- 8 minutes ago
Our Tiny Islands - Season 2 Episode 1
Category
đ„
Short filmTranscript
00:08We are a nation of islands.
00:11Come on, you two!
00:14Over 4,000 are scattered along our coastlines,
00:18with hundreds more in our lakes, lochs and rivers.
00:22Being surrounded by water, it has a very calming effect on the mind.
00:27Many of these islands are tiny. Many are remote.
00:32I love so much about island 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,
00:55and lives very different to most of our own.
01:00Going over the edge here is a bit cheeky. Shall we?
01:05These are the stories of our tiny islands.
01:10The fact that you just walk out your door and you're straight in to see that sense of freedom is
01:14amazing.
01:26This time, the skies and historic chapels of Orkney.
01:31The calf of man's rugged terrain.
01:35Lockhearn's newest residence.
01:38And 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 Normandy.
01:52There 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.
02:08Good morning, guys!
02:11Wakey, wakey!
02:15Sark is a tiny little island in the middle of a beautiful blue sea.
02:24It's about nine miles from Guernsey, it doesn't have any cars, it's got lots of cliffs and cliff paths, fields
02:31and flowers and butterflies.
02:35It's a beautiful place to live, great community, lovely life.
02:42Helen has lived and worked on Sark for the last 20 years, having spent much of her childhood here with
02:48family.
02:51I was two when my grandparents moved here, so pretty much every single holiday we would come to Sark.
02:57And then 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.
03:10Helen eventually took over the family business, which she now runs, alongside a bed and breakfast.
03:18As there are no cars allowed on Sark, the island has a horse and cart taxi service, and Helen is
03:24one of four operators, still maintaining this time-honoured transport tradition.
03:30Today, she's prepping the wagonette.
03:33It's at least over 100 years old.
03:37So we don't just do this to clean it, because it's very old and antique.
03:42We do it to check, so we're checking the joints, and we're checking the paintwork, and we're just checking that
03:47everything's okay.
03:48If you're careful, you can look after them, they're going forever.
03:52They're sort of symptomatic of our way of life, really.
03:54Nothing's fast, it's all sort of connected to nature, and it's a lovely, lovely way to be.
04:04In high season, over 2,500 people travel to Sark each week, eager to witness the majestic sweep of its
04:14coastline 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.
04:31I 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 with an experienced driver
04:42before you take your test.
04:48I love clip-clopping slowly down the lane, talking to people, with my horse, in the sunshine, just having a
04:58nice life.
04:59It's just, honestly, it's the best job in the whole world. I can't believe people pay me for it.
05:04I absolutely love it.
05:07As there are no vets on the island, Helen doesn't breed her own horses.
05:12Philly is from a stud in France.
05:14She's a Normandy cob, a breed that can pull twice their weight, and comfortably travel 40 kilometres in a day.
05:22Her proper name is Philante de Puy, and she's learning English,
05:27and 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.
05:39Yeah, you're sort of, you're on Sark time.
05:42It's, well, 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, which is seven
05:54miles away.
05:55Waiting for them, as there always has been, is a four-legged taxi rank offering guided tours of the island.
06:02I mean, you meet nice people, and you're basically sitting in the sunshine talking about Sark.
06:08So, yeah, it's really nice.
06:09Yeah.
06:15What's that tower that we've just passed?
06:17This is the mill, built in 1571 by the first permanent inhabitants.
06:22It's built on a prehistoric mound as well, isn't it?
06:24Is it?
06:25OK.
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 neighbours.
06:56650 miles north of the Channel Islands is Orkney, another archipelago that sits about 10 miles from the north coast
07:04of Scotland.
07:04It'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,
07:16Lamb 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 travelling by causeway from Mainland, the neighbouring island.
07:31His 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 the runners I've created make
07:52it look like a large, hot cross bun.
08:00I have a labour of love going on here because I've cultivated a little airfield that allows lots of people
08:08in Orkney to fly little aeroplanes.
08:12Tommy caught the flying bug when he was 28.
08:16A farmer on an island with two livestock farms, he would fly around Scotland sourcing livestock.
08:22But slowly he realised it was the flying rather than the farming that he loved.
08:27I decided about the age of 50 that I'd had enough, and I was going to have some fun.
08:34So, this airfield's part of the fun.
08:44It's just taking the bugs off the propeller and the cowl here.
08:48Every time you fly off the grass, you get bits of grass and the bugs out of it get sucked
08:56up and squashed against the airframe.
08:59It's nice to keep it clean.
09:02It's great to be a pilot anywhere, but it has a special good purpose in islands because you can go
09:09anywhere you want, basically.
09:12I used to have a Cessna aircraft when I was farming, so it put me within a day trip of
09:19anywhere in Scotland.
09:20But when I decided to give up the farming, I had to find a cheaper way to fly, which resulted
09:27in beginning to build home-built aeroplanes, which are much, much cheaper.
09:32I've always loved working with machines and making and mending them.
09:37You order up a kit, and it comes in a great big pallet, and you begin.
09:42And it takes about a year to put it all together.
09:49Tommy has built three planes himself and still flies two regularly.
09:54Today, like many other days, he's taking out his absolute favourite, a Jabiru J430.
10:02Engine oil is okay.
10:04Every time you fly an aeroplane, you'll check it thoroughly before you go flying in there.
10:09Four, five, six good compressions.
10:30I love to be airborne in any sort of aeroplane, from a large passenger jet to the tiniest little aeroplane.
10:38I just love being in the air.
10:41Very seldom a week passes that I don't fly.
10:45It's a sense of freedom.
10:48You require discipline, because the human body is not designed to be free in three dimensions.
10:58The causeways were built in 1939, as a result of the U-boat, commanded by Commander Preen getting in to
11:06Scapa Flow.
11:07And he sunk the Royal Oak back of the ship, and that triggered the building of these causeways.
11:18Islands are all special places, each one unique, and this one's very unique.
11:27I've always liked the 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 underneath Sark's rugged cliffs.
11:54The minute they start to go down the harbour hill, they're like, we know where we're going!
12:01They've been sort of shuffling along very slowly all day, so it probably is actually very good for them to
12:06get in the water and feel that freedom,
12:08and sort of move their bodies in a different way. It's probably a little bit like water horse yoga or
12:13something.
12:16Oh, Reggie loves water. He's like a child in a pair of wellies, allowed to jump in big puddles, he's
12:21like poof!
12:21He 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 really important to the few of us that are left that still
12:37have horses.
12:38It's still our way of life.
12:49Many of our tiny islands that used to be inhabited have become nature reserves,
12:54so 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 Calf, 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
13:38observatory.
13:41Originally from Dorset, Kate is the estate warden, employed to protect the island's beauty and its wildlife.
13:52This is her first season.
13:55So there's only four of us that live on here throughout the open season, so that's from early March to
14:01early November.
14:02And there's no permanent residence, so you could maybe say it's uninhabited, but it feels weird when people say that,
14:08because at the minute it's my home.
14:11The island's part-time population stay in an old farmhouse and try to live as sustainably as possible.
14:19Electricity is off-grid, supplied by a generator, and there is no mains water supply.
14:27So every week one of our jobs is to check the water levels.
14:34This is my very sophisticated measuring stick.
14:37So it's basically a piece of wood with 10 centimetre lines, if we count it.
14:46So we've got 100 centimetres of water there.
14:49Now the maximum is about 120.
14:53So we're doing pretty well.
14:55So we get a lot of rain collecting off the roofs.
14:57So we've got a big gutter system all the way along, and then that then feeds into these tanks.
15:02And then there's a pipe here that then sends that down through filters into our big water tank.
15:09You just get used to having to save any amount of water that you can.
15:14I think the biggest thing that people kind of find a bit of a shock is us as staff can
15:20only shower once a week.
15:21My eyes got used to it now after over a year of kind of island life here and elsewhere.
15:27Yeah, it doesn't really matter. It just goes with it.
15:31While 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.
15:42Go 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 turn your back and it's shot up three inches.
16:16The main species that we're trying to look after when we do this is the chuff.
16:20A schedule one protected species of corvid related to the crows.
16:24And they really enjoy the short grass.
16:26So we try and keep a lot of the fields clear of bracken.
16:29So the chuff 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.
16:43And I think coming here for the whole season you get to see it in all of its moods pretty
16:48much.
16:48You come and the island's asleep and then it gradually kind of wakes up.
16:54The vegetation starts to kind of come alive.
16:57The seabed colonies fill up again.
16:59And I think that sense of connection is part of why it's so special.
17:06Now the heather is in flower.
17:09It's really stunning.
17:10The scenery has changed so dramatically and so quickly.
17:12If 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 sheep and
17:27cows.
17:28In the 50s, the last families left, leaving a crisscross of dry stone walls as evidence of the island's long
17:35agricultural history.
17:38Battered by wind and rain in the off-season, repairs to these walls are also on Kate and Dom's never
17:44-ending to-do list.
17:45I brought the tractor down here to our sacrificial wall.
17:49So this is the wall that we get our stone from to then repair all the other walls that need
17:54repairing.
17:56The dry stone walls are a massive part of maintaining and conserving the heritage of the island.
18:02So we've got a great team of dry stone wallers that come on.
18:06The big bits obviously are really useful, but they even need all of this packing stuff just to fill the
18:12gaps.
18:12It kind of, in a way, it doesn't, it's not concrete, but it kind of has the same effect, I
18:17guess.
18:18Obviously they're the experts in building it, but in preparation for when they come, Dom and I spend a lot
18:22of time just ferrying stone,
18:24kind of going down with the tractor back and forth.
18:26A lot of dry stone wallers will complain about manx stone.
18:30As you can see here, you can just pull it apart, really.
18:34Yeah.
18:35It's cool from a heritage point of view that we're able to reuse it, but the dry stone wallers don't
18:40like it.
18:49Not all our tiny islands are surrounded by sea.
18:54Many are nestled in our lakes, locks and rivers.
18:58But despite their relative proximity to the mainland, they still manage to provide unique island sanctuaries all of their own.
19:08Loch Earn in County Fermanagh to the west of Northern Ireland contains over 150 islands within its waters.
19:16One of these is Inishcorkish, a truly tiny island that's just 0.7 miles long and 0.3 miles wide.
19:27No one lives here full time, but 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, Fintan, six inches forward.
19:46Oh, oh, oh, that's you.
19:48It's a journey he's been making for over 20 years, and 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, the island will be their new home until November.
20:18This day started for us probably with half five.
20:21And 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.
20:28That was a gain changer there, them boards.
20:30No, them boards are, I'll tell you, the right size, nice and light.
20:33Yeah.
20:43The transportation of animals and equipment machinery in the Fermanagh Lakelands
20:48has been going on for hundreds of years by means of a lock iron cot.
20:56The cot is very unique to Fermanagh. It 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 penned in, so the cot on the lake pens in animals.
21:26When it lands, it's almost like a landing craft. It slips onto 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.
22:14Here, 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, and for them,
22:28it's like just getting one of those lovely 99 ice creams, you know, on a hot sober's day.
22:33So this is their, 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, and not only are they outdoors,
22:50they've landed on pig paradise here.
22:54When I was on this island for my first time, I was 10 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,
23:17it's a place of happiness, and to me that's, that's a big thing.
23:21This is just the beginning for them, and as they now ease in,
23:25over 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.
23:36And pigs, believe it or not, are omnivores,
23:39so they actually eat wee things like creepy crawlies,
23:41and so they have a whole variety of dietary requirements,
23:45and out here, they will love it.
23:50It's this diet that helps flavour the award-winning Odocherty 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.
24:05I call this a signature plant of Innes Corkish.
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 that you ever did smell.
24:25This amazing plant is called silverweed.
24:28During the famine in Ireland, this is responsible for saving tens of thousands of people.
24:34When the potato crop failed, they had to resort to eating plants,
24:38and the silverweed was probably one of the most beneficial plants that they ate,
24:43because when you dig down into the roots, it's full of starch.
24:48And what is potatoes? It's potatoes of starch.
24:50And these are the roots that the people during the famine plucked to eat.
24:56Now, it doesn't look like much, but when you eat that, it actually tastes like parsnips.
25:05The thing about it is, you have to find a lot of them, but 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,
25:29compared to other pigs who will end up in the food chain.
25:42From lush and green to rugged and desolate,
25:46the appearance of tiny islands varies a lot depending on their location.
25:53Sitting around 20 miles from France's Normandy coast,
25:57Sark in the Channel Islands enjoys a mild temperate climate.
26:04It's ideal for growing food, but unlike the rest of Europe,
26:08intensive farming has never been practiced here.
26:12On Sark, the fields are small with borders left to nature.
26:15Clifftops 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.
26:36I started gardening in 99, and I decided I wanted to be organic.
26:40But historically, it wasn't really a conscious decision not to use chemicals and things.
26:45The people here are really tight.
26:47They didn't want to spend the money on it.
26:48So I think it sort of developed its own organic lifestyle,
26:52and then it became important for everyone to keep that,
26:55and it became part of what everyone does here.
26:58Everyone's really interested in the wildlife, and they take pride in their island.
27:03Helen maintains the garden, along with a busy life, running 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, which she also owns.
27:16So this part of the garden is the orchard, and we grow not just apples,
27:20we grow pears, plums, apricots, all sorts of different things,
27:25but predominantly apples, because 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,
27:34which 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, because I eat the figs.
27:46I walk past every day and just eat one or two, and so they never see the hotel.
27:51Cherries, I eat the cherries.
27:53Most things, most things I share, but those things, no.
28:02In 2011, Helen turned a former pony paddock into 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, there's lots of nutrients in it that plants need.
28:24And we harvest it two or three times a year, so chop it all up.
28:28We'll either mulch round plants that need a mulch round it, or we'll compost it with water and make like
28:34a comfrey tea that feeds our tomatoes.
28:39So sark is at the end of the distribution chain, if you like, so by the time producers got to
28:45Guernsey, it's already a few days old.
28:47By the time it gets to sark, it's quite old.
28:50We always joke that we get all the stuff that Guernsey doesn't want.
28:54So if you want nice fruit, fruit, veg, that sort of thing, you do have to grow your own.
29:03This is fertilising.
29:04It's also, if I put it along the seat pose, when the water comes out of the seat pose, it's
29:10going to stay in the soil.
29:12So these spring onions are going to grow, they're going to want the nutrients from the mulch, but the mulch
29:19is also going to, it's going to keep the water close to their roots.
29:27So I'm trying to balance on these boards, because it's a no-dig garden.
29:31I don't want to walk on the soil and compact it, because we don't dig this garden, we just add
29:37the layers of the mulch.
29:46Helen keeps wildflower borders in her gardens, and plants species like giant echium to encourage biodiversity.
29:56This rare species is native to the Canary Islands, but thrives in the mild coastal climate on the sark.
30:05It's particularly attractive to bees, and some of the 39 species of butterfly that are found on the island.
30:13Vital pollinators for plants, which lock in carbon and help reduce climate change.
30:22We have lots of lovely wildlife in our garden, lots of bees and butterflies and insects.
30:30We do manage quite a lot for wildlife, but then the wildlife helps us.
30:34So we've got lots of ladybirds in the garden, lacewings, bees, all that sort of thing.
30:45I think when you live somewhere small, you notice the small things and you celebrate the small things.
30:50And that's, yeah, that's lovely.
31:03650 miles away off the north coast of Scotland, the wind-battered Orkney Islands are mainly treeless.
31:11Here, life is very different, but there is plenty of beauty if you know where to look.
31:19As one of the smallest islands in Orkney, Lamb Home has no permanent residence, but it does receive over 80
31:27,000 visitors a year.
31:33The visitors come to see a remarkable building built by Italian prisoners of war in World War II.
31:42Helen is one of a team of custodians responsible for preserving its remarkable story.
31:48Her day is beginning with a commute from mainland, Orkney's biggest island.
31:53It's just a two-mile drive from home to work, and today is an absolutely beautiful day.
32:00I enjoy going to work.
32:02Comes the 25th of this month, it'll be 32 years, I think.
32:10The chapel is possibly one of the top three visited places in Orkney.
32:15I spent a lot of my time here, over the years working.
32:19Quite privileged to preserve and help preserve the chapel as well.
32:24Hi.
32:24Hi, two of us to go in.
32:26Yeah, we're not.
32:26You can take photos, but avoid touching the walls from the end of the chapel.
32:31During the 1940s, Lamb Home was the site of Camp 60, where 550 Italian prisoners of war, who'd been captured
32:40in North Africa, were put to work building the Churchill Barriers.
32:44Originally built to protect the Scapa Flow naval base from U-boat attack, the barriers also created causeways between islands
32:52that are still used today.
32:55They were brought here from North Africa in January 1942, but they did refuse to work because the coastways were
33:03being used as a defence agent, so they ended up saying that they were linking the islands, and that's how
33:09they got around them working.
33:15The prisoners were brought here in January, so they must have found some difference from being in Egypt temperature-wise.
33:23They worked on the coastways all day, and then the one thing that they lacked was a place of worship.
33:33So they were gifted, these two huts, Nissen huts, in 1943.
33:40Major Buckland sourced a lot of the materials for them.
33:46Led by artist Domenico Chiochetti, many of the other prisoners were also skilled tradesmen, and hid the hut's corrugated iron
33:54walls behind a facade of plasterboard, which was painted over.
33:59A lot of the materials were from the block ships that had been sunk.
34:07The tiles up at the altar were from a bathroom on the ship.
34:12Some of the candlesticks were made from stair rods off the block ships.
34:22The font, the spring on it, was from a dumper truck, so they were really into the recycling long before
34:28we ever were.
34:30Is it eight, what did I say?
34:33The next one's two and five minutes.
34:35Which are, yeah.
34:37Oh, they're Italians.
34:38Yeah, go store us Italians.
34:39I'll bust on the fatalities for you.
34:44It's interesting when Italian people come, some of them know about the chapel, others know nothing about it, don't even
34:52know that it exists.
34:53Some of those that come that do know, our relatives get very, very emotional.
34:59I am the person in charge to organize the travel for the family.
35:03So I decide by myself.
35:06I pay if you organize.
35:08No, no, no, we share.
35:10I really love the island, all of them.
35:13What I think about this chapel is that it's a strong sign against war.
35:18Because prisoners who forced to be here, they decided to reconstruct something that was important for them.
35:27To have the opportunity to think about something about higher, a way to feel better.
35:35By the time the prisoners came to leave in September of 1944, the chapel wasn't quite finished.
35:43Ciochetti got leave to stay and finish the font.
35:47The signs on the wall there, what you call the 14 stations of the cross, they were a gift from
35:53a Ciochetti family.
35:55Because Ciochetti, he came back with Maria, his wife, with his children and laterally his grandchildren.
36:01After the war.
36:01After the war, yeah.
36:07I don't really know why they refused to take the chapel down when they were dismantling the camp.
36:12But I imagine it was just that it was such a beautiful building.
36:25Sark in the Channel Islands is a community dedicated to a different way of life.
36:32Apart from agricultural machinery, the island doesn't allow any motor vehicles, including cars.
36:40Bicycles reign supreme.
36:41But in the past, many islanders moved around by horse and cart.
36:46And it's a tradition that continues today, although the number of operators is declining.
36:53Helen is determined to do whatever it takes to keep her carriages going.
36:57And today, she's enlisting the next generation.
37:01Her son, George, who's here to do some vital maintenance.
37:08He loves to fix things, he wants to find out how things work.
37:12If I have any problems at all, he's always the first person I ask, and he will always say yes.
37:19What date is it today?
37:20The 7th.
37:23If we do anything to the carriages, we write it down with the date of what we did.
37:28Just so we can look back and say, oh, this wheel, that looks like it's moved a little bit.
37:32It's just a bit of a diary for maintenance and things like that.
37:35I've taken the hubcap off, and now I'm taking off the first bolt.
37:41And then we'll take off the second lock nut.
37:44Are there any play in those two? Do they feel OK?
37:47The first one's a little loose, but they're OK, actually.
37:51Helen has seven carriages of various sizes.
37:54Most are over 100 years old, including the three she uses most regularly.
37:59They're so much nicer than the new modern ones.
38:02They've got history and character, and they're a part of our heritage, really.
38:09To me, it's really important that we keep them all going.
38:13The other one is very special.
38:14It's a Victoria that was made in 1850 by Ferrari in Orsaniga in Milan.
38:19And, yeah, we just keep replacing little bits and painting little bits.
38:23And people love the fact that they're old and we're looking after them.
38:28There we go.
38:30I'm a plumber by trade, but mainly mum had a problem with it.
38:34She wanted me to have a look at it.
38:36So I took it apart, kind of looked at it, cleaned each bit up.
38:41And then as I was taking it apart, you kind of make mental notes about how it works.
38:46And then put it all back together the same way it came apart.
38:49Unless something's broken, then you kind of try and fix it with whatever you've got.
38:53Chain oil.
38:55If you grow up here, you learn very quickly how to do stuff rather than getting other people to do
39:01it.
39:01It just makes your life a lot easier if you can do it yourself.
39:05There we go. All done.
39:07See how we go?
39:08Yep, yep, yep. We'll give it a go.
39:10Give it a test.
39:20Oh, she's falling asleep.
39:23She is, yeah. She loves a bit of a pamper, doesn't she?
39:25Yeah.
39:27There are no saddlers on Sark.
39:30Philly's bridle and harness were specially made for carriage pulling on the mainland.
39:35The island has no farriers either.
39:38Every six weeks a farrier comes over and sets up shop in Helen's barn to shoe all the island's horses.
39:45There's no shoeing today though, just a test run of the wagonette's repairs and a chance for some mother and
39:51son bonding.
39:53Oh, this is very nice, George.
39:55Yeah.
39:56I've done this for a while.
39:57Nice little treat, yeah.
40:00George quite liked riding. He had a really lovely little pony called Minstrel.
40:04George and his brother Ben, they like to ride the same pony, sit on the same big, which is a
40:08big wide 13-2 pony and just fight each other with book bags as they went down the road.
40:14Just smacking each other with the book bags on the way to school.
40:18For one reason or another, the next generation don't really have ponies.
40:23I think life's moved on a little bit. Everyone's got electric bicycles now.
40:26And that's made a huge impact on the amount of horses on the island.
40:29So, yeah, the few of us that are still left with the horses still love the horses and we're still
40:34going.
40:35You've done a great job, George. Well done.
40:39Another good job.
40:48330 miles away, the calf of man sits south of its big neighbour, the Isle of Man.
40:5425 people used to live and farm here.
40:57Now it's a nature reserve with four wardens who stay for nine months each year.
41:03Kate and her assistant, Dom, are the estate wardens and they've been here for five months since March.
41:09They generally work six days a week, but today is a day off.
41:16For now, for dolphins.
41:23I'm very lucky that the work that I do, I do enjoy doing it.
41:27There are times where you do kind of just want to take a bit of a break.
41:32One of the best things I like to do is just kind of go out for a bit of walk,
41:35do a little bit of bird watching,
41:37go for sea swims as well, or even just come and sit somewhere and just look out to sea.
41:42Enjoy the peace, enjoy kind of the tranquility of island life, because while you're here, you've got to kind of
41:49make the most of it,
41:49give yourself that time to appreciate being here and slow down.
41:56Although his dad is originally from the Isle of Man, Dom was brought up in Oxford.
42:00This is his first experience of island life, and on his days off, he likes to fish.
42:07The summer seas are warm and the plankton is blooming, attracting grey mullet, mackerel, pollock and cod.
42:18This morning we're down in an area of the cast called the puddle.
42:22We're hoping to fish for some calig, or as they're called in the rest of the world, pollock.
42:27So the best method for catching calig is using lures.
42:32And I'm hoping that the calig, which are a predatory fish, will come along,
42:36assume that's a tasty morsel, and then end up with me for dinner.
42:42This is my dad's old gear, in fact.
42:44And he was fishing with this on the Isle of Man for 50 years, really, in the past.
42:49So...
42:54What have you got?
42:55We've got a hope, it's a calig. Oh, it is indeed.
42:58Quite an impressive one as well.
43:01That's the biggest that I've caught here.
43:15What do you think, a couple of courgettes?
43:17A couple of courgettes and potatoes for the fish cakes tonight.
43:20It's going to be so good.
43:25The allotment is one of our little projects where it's nice to keep it going, because when
43:29people used to live in the farmhouse, when they were actually working the land, this would
43:33have been how they grew a lot of their food.
43:35Oh, look at the size of that one!
43:37Whoa!
43:38We do get our food order from Tesco, which is great, but I think knowing that we've
43:42actually grown this ourselves is really nice, and it's all organic.
43:46It's so rewarding, seeing it on your plate and thinking, we've grown this or we've caught
43:50it, is really, really good.
43:52They just keep coming up.
43:53No, some of these are massive.
43:55Turns out we're excellent at growing potatoes.
43:57I knew!
43:58Obviously we are on a nature reserve, so we do need to be really careful.
44:02So in terms of biosecurity, for example, when we had the potatoes come in or any of the
44:07plants, we had to either grow them from scratch or have sterile plants because of things like
44:11invasive flatworms in the soil, little things like that that you might not even think of.
44:15You just go to a garden centre, get a plant and then stick it in the ground.
44:18We can't do that here.
44:19We have to be really careful just to protect what we've got.
44:22I've only told they're organic radishes.
44:24What, because of the shape of them?
44:25No, because they've all been eaten.
44:27Let's just chuck two massive slugs out.
44:31They may be feral, but we're still clean.
44:34The other wardens are away on a bird survey today, so tonight's dinner is for two.
44:40I learn a lot of nice cooking tips from Dom, which is good.
44:43Yeah, he makes the best, like, garlic and herb pizza dip.
44:46Yeah, I think that's the other thing on here, is, like, if you want something and you've
44:49forgotten it in your weekly shop, you've just got to work out how to make it.
44:53Do you want Tata sauce in there?
44:54Are you going to do that?
44:55I could try it, but I don't think that...
45:00Well...
45:02Putting mine on top seems sensible.
45:04The presentation may not be Michelin-starred, but you would be hard-pressed to find a more
45:09beautiful restaurant or better dining companions.
45:13You've got to get on well with each other, but it's lucky because we do, which is nice.
45:17Yeah.
45:18I think it's a little...
45:19We're a little family, aren't we?
45:20Yeah, I think a lot of people who might apply to a role like this might be doing so to
45:25step
45:26out of society, but it's really not like that.
45:29It's more stepping into a very small one.
45:31Yeah.
45:32Hours of effort for this one small place.
45:44You get used to it.
45:45It's your day-to-day, just, like, all this wilderness, having the place to yourselves,
45:50how stunning it is, and then you go places where it's full of people.
45:52You don't just get a beach to yourself.
45:54There are cars everywhere and streetlights everywhere.
46:00I think a great many people would pay a great deal of money or do a horrible thing to live
46:04in a place like this.
46:05Yeah.
46:05We're very lucky in that we haven't had to do either.
46:35not have to do it either.
46:39Bigger!
46:43That's a great stuff.
46:43Good looking at you sort of all around the world around this world.ONEY!
Comments