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00:08we are a nation of islands come on you two over 4 000 are scattered along our coastlines
00:18with hundreds more in our lakes lochs and rivers being surrounded by water it has a very calming
00:25effect on the mind many of these islands are tiny many are remote i love so much about iron life
00:35but over 200 are called home
00:43i don't own it because you don't own an island if anything it owns me
00:49with rugged cliffs and sandy shores wildlife and family and lives very different to most of our own
00:59going over the edge here is a bit cheeky shall we
01:05these are the stories of our tiny islands the fact that you just walk out your door and you're
01:12straight in to see that sense of freedom is amazing
01:26this time the skies and historic chapels of orkney the calf of man's rugged terrain
01:35lochern's newest residence and a wonder back in time
01:4480 miles from the south coast of england the channel islands are actually closer to the french coast of
01:50normandy there are seven inhabited islands in the archipelago and one of the smallest is sark
01:58it's just three and a half miles long and one and a half miles wide with a year-round population
02:04of around 560
02:08morning guys wakey wakey
02:15sark is it's a tiny little island in the middle of a beautiful blue sea
02:20city it's about nine miles from guernsey it doesn't have any cars it's got lots of cliffs
02:29and cliff paths fields and flowers and butterflies
02:35it's beautiful place to live great community and lovely life
02:42helen has lived and worked on sark for the last 20 years having spent much of her childhood here with
02:51family
02:51i was two when my grandparents moved here so pretty much every single holiday we would come to sark and
02:57then i worked school holidays and university summers here because i am obsessed with horses
03:02and as soon as i was 16 i wanted to work on the carriages so as soon as i was
03:0616 i did that
03:09helen eventually took over the family business which she now runs alongside her bed and breakfast
03:18as there are no cars allowed on sark the island has a horse and cart taxi service
03:23and helen is one of four operators still maintaining this time on a transport tradition
03:30today she's prepping the wagonette
03:33it's at least over a hundred years old
03:36yeah so we don't just do this to clean it because it's very old
03:41an antique we do it to check so we're checking the joints and we're checking the paintwork and
03:46we're just checking that everything's okay if you're careful you can look after them they're going
03:50forever they're sort of symptomatic of our way of life really nothing's fast it's all sort of
03:57connected to nature and it's a lovely lovely way to be
04:04in high season over two and a half thousand people travel to sark each week
04:11eager to witness the majestic sweep of its coastline and take in its rich history
04:20this brings vital income for helen and her fellow taxi drivers and a busy day for horses like philly
04:28good girl good girl i started driving on my 16th birthday because that's how old you have to be
04:35to be a provisional driver here on sark you have to learn at least 10 days
04:40with an experienced driver before you take your test
04:48i love clip-clopping slowly down the lane talking to people with my horse in the sunshine just having
04:57a nice life it's honestly it's the best job in the whole world i can't believe people pay me for
05:03it
05:04i absolutely love it as there are no vets on the island helen doesn't breed her own
05:10horses philly is from a stud in france she's a normandy cob a breed that can pull twice their weight
05:18and comfortably travel 40 kilometers in a day her proper name is philante dupuis and she's learning
05:26english and she's learning about sark and she's absolutely lovely
05:33i think you do naturally slow down if you have to walk or horse or cycle somewhere um yeah you
05:40sort
05:40of you're on sark time it's uh yeah it's just it's part of the whole way of life
05:48visitor boats arrive at the island five times a day in high season mostly coming from guernsey
05:53which is seven miles away waiting for them as there always has been is a four-legged taxi rank
06:00offering guided tours of the island when you meet nice people and you're basically sitting in the
06:05sunshine talking about sark so yeah it's really nice yeah
06:14what's that tower that we've just passed this is the mill built in 1571 by the first permanent
06:20inhabitants it's built on a prehistoric mound as well as is it okay
06:29i didn't expect to get a whole carriage to myself
06:34it's lovely it's a lovely way to see it
06:45sark is part of a group of islands known geographically as an archipelago
06:50each island is unique but also intrinsically linked to its neighbors
06:56650 miles north of the channel islands is orkney another archipelago that sits about 10 miles from
07:03the north coast of scotland it's made up of approximately 70 islands although only 20 are inhabited
07:10the island known as mainland is the biggest and linked to it by a causeway is one of the smallest
07:15lamb home at just over half a mile long and half a mile wide
07:22no one lives on the island but it has plenty of visitors
07:26today tommy is traveling by causeway from mainland the neighboring island
07:30his passion though is to get a bird's eye view
07:39it's just a little flat green place
07:44it's a beautiful little place and i love seeing it from above right enough and
07:49the runners i've created make it look like a large hot cross bun
08:00i have a a labor of love going on here because i've cultivated a little airfield that allows
08:06lots of people in heart me to fly little airplanes
08:12tommy caught the flying bug when he was 28. a farmer on an island with two livestock farms he would
08:19fly around scotland sourcing livestock but slowly he realized it was the flying rather than the farming
08:26that he loved i decided about the age of 50 that i'd had enough and i was going to have
08:32some fun
08:34so this airfield's part of the fun
08:43i was just taking the bugs off the propeller and the cowl here every time you fly off the grass
08:51you get bits of grass and and the bugs out of it get sucked up and squashed against the the
08:58air forever
08:59it's nice to keep it clean it's great to be a pilot anywhere but it has a special good purpose
09:07in
09:07islands because you can go anywhere you want basically i used to have a cessna aircraft when i
09:15was farming so it put me within a day trip of anywhere in scotland but when i decided to give
09:22up the
09:22farming i had to find a cheaper way to fly which resulted in beginning to build home build airplanes
09:30which are much much cheaper i've always loved working with machines and making and mending them
09:36you order up a kit and and it comes in a great big pallet and you begin and it takes
09:43about a year to
09:44put it all together to put it all together tommy has built three planes himself and still flies two
09:52regularly today like many other days he's taking out his absolute favorite a jabiru j430
10:02engine oil is okay every time you fly an airplane you'll check it thoroughly before you
10:07go flying in there four five six good compressions
10:30i love to be airborne in any sort of airplane from a large passenger jet to the
10:37tiniest little airplane i just love being in the air very seldom weak passes that i don't fly
10:44it's a sense of freedom you require discipline because human body is not designed to be free in three
10:54dimensions the cost was were built in 1939 as a result of the u-boat commanded by commander
11:05preen getting in to scapa flow and he sunk the royal oak about the ship and that triggered the building
11:12of these courseways islands are all special places each one unique and and this one's very unique
11:26i always liked island it's just a big part of my life
11:39back on solid ground in sark the tourist boats have gone
11:45which means philly and her young apprentice reggie get to indulge in an extraordinary bathing ritual
11:51underneath sark's rugged cliffs the minute they start to go down the harbour hill they're like we
11:57know where we're going they've been sort of shuffling along very slowly all day so it probably is
12:05actually very good for them to get in the water and feel that freedom and sort of move their bodies
12:09in
12:09in a different way it's probably a little bit like water horse yoga or something
12:16oh he loves water he's like a child in a pair of wellies allowed to jump in big puddles he's
12:20like
12:21poof yeah he loves to splash me
12:28horses have always been used for all sorts of things here
12:31less and less horses now but they're still still really important to the the few of us that are left
12:37that still have horses is still still our way of life
12:48many of our tiny islands that used to be inhabited have become nature reserves
12:53so that the wildlife that has always called these islands home can live and flourish undisturbed
13:03this is true of the calf of man that sits just half a mile off the isle of man's southern
13:08coast in the irish sea
13:11it's around one and a half miles by one mile with a seasonal population of just four wardens
13:22the word calf derives from the old norse word kalf which means a small island lying near a larger one
13:31this small island neighbour is owned by manx national heritage and is run as a nature reserve and a bird
13:37observatory
13:40originally from dorset kate is the estate warden employed to protect the island's beauty and its wildlife
13:52this is her first season so there's only four of us that live on here throughout the
13:58open season so that's from early march to early november and there's no permanent residence so it's
14:04you could maybe say it's uninhabited but it feels weird when people say that because at the minute it's my
14:08home
14:11the island's part-time population stay in an old farmhouse and try to live as sustainably as possible
14:18electricity is off grid supplied by a generator and there's no mains water supply
14:27so every week one of our jobs is to check the water levels
14:33this is my very sophisticated measuring stick um so it's basically a piece of wood um with 10 centimeter
14:41lines so if we count it it's one
14:54so we're doing pretty well so we get a lot of rain collecting off the roofs so we've got a
14:58big gutter
14:58system all the way along and then that then feeds into these tanks and then there's a pipe here that
15:04then sends that down through filters into our big water tank you just get used to having to save any
15:12amount of water that you can i think the biggest thing that people kind of find a bit of a
15:17shock
15:17um is us as staff can only shower once a week my head's got used to it now after over
15:23a year of
15:23kind of island life i'm here and elsewhere um yeah it doesn't really matter it just goes with it
15:30while kate checks the water her assistant dom is prepping their trusty tractor for this morning's task
15:37i believe we're all set and ready to go to go out and give the flail a go
15:41go and sort out some of the bracken
15:47this italian-made tractor has been here for over 20 years and is the island's hardest worker
15:54it's high summer and vegetation needs management to encourage the island's rich biodiversity
16:05the bracken grows incredibly quickly and it is a constant job requiring near constant vigilance
16:12you you turn your back and it's shot up three inches the main species that we're trying to look
16:18after when we do this is the chuff a schedule one protected species of corvid related to the crows
16:23and they really enjoy the short grass so we try and keep a lot of the fields clear of bracken
16:29so the trough can come in and forage for ants and that sort of thing
16:37every island has its own character and being able to get to know the island is so special and
16:43i think coming here for the whole season you get to see it in all of its moods pretty much
16:48you come
16:48and the island's asleep and then it gradually kind of wakes up
16:54the vegetation starts to kind of come alive the seabird colonies fill up again and i think that sense of
17:01connection is part of why it's so special
17:06now the heather is in flower it's really stunning the scenery has changed so dramatically and so
17:12quickly if you turn your head and you look back and it's entirely new
17:20at its peak the calf of man was buzzing with a population of 25 growing crops and keeping
17:26sheep and cows in the 50s the last families left leaving a crisscross of dry stone walls as evidence
17:34of the island's long agricultural history battered by wind and rain in the off season repairs to these
17:41walls are also on kate and dom's never ending to-do list i brought the tractor down here to our
17:48sacrificial wall so this is the wall that we get our stone from to then repair all the other walls
17:53that
17:54need repairing the dry stone walls are a massive part of maintaining and conserving the heritage of
18:01the island so we've got a great team of dry stone wallers that come on the big bits obviously are
18:07really useful but um they even need all of this packing stuff just like fill the gaps it kind of
18:13in a way it doesn't it's not concrete but it has the same effect i guess obviously they're the experts
18:19in building it but in preparation for when they come dom and i spend a lot of time just ferrying
18:23stone kind of going down with the tractor back and forth a lot of dry stone wallers will complain
18:29about manx stone as you can see here you can just pull it apart really yeah it's cool from a
18:35heritage
18:36point of view that we're able to reuse it but the dry stone wallers don't like it
18:49not all our tiny islands are surrounded by sea
18:54many are nestled in our lakes locks and rivers but despite their relative proximity to the mainland
19:01they still manage to provide unique island sanctuaries all of their own
19:08oscar rockerr in county for manor to the west of northern ireland contains over 150 islands
19:14within its waters one of these is in iskorkish a truly tiny island that's just 0.7 miles long
19:22and 0.3 miles wide.
19:27No-one lives here full-time,
19:28but it's about to become a wonderful home to a herd of piglets.
19:37Pat, a local butcher, is in charge of escorting them to the island.
19:42Six inches forward, six inches forward.
19:46Oh, oh, oh, that's she.
19:48It's a journey he's been making for over 20 years,
19:51and today he's being helped out by his son, Fintan.
19:55He's the third generation to join their farming and butchery business.
20:00These wee boys will get through that gate.
20:0318 Saddleback Pigs are travelling over to Inishcorkish today.
20:07Their name derives from the breed's distinctive white band or saddle.
20:12Leaving their mums at 10 weeks old,
20:14the island will be their new home until November.
20:17This day started for us probably with half five,
20:20and when you're moving animals, there's a wee bit of pressure there,
20:25you know, you're wondering how it's going to go.
20:27It's well organised, no fitting.
20:29That was a gain-changer there, them boards.
20:30No, them boards are...
20:31I'll tell you, the right size, nice and light.
20:33Yeah.
20:42The transportation of animals and equipment machinery
20:46in the Fermanagh lake lands has been going on for hundreds of years
20:49by means of a lock iron cot.
20:56The cot is very unique to Fermanagh.
20:58It was originally built as a wooden boat.
21:01The one unifying factor with them is it's got a flat bottom.
21:06The fact that it's got a flat bottom makes it easier and more stable.
21:13If you think a cot for a child, you're canned in,
21:16so the cot on the lake tends in animals.
21:26When it lands, it's almost like a landing craft.
21:29It slips on to the shore.
21:40Pat bought Inish Korkish in 2005 as an experiment.
21:45Putting his environmental science degree to good use,
21:48he wanted to see if he could keep pigs outside foraging for themselves,
21:53free from the intensive farming methods often used on the mainland.
21:59Nothing makes me happier to see animals arriving into a wild environment like this
22:04because 99.99% of any pigs never see the daylight, let alone grass.
22:10Just bring the feed down up a wee bit.
22:13Here, the pigs get an opportunity to live the life they want.
22:19Come on, you two.
22:21There's always someone late for dinner.
22:24This is a wee bit of organic feed
22:27and for them, it's like us getting one of those lovely 99 ice creams
22:32you know, on a hot sober's day.
22:33So this is their wee treat for crossing over this morning on the lake.
22:42What we're seeing here is pigs that are having probably the best day of their life.
22:47It's the first time they've ever been outdoors.
22:49And not only are they outdoors, they've landed on pig paradise here.
22:53When I was on this island for my first time, I was ten years old.
22:57I can always remember coming over and my dad said,
23:00wait till you see this place, you're going to love it.
23:02And whenever I actually arrived, I seen what he was talking about
23:05and I've been in love with the place ever since.
23:09It's the serenity, it's the peace and quiet.
23:12Seeing the pigs being happy, seeing me being happy, you know,
23:16it's a place of happiness and to me that's a big thing.
23:21This is just the beginning for them.
23:23And as they now ease in over the next week into living in the natural world
23:28between the herbs they eat, the grasses,
23:31they'll realise how rich their world's going to be because of their diet.
23:35And pigs, believe it or not, are omnivores.
23:39So they actually eat wee things like creepy crawlies.
23:41So they have a whole variety of dietary requirements.
23:45And out here, they will love it.
23:49It's this diet that helps flavour the award-winning O'Docherty family
23:54for manna black bacon.
23:56The island itself is also celebrated,
23:59protected as a site of scientific interest,
24:02thanks to the range of herbs and flowers that are found here.
24:06I call this a signature plant of Inish Corcish.
24:10We have seven different varieties of wild mint on the island.
24:14You just rub the leaf
24:16and you've got the most beautiful mint
24:18that you ever did smell.
24:25This amazing plant is called silverweed.
24:28During the famine in Ireland,
24:30this is responsible for saving tens of thousands of people.
24:34When the potato crop failed,
24:35they had to resort to eating plants.
24:38And the silverweed was probably one of the most beneficial plants that they ate
24:42because when you dig down into the roots,
24:46it's full of starch.
24:48And what is potatoes?
24:49It's potatoes of starch.
24:50And these are the roots
24:51that the people during the famine plucked to eat.
24:56Now, it doesn't look like much,
24:58but when you eat that,
24:59it actually tastes like parsnips.
25:05The thing about it is you have to find a lot of them,
25:09but it's enough to keep you alive.
25:15Just along the shore, the piglets are settling in.
25:18The pigs are going to be on this island for about seven or eight months now
25:22until the ultimate fate arise.
25:25But it can be said that these pigs will have had the greatest life
25:28compared to other pigs who will end up in the food chain.
25:41From lush and green to rugged and desolate,
25:46the appearance of tiny islands varies a lot
25:49depending on their location.
25:52Sitting around 20 miles from France's Normandy coast,
25:56Sark in the Channel Islands enjoys a mild-temperate climate.
26:04It's ideal for growing food,
26:06but unlike the rest of Europe,
26:08intensive farming has never been practised here.
26:11On Sark, the fields are small with borders left to nature.
26:16Clifftops undeveloped, home to an array of plants,
26:20including 160 species of wildflowers.
26:26This hands-off approach is also reflected in islanders' gardens.
26:31Including horse and carriage owner, Helen.
26:35I started gardening in 99 and I decided I wanted to be organic.
26:40But historically, it wasn't really a conscious decision
26:43not to use chemicals and things.
26:45The people here are really tight.
26:47They didn't want to spend the money on it.
26:49So I think it sort of developed its own organic lifestyle
26:52and then it became important for everyone to keep that.
26:54And it became part of what everyone does here.
26:57Everyone's really interested in the wildlife
27:00and they take pride in their island.
27:03Helen maintains the garden, along with a busy life,
27:07running a B&B and a horse and carriage business.
27:10But it's not just a hobby.
27:11It's used to supply fresh food to a local hotel,
27:14which she also owns.
27:16So this part of the garden is the orchard.
27:18And we grow not just apples, we grow pears, plums, apricots,
27:23all sorts of different things, but predominantly apples
27:26because my mum loves to make cider.
27:28And she loves to make calvados.
27:30And the offside of that is the organic apple cider vinegar,
27:33which we feed to the horses.
27:35So it keeps them coats shiny and everything working very well in their gut.
27:41Most of it does go to the hotel, apart from the figs,
27:44because I eat the figs.
27:46I walk past every day and just eat one or two,
27:48and so they never see the hotel.
27:51Cherries, I eat the cherries.
27:52Most, yeah, most things, most things I share,
27:55but those things, no.
28:03In 2011, Helen turned a former pony paddock
28:06into another gardening project,
28:08growing vegetables and herbs for the hotel kitchen.
28:12Today, she's harvesting comfrey.
28:17We grow comfrey because it's really good for the soil.
28:20There's lots of nutrients in it that plants need.
28:24And we harvest it two or three times a year,
28:26so chop it all up.
28:28We'll either mulch round plants that need a mulch round it,
28:31or we'll compost it with water
28:33and make like a comfrey tea that feeds our tomatoes.
28:39So sark is at the end of the distribution chain, if you like,
28:42so by the time produce has got to Guernsey,
28:45it's already a few days old.
28:47By the time it gets to sark, it's quite old.
28:50We always joke that, oh, we get all the stuff that Guernsey doesn't want.
28:54So if you want nice, fruit, fruit, veg, that sort of thing,
28:57you do have to grow your own.
29:02This is fertilising.
29:04It's also, if I put it along the seat pose,
29:06when the water comes out of the seat pose,
29:09it's going to stay in the soil.
29:12So these spring onions are going to grow.
29:15They're going to want the nutrients from the mulch,
29:18but the mulch is also going to,
29:21it's going to keep the water close to their roots.
29:27So I'm trying to balance on these boards
29:29because it's a no-dig garden.
29:31I don't want to walk on the soil and compact it
29:34because we don't dig this garden,
29:36we just add the layers of the mulch.
29:46Helen keeps wildflower borders in her gardens
29:49and plants species like giant Echium to encourage biodiversity.
29:55This rare species is native to the Canary Islands
29:59but thrives in the mild coastal climate on the sark.
30:05It's particularly attractive to bees
30:08and some of the 39 species of butterfly
30:10that are found on the island,
30:13vital pollinators for plants
30:15which lock in carbon and help reduce climate change.
30:22We have lots of lovely wildlife in our garden,
30:25lots of bees and butterflies and insects.
30:30We do manage quite a lot for wildlife
30:32but then the wildlife helps us
30:34so we've got lots of ladybirds in the garden,
30:36lacewings, bees, all that sort of thing.
30:44I think when you live somewhere small
30:46you notice the small things
30:48and you celebrate the small things
30:50and that's, yeah, that's lovely.
31:03650 miles away off the north coast of Scotland,
31:07the wind-battered Orkney Islands are mainly treeless.
31:11Here life is very different
31:13but there is plenty of beauty
31:15if you know where to look.
31:19As one of the smallest islands in Orkney,
31:22Lamb Home has no permanent residence
31:24but it does receive over 80,000 visitors a year.
31:33The visitors come to see a remarkable building
31:36built by Italian prisoners of war in World War II.
31:41Helen is one of a team of custodians
31:44responsible for preserving its remarkable story.
31:48Her day is beginning with a commute from mainland,
31:51Orkney's biggest island.
31:53It's just a two-mile drive from home to work
31:56and today is an absolutely beautiful day.
32:00I enjoy going to work.
32:02Comes the 25th of this month,
32:04it'll be 32 years, I think.
32:10The chapel is possibly one of the top three
32:13visited places in Orkney.
32:15Spent a lot of my time here,
32:17over there working.
32:19Quite privileged to preserve
32:20and help preserve the chapel as well.
32:24Hi.
32:24Hi, do you wish to go in?
32:26Yeah, you could take photos
32:27but avoid touching the walls
32:29from the inside of the chapel.
32:30OK.
32:31During the 1940s,
32:33Lamb Home was the site of Camp 60
32:35where 550 Italian prisoners of war
32:39who'd been captured in North Africa
32:40were put to work
32:42building the Churchill Barriers.
32:44Originally built to protect
32:46the Scapa Flow naval base
32:48from U-boat attack,
32:49the barriers also created causeways
32:51between islands
32:52that are still used today.
32:55They were brought here from North Africa
32:57in January 1942
32:59but they did refuse to work
33:02because the causeways
33:03were being used
33:03as a defence agent
33:05so they ended up
33:06saying that they were
33:07linking the islands
33:08and that's how they got
33:09around them working.
33:15The prisoners were brought here
33:16in January
33:17so, I mean,
33:18they must have found
33:18some difference
33:19from being in Egypt
33:21temperature-wise.
33:23And they worked
33:24on the causeways all day
33:25and then the one thing
33:27that they lacked
33:28was a place of worship.
33:33So they were gifted
33:34these two huts,
33:36Nissen huts,
33:37in 1943.
33:40Major Buckland
33:41sourced a lot
33:42of the materials for them.
33:45led by artist
33:47Domenico Chiochetti,
33:49many of the other prisoners
33:50were also skilled tradesmen
33:52and hid the hut's
33:53corrugated iron walls
33:55behind a facade
33:56of plasterboard
33:57which was painted over.
33:59A lot of the materials
34:01were from the block ships
34:04that had been sunk.
34:07The tiles up at the altar
34:09were from a bathroom
34:10on the ship.
34:12Some of the candlesticks
34:14were made from
34:15stair rods
34:16off the block ships.
34:22The font,
34:23the spring on it,
34:24was from a dumper truck.
34:25So they were really
34:26into the recycling
34:27long before we ever were.
34:30Is it eight,
34:31what did I say?
34:33The next one's
34:33doing five minutes.
34:35Which are...
34:36Oh, they're Italians.
34:38Yeah, of course
34:38called us Italians.
34:39I'll bust on the
34:40Italians for you.
34:44It's interesting
34:45when Italian people come,
34:47some of them
34:48know about the chapel,
34:49others know
34:50nothing about it,
34:51don't even know
34:52that it exists.
34:53Some of those
34:53that come that do know
34:54our relatives
34:55get very, very emotional.
34:57Babbo?
34:59I am the person in charge
35:01to organize the travel
35:02for the family.
35:03So I decide
35:05by myself...
35:06I pay
35:07if you organize.
35:08No, no, no,
35:09we share.
35:10I really love
35:11the island,
35:12all of them.
35:13What I think
35:14about this chapel
35:14is that it's a strong
35:15sign against war,
35:17because prisoners
35:18who have forced
35:20to be here,
35:22they decided
35:23to reconstruct
35:24something that
35:25was important
35:26for them,
35:27to have the opportunity
35:28to think about
35:29something about
35:30higher,
35:30a way to feel better.
35:35by the time
35:36the prisoners
35:37came to leave
35:38in September 1944,
35:40the chapel
35:40wasn't quite finished.
35:43Keoketli got leave
35:44to stay
35:45and finish the font.
35:47The signs on the wall
35:48there,
35:49what you call
35:49the 14 stations
35:50of the cross,
35:51they were a gift
35:52from Keoketli family,
35:55because Keoketli,
35:56he came back
35:57with Maria,
35:58his wife,
35:59with his children
35:59and laterally
36:00his grandchildren.
36:01After the wall.
36:01After the war,
36:02yeah.
36:07I don't really know
36:08why they refused
36:09to take the chapel
36:10down when they were
36:10dismantling the camp,
36:12but I imagine
36:14it was just that
36:15it was such
36:15a beautiful building.
36:25Sark in the Channel Islands
36:27is a community
36:28dedicated to
36:29a different way
36:29of life.
36:32Apart from
36:33agricultural machinery,
36:35the island doesn't
36:35allow any motor vehicles,
36:37including cars.
36:40Bicycles reign supreme,
36:41but in the past,
36:43many islanders
36:44moved around
36:44by horse and cart,
36:45and it's a tradition
36:47that continues today,
36:48although the number
36:49of operators
36:49is declining.
36:53Helen is determined
36:54to do whatever it takes
36:55to keep her carriages
36:56going.
36:57And today,
36:58she's enlisting
36:59the next generation,
37:01her son George,
37:02who's here to do
37:03some vital maintenance.
37:08he loves to fix things,
37:10he wants to find out
37:11how things work.
37:12If I have any problems
37:13at all,
37:14he's always the first
37:15person I ask,
37:16and he will always say yes.
37:19What date is it today?
37:20The 7th.
37:23If we do anything
37:24to the carriages,
37:25we write it down
37:26with the date
37:26and what we did,
37:28just so we can look back
37:29and say,
37:29oh, this wheel,
37:30that looks like
37:31it's moved a little bit.
37:32It's just a bit of a diary
37:33for maintenance
37:33and things like that.
37:35Taking the hubcap off,
37:37now I'm taking off
37:38the first bolt,
37:41and then we'll take off
37:42the second lock nut.
37:44Are there any play
37:45in those two?
37:46Do they feel OK?
37:47The first one's
37:48a little loose,
37:48but they're OK, actually.
37:51Helen has seven carriages
37:52of various sizes.
37:54Most are over 100 years old,
37:56including the three
37:57she uses most regularly.
37:59They're so much nicer
38:00than the new modern ones.
38:02They've got history
38:03and character
38:06and they're a part
38:07of our heritage, really.
38:09To me,
38:09it's really important
38:10that we keep them all going.
38:12The other one
38:13is very special.
38:14It's a Victoria
38:15that was made in 1850
38:17by Ferrari
38:17in Orsaniga in Milan.
38:20And, yeah,
38:20we just keep replacing
38:21little bits
38:22and painting little bits
38:23and people love
38:24the fact that they're old
38:25and we're looking after them.
38:28There we go.
38:30I'm a plumber by trade,
38:32but mainly,
38:33Mum had a problem with it.
38:34She wanted me
38:35to have a look at it,
38:35so I took it apart,
38:38kind of looked at it,
38:39cleaned each bit up
38:41and then as I was
38:42taking it apart,
38:42you kind of make mental notes
38:45about how it works
38:46and then put it all back together
38:47the same way it came apart.
38:49Unless something's broken,
38:50then you kind of
38:50try and fix it
38:51with whatever you've got.
38:53Chain oil.
38:54If you grow up here,
38:56you learn very quickly
38:58how to do stuff
38:59rather than
39:00getting other people
39:00to do it.
39:01It just makes your life
39:02a lot easier
39:03if you can do it yourself.
39:05There we go.
39:06All done.
39:07See how we go?
39:08Yep.
39:08Yep, yep, yep.
39:09We'll give it a go.
39:10Give it a test.
39:13MUSIC PLAYS
39:14MUSIC PLAYS
39:15MUSIC PLAYS
39:16MUSIC PLAYS
39:20Oh, she's falling asleep.
39:23She is, yeah.
39:23She loves a bit of a pamper,
39:25doesn't she?
39:25Yeah.
39:27MUSIC PLAYS
39:27There are no saddlers
39:29on Sark.
39:30Philly's bridle and harness
39:31were specially made
39:32for carriage pulling
39:33on the mainland.
39:35The island has no farriers either.
39:38Every six weeks,
39:39a farrier comes over
39:40and sets up shop
39:41in Helen's barn
39:42to shoe all the island's horses.
39:45There's no shoeing today, though,
39:47just a test run
39:48of the wagonette's repairs
39:49and a chance
39:50for some mother and son bonding.
39:53Well, this is very nice, George.
39:55Yeah.
39:56We've done this for a while.
39:57Nice little treat, yeah.
39:59Nice little treat, yeah.
40:00George quite liked riding.
40:02He had a really lovely
40:02little pony called Minstrel.
40:04George and his brother Ben,
40:05they like to ride the same pony,
40:07sit on the same big,
40:08which is a big, wide 13-2 pony,
40:10and just fight each other
40:11with book bags
40:12as they went down the road,
40:14just smacking each other
40:16with their book bags
40:16on the way to school.
40:18For one reason or another,
40:20the next generation
40:21don't really have ponies.
40:22I think life's moved on
40:24a little bit.
40:24Everyone's got electric bicycles now,
40:26and that's made a huge impact
40:28on the amount of horses
40:29on the island.
40:30So, yeah, the few of us
40:31that are still left
40:32with the horses
40:32still love the horses,
40:34and we're still going.
40:35You've done a great job, George.
40:36Well done.
40:39Another good job.
40:47Three hundred and thirty miles away,
40:50the Calf of Man sits south
40:51of its big neighbour,
40:53the Isle of Man.
40:55Twenty-five people used to live
40:56and farm here.
40:57Now it's a nature reserve
40:59with four wardens
41:00who stay for nine months each year.
41:03Kate and her assistant Dom
41:04are the estate wardens,
41:06and they've been here
41:06for five months since March.
41:09They generally work
41:11six days a week,
41:12but today is a day off.
41:16You can now have dolphins.
41:22I'm very lucky that
41:24the work that I do,
41:25I do enjoy doing it.
41:27There are times where you do
41:28kind of just want to take
41:29a bit of a break.
41:32One of the best things
41:33I like to do
41:34is just kind of go out
41:35for a bit of walk,
41:35do a little bit of bird watching,
41:37go for sea swims as well,
41:38or even just come and sit somewhere
41:40and just look out to sea.
41:42Enjoy the peace,
41:44enjoy kind of the tranquility
41:45of island life,
41:46because while you're here,
41:48you've got to kind of
41:48make the most of it,
41:49give yourself that time
41:50to appreciate being here
41:52and slow down.
41:55Although his dad's
41:57is originally
41:57from the Isle of Man,
41:59Dom was brought up
42:00in Oxford.
42:01This is his first experience
42:02of island life,
42:04and on his days off,
42:05he likes to fish.
42:07The summer seas are warm
42:09and the plankton
42:10is blooming,
42:11attracting grey mullet,
42:13mackerel,
42:13pollock and cod.
42:18This morning we're down
42:19in an area of the calf
42:20called the puddle,
42:22and we're hoping to fish
42:23for some calig,
42:24or as they're called
42:25in the rest of the world,
42:25pollock.
42:27So the best method
42:29for catching calig
42:30is using lures,
42:32and I'm hoping
42:33that the calig,
42:34which are a predatory fish,
42:35will come along,
42:36assume that's a tasty morsel,
42:38and then end up
42:39with me for dinner.
42:42This is my dad's old gear,
42:43in fact,
42:44and he was fishing
42:45with this on the Isle of Man
42:45for 50 years,
42:47really, in the past.
42:49So, oh.
42:54What have you got?
42:55We've got a hope
42:55it's a calig.
42:56Oh, it is indeed.
42:58Quite an impressive one
42:59as well.
43:01That's the biggest
43:02that I've caught here.
43:15What do you think?
43:16A couple of courgettes?
43:17A couple of courgettes
43:18and some potatoes
43:19for the fish cakes tonight.
43:20It's going to be so good.
43:25The allotment is one of our little projects
43:27where it's nice
43:27to keep it going
43:28because when people
43:30used to live in the farmhouse
43:31when they were actually
43:31working the land,
43:33this would have been
43:33how they grew
43:34a lot of their food.
43:35Oh, look at the size
43:36of that one.
43:37Oh.
43:38We do get our food order
43:40from Tesco,
43:41which is great,
43:41but I think knowing
43:42that we've actually
43:42grown this ourselves
43:43is really nice
43:44and it's all organic.
43:46It's so rewarding
43:47seeing it on your plate
43:48and thinking,
43:49we've grown this
43:49or we've caught it
43:50is really, really good.
43:52They just keep coming up.
43:53No, some of these are massive.
43:55Turns out we're excellent
43:55at growing potatoes.
43:57Who knew?
43:58Obviously, we are
43:59on a nature reserve,
44:00so we do need
44:01to be really careful.
44:02So, in terms of biosecurity,
44:04for example,
44:05when we had the potatoes
44:06come in or any of the plants,
44:07we had to either
44:08grow them from scratch
44:08or have sterile plants
44:10because of things
44:11like invasive flatworms
44:12in the soil,
44:13little things like that
44:14that you might not
44:14even think of.
44:15You just go to a garden
44:16centre, get a plant
44:17and then stick it
44:17in the ground.
44:18We can't do that here.
44:19We have to be really careful
44:20just to protect
44:21what we've got.
44:22I've only told
44:22they're organic radishes.
44:24Well, because of
44:24the shape of them?
44:25No, because they've
44:25all been eaten.
44:27They've just chucked
44:28two massive slugs out.
44:31They may be feral,
44:32but we're still clean.
44:34The other wardens
44:35are away on a bird survey
44:36today,
44:37so tonight's dinner
44:38is for two.
44:40I learn a lot
44:41of nice cooking tips
44:42from Dom,
44:42which is good.
44:43Yeah, he makes
44:44the best, like,
44:45garlic and herb pizza dip.
44:47Yeah, I think
44:47that's the other thing
44:47on here is, like,
44:48if you want something
44:49and you've forgotten
44:49it in your weekly shop,
44:50you've just got to
44:51work out and make it.
44:53Do you want
44:53Tardis water?
44:54Are you going to do that?
44:55I could try it,
44:56but I don't think that...
44:59Well,
45:02putting mine on top
45:03seems sensible.
45:04The presentation
45:04may not be
45:05Michelin-starred,
45:06but you would be
45:07hard-pressed to find
45:08a more beautiful restaurant
45:10or better dining companions.
45:13You've got to get on
45:13well with each other,
45:14but it's lucky
45:15because we do,
45:15which is nice.
45:17Yeah.
45:18I think it's a little,
45:19we're a little family,
45:20aren't we?
45:20Yeah, I think
45:21a lot of people
45:21who might apply
45:22to a role like this
45:23might be doing so
45:24to step out of society,
45:27but it's really
45:28not like that.
45:29It's more stepping
45:29into a very small one.
45:30Yeah.
45:32Hours of effort
45:33for this one small place.
45:44You get used to it.
45:45It's your day-to-day,
45:46just all this wilderness,
45:48having the place to yourselves,
45:49how stunning it is,
45:51and then you go places
45:51where it's full of people.
45:53You don't just get
45:53a beach to yourself.
45:54There are cars everywhere
45:55and streetlights everywhere.
45:59I think a great many people
46:01would pay a great deal
46:02of money or do a horrible thing
46:03to live in a place like this.
46:05Yeah.
46:06We're very lucky
46:06in that we haven't
46:07had to do either.
46:20get one.
46:37We'll see you next time.
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