mating.
40:50So it's the best way for them to find each other to reproduce.
40:54I don't think I would honestly see these in a rock pool if I wasn't looking.
40:59But now I'm going to be looking.
41:00It's a lot of practice and a lot of patience.
41:02Patience, yeah.
41:03I think for me it was my third ever time going rock pooling.
41:07Like with the goal of finding nudibranch.
41:09I managed to find on my own.
41:11Yeah, without someone saying it.
41:12Yeah.
41:13So it was a lot of time of people showing me the ropes.
41:16Are you as obsessed as Yolanda?
41:18A little bit less.
41:22I focus on marine worms instead.
41:25So those are my obsessions.
41:27That's your thing.
41:27Yeah.
41:28But I still do think nudibranchs are really cool.
41:30I just find all tiny things kind of really interesting.
41:34Especially when, like, it's things people might not think about
41:37or sometimes might think they're a bit creepy.
41:40Like the worms, for example.
41:42But, yeah, nudibranchs are really charismatic.
41:44Everyone who's seen them, like, falls in love with them essentially.
41:47It's impossible not to.
41:49It's not just about science.
41:51There's another reason this work draws people in.
41:55You never know what you're going to find when you go rock pooling.
41:59But also I think part of it's just how, like, calming it is for you.
42:02Like, for myself, like, it's a serene thing.
42:05You kind of just lose yourself a bit in the moment.
42:08You forget about everything else going on in the world.
42:10Really, it is like a little bit of a nature therapy for yourself.
42:13Like, it's just wonderful.
42:15Rock pooling is very, very social.
42:18So through, like, secondary school and college,
42:21I wasn't so sure I didn't really have friends.
42:23I came here, I went rock pooling,
42:25and I've met, like, everyone important in my life.
42:28I've met my partner through sea slugs and rock pooling.
42:30I've met all my friends through rock pooling.
42:33So it's so nice.
42:35It's, like, something we all have in common
42:37and a way to meet new people.
42:40The more I learn about rock pooling,
42:42the more fascinating it becomes.
42:44And Yolanda and Adriana insist the real magic happens after dark.
42:49So it's back to the bridge we go.
42:52What have you found, guys?
42:53So we have found some violet sea slugs,
42:58also known as Edmund Salpadata.
43:00So they, you can see some here.
43:03Whoa!
43:04That really is violet!
43:05Yeah!
43:06So unlike a...
43:08It looks like a little frond of plant, doesn't it?
43:11Yeah.
43:12A pink frond.
43:13Yeah.
43:13They're so delicate and so pretty.
43:16Yeah.
43:17And when you switch to ultraviolet light,
43:19suddenly some of the straits' underwater inhabitants
43:22reveal their true spectacular colours.
43:26In the bucket we have two homoclabs.
43:29Massive homoclabs.
43:29Massive homoclabs.
43:31And you can see their bodies fluorescing,
43:34as well as some of the barnacles.
43:35So here we've got a cowrie, which is another mollusk.
43:38And usually the shell is white.
43:40But under this light here, the UV,
43:42it's fluorescing an absolute bright red,
43:44which is insane.
43:46So cool.
43:47And next to it, we've got one of the nudibranchs.
43:49So that's a Lidiella aldrii.
43:52And that's a juvenile.
43:53So at the tips of the rhinophores,
43:55they're actually yellow,
43:56but under UV light it shows really, really well.
43:58And then the cerata, you can see at the tips as well,
44:01the nido sacs,
44:03which are these stinging bits of the cerata.
44:07This is a rare treat to witness.
44:10And don't worry,
44:11each species is returned to exactly where it belongs.
44:16How often are you out at night looking for these things?
44:19A lot.
44:19We've got a good group of us
44:20and we go out basically any time we can
44:23if we don't have work or things to do.
44:27If the tide lets us.
44:28Yeah, tide's good and the weather isn't too bad.
44:30Although, I think about two weeks ago,
44:32I was rock-palling in the hail.
44:34Well, the nudibranchs don't mind a bit of hail.
44:37And unsurprisingly,
44:39these marine scientists will be out studying them,
44:41whatever the weather.
44:47It's been wild and wet and wonderful here in Wales.
44:51What has the weather got in store for us this week?
44:53Here's the Countryfile forecast.
45:03Hi again, good evening.
45:05With now a southeasterly wind,
45:06it's places that have seen some of the worst of the weather quite recently,
45:10such as southwest Wales into southwest England too,
45:13that have seen the lion's share of the sunshine today.
45:16So some respite from all of that rain and the strong gusty winds.
45:19But it's coming back for all of us as we head through next week.
45:22Low pressure close by, often wet and windy,
45:25and there'll be some hill snow towards the north as well.
45:28It's been a very wet January so far, not for all of us,
45:31but places like Boyne have seen two and a half times
45:34their average January rainfall.
45:38Exeter East, Morling, one and a half times.
45:39There's still a whole week left of the month to go.
45:42And of course, a lot more rain to come as well,
45:44where you see the brighter colours in the chart for the next five days,
45:47such as northeastern Scotland,
45:48eastern areas of Northern Ireland,
45:50and the far southwest of England.
45:52Then there will be some more high rainfall totals
45:54and possibly some localised flooding as well.
45:57It is mostly dry overnight tonight.
46:00There's an awful lot of cloud around.
46:01It's going to feel colder.
46:02Still some hill snow across parts of Aberdeenshire there.
46:05But it's where we've seen the sunshine today
46:07that will keep the close skies,
46:08maybe perhaps a touch of frost into tomorrow morning.
46:11And locally, it is a much chillier start to the day.
46:14Now, let's zoom out on the pressure chart
46:16as we head through into next week.
46:18So low pressure very much driving the weather
46:20and it's pushing this weather front towards us from the Atlantic
46:23as we head through Monday.
46:25But again, for Monday, most of us, it is going to be dry.
46:28Still some more hill snow across the far north and the east.
46:30There are plenty of clouds.
46:31Some of the cloud could produce a few spots of drizzle
46:33and it is going to feel colder as well
46:35with heavy rain across Northern Ireland
46:37and for these western coasts by the end of the day.
46:40And the winds start to pick up to that brisk southeasterly
46:42across some of these Northern Irish sea coast.
46:45And then, as our weather fronts push further northeastwards
46:48as we head through the night, it could possibly turn to snow
46:51some of this rain across the Pennines and into the Grampians,
46:54the Cairngorms, the snow levels at around 200 to 300 metres.
46:58This is how we'll start off the day on Tuesday.
46:59Notice it's turned a lot milder out towards the far south and west,
47:03but it's more of the same again on Tuesday.
47:05All of this rain spiralling around the area of high pressure,
47:09some more snow for our northern hills,
47:11gales blowing towards these Irish sea coast gusts here
47:13over 60 miles an hour, perhaps in some cases.
47:16But you can see it's still mild, double figures towards the far south
47:20and the west, much colder out towards the north and the east.
47:23Well, between weather systems on Wednesday,
47:25so it's probably looking like the better day of the new week.
47:29Still some more snow across the far north.
47:31That's going to lift its way further northwards,
47:33but there will be some sunshine elsewhere.
47:35And I think for most of us it will stay largely dry throughout the day,
47:38but we've still got that southeasterly wind.
47:40It's still going to feel quite cool,
47:41but we're looking at highs of around 7 to 10 degrees Celsius.
47:45That's about the seasonal average.
47:46And of course some showers packing into the far southwest
47:48by the end of the day.
47:50High pressure out towards the east,
47:52just pushing this colder air our way again on Thursday,
47:55but it remains mild in the far south and west.
47:59We'll still see some more showers around on Thursday,
48:01particularly towards the south.
48:02They're all going to be lifting their way further northwards
48:05as we head throughout the day.
48:07But temperatures towards some eastern coast,
48:09just five, six degrees Celsius once again.
48:12All of these showers clearing northwards then
48:14as we head through Friday with perhaps something heavier
48:16by the end of the day across the far south coast there.
48:20Temperatures once more, five to ten degrees Celsius.
48:23So temperatures more or less at the seasonal average,
48:26staying unsettled with low pressure driving our weather.
48:28More as ever on the BBC Weather app.
48:40In the year that marks the 200th anniversary
48:43of Thomas Telford's majestic suspension bridge,
48:47we've been exploring the wonders in, on and above the Menai Strait.
48:52The suspension bit is spectacular,
48:55but the things that hold it up are also pretty amazing, aren't they?
49:00Nobody had ever done anything like this before.
49:03More than just a structural connection between mainland Wales and Anglesey,
49:09the bridge brought people, nature, farming and heritage together.
49:18But Telford's bridge isn't the only innovative design to be seen on the Menai Strait.
49:24The uniquely treacherous tidal waters here inspired their very own sailing boat design.
49:30The Menai Strait's one design yacht.
49:36Only 17 of these boats were ever built.
49:39And they're being carefully restored, repaired and raced by Menai Strait Heritage Sailing.
49:49For those who race here, the fast-flowing tides make for a thrilling and tactical contest.
49:55A true reflection of life's own ebbs and flows.
49:59Henry Chesterton is founder of this heritage sailing initiative,
50:03and I'm joining him and his team as they lower the mast on one of the precious boats.
50:08So if we could start taking the lower shrouds down, I'll need a spanner for the boom, please.
50:14Henry, this looks incredibly complicated. You're giving instructions to lots of people.
50:18Yes. And it's a bit breezy for dropping mast, but we have to get it down so you can have
50:22a good look inside.
50:24Yeah, great. So tell me about the boats. What's their history?
50:26Well, they were built between 37 and 52.
50:29They were built to sail and race on the Menai Strait.
50:32Yeah, yeah.
50:33So unlike most of the boats that are here, they have a drop keel because there's some sandbanks.
50:38So we can lift the place up and down.
50:40As you go over the sandbanks.
50:42Yeah, sure.
50:42So we can sail at most aspects of the tides.
50:44Yeah, yeah. What are we doing now then, Henry?
50:46The people holding the shrouds will be balancing the mast as it comes down,
50:51and I'm going to hold the forestay because then it's my fault that it comes down so quickly.
50:55How easily could it go wrong?
50:57Erm...
50:58I'd hate to tempt fate. I'd hate to tempt fate.
51:01We've done it hundreds and hundreds of times.
51:03It should be as smooth as anything.
51:04It should.
51:05OK, good luck, everybody. We're counting on you.
51:08Lovely. Right a bit.
51:11Take a bit of weight. Take a bit of weight.
51:13In today's 40-mile-an-hour gusts, this is no easy task.
51:18OK, slowly down. OK, we're going down.
51:25Good job done.
51:26It's a great job, guys.
51:28And they're beautifully made, aren't they?
51:29Aren't they? She was rebuilt two years ago.
51:31The wood was in poor condition. We took the decision to completely rebuild her.
51:36The team have made an amazing job, haven't they? Really, really gorgeous.
51:39So how do you pass on those craftsmanship skills?
51:43Well, we're doing it two ways.
51:45We've got funding for an apprentice.
51:47We also now have the volunteers who are rebuilding a boat in here.
51:51We've just taken it to pieces.
51:52We're now going to start putting it back together.
51:54So sharing those skills and passing on that knowledge is essential, isn't it?
51:58Yeah, it has to be.
51:59Really good.
52:02Inside the boat shed, the volunteers are hard at work restoring the latest member of the fleet.
52:08Hello, gents.
52:10This is from the old boat, Mavanwy.
52:13Mavanwy has been totally dismantled.
52:16So what we're doing now is preparing these boards to either reuse them again when we rebuild Mavanwy
52:21or to use them as templates for new pieces of timber that are going to go onto the boat.
52:25Sure.
52:26And restoring a boat, how long will that take?
52:29We are hoping to do it by the end of the spring.
52:33But depending on the condition of some of the boards, it could take quite a bit longer.
52:37And basically, we're just using the scrapers to run down the board.
52:44So quite painstaking, a lot of work, isn't it?
52:49It's quite difficult to get off, isn't it, this paint?
52:52Yeah, some of it's been an awful long time.
52:57Do you have a little break?
52:59Look at that. Good job.
53:02So what inspired you guys to join as volunteers?
53:04Yeah, this time of the year, weather is less inviting, short days, so it really affected my mood.
53:11And I joined this charity.
53:13I found many like-minded people and it's been really brilliant.
53:17And what's your background?
53:18I love boats, I love the sailing ideas and always wanted to get involved in some sort of workshop ideas.
53:24So getting involved, building, restoring and doing all the detailing and learning a new technique,
53:30something that's not been done for quite a number of years.
53:33Very rewarding, isn't it?
53:34Taking it from this to what I saw out there.
53:36You know, these boats were built in their 40s, 50s.
53:39And you sort of see some of the old techniques when you take it apart.
53:42And obviously we're going to have to replicate that and not many have done that before.
53:46No.
53:46So we're all on a bit of a learning curve really.
53:48So, but it's really exciting.
53:54Henry has channelled his love of sailing into a wellbeing and heritage charity,
53:59which supports local communities.
54:03Henry, why did you set up the club?
54:06So it initially was to see if we could raise funding to repair the bad boats, essentially.
54:14And as it grew, it became wider.
54:16It became more about the people who could become involved.
54:19So we thought to put it to the wider community, to come sailing and to working on the boats.
54:24Now, there's a lot of research for people who live and spend time around water.
54:28There is 20% less mental health issues, particularly with depression and anxiety.
54:33So we targeted some groups, young farmers.
54:36I mean, we know farming is where there's evidence of high mental health problems in farming.
54:42Yeah, absolutely.
54:42It's taken people who've got dementia out.
54:44Do you witness some sort of positive experiences when you're out on the water with people?
54:49I think there are kids that have conversations with each other
54:52that don't have conversations in another environment
54:54because there's so much distraction through social media.
54:57And, of course, if you're racing, there's no phones.
55:01You're in the moment.
55:02You're in the moment and you're concentrating.
55:04What you see is people putting masks up, taking masks down.
55:07Sales up.
55:08They're working as a team.
55:09Yeah.
55:09And there's no egos.
55:11It's really, really gentle.
55:13Well, I haven't been here very long, but just mixing amongst your volunteers and yourself,
55:18it does feel really lovely and relaxed and it's a lovely environment.
55:23The water lapping off on the beach, the wind blowing in your hair.
55:25You know, it sounds a bit corny, but it is a thing, isn't it?
55:28Absolutely.
55:29It just makes you feel good.
55:30Yeah, yeah.
55:36Geraldine is one of the many volunteers who have benefited from the initiative.
55:40So what attracted you to the sailing club then, Geraldine?
55:43I have always wanted to sail.
55:46And then it was put to me that there was an opportunity that the group was running
55:51that was helping with mental health, wellbeing, that sort of thing.
55:55And it just seemed like a good idea.
55:57And when you first went out on the water, what was that experience like?
56:00I never, ever stopped swimming the whole time I was out there.
56:03Really?
56:04I just loved it.
56:05You mentioned the club's support around mental health and wellbeing.
56:08Is that something you were looking for?
56:11Yes, I have health issues.
56:13I have fibromyalgia and, again, stress aggravates it hugely.
56:19With that feeling of calm of being out on the water, it does really help.
56:23This was part of the reason I actually wondered whether physically
56:25I'd be able to do it.
56:27I think I surprised myself as much as everybody.
56:30It has been a wonderful release to come out on the water.
56:32It's wonderful, isn't it, that these old boats are really helping people
56:35in situations like that.
56:36It is.
56:38In the last four years, Henry's taken more than 100 people sailing on the Menai Strait
56:44and has the help of more than 50 volunteers.
56:48It inevitably starts with people you know, doesn't it?
56:50You get two or three people coming in, and then more people come in.
56:54And we've had maybe ten people here today, different backgrounds, different cultures,
56:58different conversations.
56:59And it feels to me that we've created a really safe space to chat.
57:03Yeah.
57:04And where do you see the future?
57:05Because sailing can be considered as a bit elitist.
57:08Oh, yes.
57:09It's not a big sport.
57:10We're really trying to get away from this.
57:12The boats were built very much for Popple Aquarian, the common folk.
57:17Anybody who wants to come sailing on Anglesey and further afield can come sailing.
57:21Well, it's been fascinating to meet the team and see the beautiful boats.
57:24Congratulations.
57:25I'll have to come back in the summer and come sailing.
57:27You will.
57:27Please do.
57:28All the best.
57:28Cheers now.
57:43You know, Charlotte, I never get tired of looking at this view.
57:46And honestly, John, what you can find in the rock pools at the bottom, that's just as fascinating.
57:51Who knew that sea slugs were so beautiful?
57:54Well, next week I'll be joining Margarita on the magnificent Blenheim Palace estate.
58:02What about this one?
58:03This is huge, isn't it?
58:05This is known as the king oak.
58:06It's around about 950 years.
58:08From little acorns, these sort of things grow, don't they?
58:13Hit it hard, yeah.
58:15Bit harder.
58:16Bit, bit harder, right.
58:18Oh!
58:19There you go.
58:20Can we pick a few?
58:22Yes, of course.
58:22You can just sort of pluck them off.
58:24Like that?
58:25That's it.
58:25Yeah, perfect.
58:26That's a thing of beauty, actually.
58:29That's next week on BBC One.
58:31So, see you then.
58:33Bye-bye.
58:39Can the power of nature rebuild broken bonds?
58:42Bear Grylls' Wild Reckoning, new on iPlayer.
58:46A classical concert from Glasgow, over on BBC Four now, celebrating the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at 90.
58:53What here next?
58:54The Antiques Roadshow's heading for Colchester.
58:56The Antiques Roadshow's heading for Colchester.
59:03The Antiques Roadshow's heading for Colchester.
59:04Why, everyone?
59:05The Antiques Roadshow's heading for Colchester.
59:05How did you get used to be cloudy with the Holly?
59:06You're all too many times I'm looking for, like now.
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