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00:06Just taking in this desolate, mysterious, very cool landscape and thinking about the years of
00:13history here. All the people that worked here, all the stories and all the secrets. Some of them
00:19that we'll just never know.
00:51The coastline of the UK is always changing and nowhere shows it more clearly than our
00:58east coast. It looks like a big old landslide doesn't it?
01:01It does.
01:02Where relentless tides, erosion and development are steadily reshaping the shoreline. But amongst
01:10the shifting landscape, whoa, habitats are being rebuilt.
01:15It's like a massive, epic mud pie. Traditional industries are evolving.
01:22This is when it normally nudges me to say you're too slow.
01:26And nature is reclaiming abandoned frontiers.
01:29Is that seals?
01:30That's seals.
01:32Over four Countryfile specials, I'll be on a coastal road trip. Travelling up the Essex
01:37coast and into Suffolk.
01:39Along the way I'm going to be meeting the people who are learning to work and live along
01:44the sea. And discovering how both coastal communities and wildlife are adapting to their
01:50changing environment. And we'll look back into the Countryfile
01:57archives, unearthing the ways... Amazing, isn't it? That something as delicate
02:02as that has survived for 3,000 years. We've navigated a changing landscape.
02:07Would you like to release it? I would love to. How cool is that?
02:17The final stop on my East Coast road trip is the mysterious Orford Ness, a barren spit of
02:23land off the Suffolk coast, exposed to the North Sea.
02:28So, we've crossed over from Essex. We are now in the County of Suffolk. I'm on my way
02:34to Orford Ness. Once a top secret military testing facility. And for a long time, nobody
02:42knew what it was. But bombs have given way to birds, as nature has reclaimed this bit of
02:49exposed shingle coastline. And today, it's transformed into one of Britain's most protected natural
02:55landscapes. And I cannot wait to see it.
03:08And that's it. We've reached the end of the road. Is that where I'm going? Wow. Look at that. A
03:19deserted landscape. I cannot wait to get onto that island. What is happening over there?
03:31I have no idea this existed. These secret places with so much history and so many stories.
03:39I've got a feeling the closer I get, the weirder it's going to become.
03:44The windswept site was sold by the Ministry of Defence in 1993 to the National Trust. Local
03:52volunteer and keen historian Bill Parker is giving me a guided tour.
03:59Hello, Bill. Hi, Anita. How are you? Welcome to Orford and welcome to Orford Ness. Thank you so much.
04:05I'm very excited. Lovely to meet you. Welcome. Here's your life jacket. Essential. Right. Orford Ness. Here we come.
04:13Absolutely. Brand new place for me. It's a wonderful place to go.
04:16Why? What makes it wonderful? It's a dynamic coastline so it's always changing. It's fantastic wildlife and there's a whole
04:23secret military establishment over there. So what's not to like?
04:27Sold. And what's your connection to it?
04:29My dad used to work for the Royal Aircraft Establishment from between the mid-1930s to the late 50s. And
04:37I'm told he used to come over here. So I joined the volunteer at the National Trust to see what
04:44he did.
04:44Because you never knew? No. So his job was top secret? Absolutely. He used to come here to work. But
04:51the thing is, I haven't found anything.
04:53Yeah. It's an island of secrets. I see. An island of secrets. Well, let's see what we unearth when we
04:59get there. Absolutely.
05:01When did they build it? When did they create it? Like, what's the first sort of what we know about
05:05this place?
05:06This was bought by the War Office in 1913 as an airfield, because they were short of airfields. And they
05:12needed somewhere windy, so they obviously picked a good place.
05:15And then it was used as a military establishment for 70-odd years. So there's a lot of...
05:19First World War and Second World War. And Cold War. And Cold War. So a lot went on here.
05:24Absolutely. I'm excited. Imagine all the people that have stepped onto this jetty.
05:29Well, in the First World War, there were 600 people working over here, plus 2,000 to 3,000 prisoners
05:34of war.
05:39As we step onto dry land, it's time for my orientation.
05:44What a place! Already has a vibe.
05:47So here's a map of where we are. Yep.
05:49OK, so we've landed on the jetty here. Got you.
05:52And we're going to be working our way across onto the shingle here.
05:56Orford Ness is about 10 miles long.
05:59And its widest point is about a mile.
06:01And what was this used for? What do we know about Orford Ness?
06:06Orford Ness is a military testing station, so they used to research weapons and techniques and so on from 1915
06:16up to the early 1980s.
06:18Right.
06:18So there's 70 years of military research has occurred over on the Ness.
06:22Where to first?
06:23OK, so we're going to make our way across to the street, as it's known, is here, and we can
06:29then look at some of the artefacts that are over there.
06:33Because this is a testing site for 70 years, please don't touch anything that's metal that looks interesting, that's sticking
06:39out of the shingle.
06:40They reckon that between 25 and 40% of the ordnance that's on the Ness was cleared in the five
06:47years when the bomb disposal team were here.
06:49But where the rest of it is, we don't know.
06:52So if we stick to the paths and the roads, we'll be fine.
06:55Yeah, I don't want to come across any unexploded bombs.
06:57No.
06:57Not today.
06:57Not today.
06:58Let's go.
06:59All right.
07:05Just want to show you something in here.
07:07OK.
07:08Just duck in through this doorway.
07:11Ha!
07:15So let's have a look at what's under here.
07:17What have you got under here?
07:18What's my first surprise?
07:21What is this?
07:23This is a nuclear bomb.
07:25No way.
07:27An actual nuclear bomb.
07:28This is a bomb that they tested on Orford Ness here.
07:32They tested to make sure it was stable so that when it was flying and it was being flown in
07:36a plane, that it didn't go off unexpectedly.
07:39So this is a small one, but this is one of the nuclear bombs.
07:42Goodness me, how utterly terrifying.
07:44It is.
07:45It's scary that this has got a potential of being somewhere about half the impact of the Hiroshima bomb.
07:51Do you know what?
07:52This is such a strange experience as a child who grew up during the Cold War.
07:56Absolutely.
07:57And the threat of nuclear war left, right and centre and it all being part of my childhood.
08:02Can I touch it?
08:02Of course you can.
08:04This was part of Britain's nuclear arsenal from about 1966 to 1998.
08:09The Atomic Weapons Research Establishment tested vibration, drop testing, so they slammed them onto a concrete base, they heated them
08:19up, they froze them, they did all these different things in order to make sure that the fuse mechanism was
08:25stable and robust.
08:29We're told that there was no nuclear material was ever on the island, but it's an island of secrets, so
08:34who knows?
08:35That is terrifying.
08:37Absolutely.
08:38Oof.
08:39It's kind of...
08:41It is, it's a very, er...
08:43I don't know, it's quite a lot to take in, really, isn't it?
08:46Yeah.
08:46That's just wild.
08:48I did not expect to see a nuclear bomb today.
08:51No, well, you never know what you're going to find in Orford Ness.
08:59Before the military arrived in 1913, Orford Ness had been largely uninhabited for centuries.
09:05Because to make life on these exposed strips of land, with the North Sea battering away, you've got to be
09:13made of pretty tough stuff.
09:15As Sean discovered last year at the tip of the Holderness Peninsula in East Yorkshire.
09:24Life on Spurn Point is not for the faint-hearted.
09:28As much as people have tried to tame this landscape, the elements are in collusion, making life a real challenge
09:35here.
09:35But despite this, throughout the shifting sands of its history, people have settled, built and farmed here.
09:43In 1965, BBC Tonight visited Spurn Point and met some residents who relished the remoteness.
09:52Well, I think you have to live at the point to appreciate the pleasures that you can get from being
10:00here.
10:02Don't you look forward to going into Howell?
10:04Well, it's very nice once a month, but I'm always pleased to get back to the point.
10:10Someone who knows all too well the challenges faced by each generation that's lived here is historian Nick Jackson.
10:18Nick.
10:19Sean.
10:20Great to meet you.
10:20And you.
10:21What a fantastic place to meet.
10:23It's a special place, isn't it?
10:25Very exposed, though, with the North Sea just over there.
10:28Oh, yes.
10:28It's battering us, even on a nice day like this.
10:30Absolutely.
10:31There's not much to stop it coming across.
10:33No.
10:33I can imagine these groins have been really important throughout history.
10:37Well, these are actually the old sea defences.
10:40These defences were built by soldiers in the Second World War.
10:44There was a camp of Italian prisoners of war just in the next village in Kilncy, and they were actually
10:51used to help build these as well.
10:54This place has seen quite a lot of military action.
10:56It would have been quite busy for the military here.
10:58Oh, very much.
10:59The main build-up was between the First World War and the Second World War.
11:03You can see it lying on the beaches, the various debris.
11:06Yeah, I can see stuff out here.
11:08And who else made this place their home?
11:10There's been people on Spurn for thousands of years out in the North Sea.
11:15There are several villages.
11:16The most important one is a village or a town called Ravensarod.
11:21It was so unique because it almost evolved from the sea in early 1200s, and by the end of that
11:28century, in 1299, it got a royal charter to become a borough.
11:33They had a church, they had a prison, they had their own customs buildings, they had Quayside, and it was
11:39massive.
11:39Where is it now?
11:40It washed away.
11:41Oh, Jesus.
11:42By 1360, it had gone completely.
11:46So there's nothing left.
11:49One building standing strong against the elements is the Spurn Lighthouse.
11:55Built over 130 years ago, it's become an iconic landmark for the point.
12:01It's 39 metres high, with walls as thick as a metre and a half.
12:07Helping this Grade II listed building withstand the forces of nature is a team of devoted volunteers, headed today by
12:15retired geography teacher Simon Davis.
12:18He's one of the volunteers.
12:20He's one of the volunteers, isn't he, and I'll leave you to it.
12:22Okay.
12:22Right, looks like you're busy.
12:23You've got lots on.
12:25Do you fancy helping?
12:26I can do a bit of polishing.
12:27How long have you been here?
12:28Well, I first came down here in 1970, early 70s, 71, 74, I was at the university.
12:35You must have seen some changes in your time here.
12:37You know, nature's gradually reclaiming the place.
12:40Really?
12:41Because, of course, the army were here, the lifeboat people were here, and they've now all left.
12:45They've got a picture here of what it was like in the 70s.
12:51So here you've got the lifeboat cottages, where the lifeboat people used to live.
12:56These were knocked down in 75.
12:59Right.
12:59And it's fascinating, because that's a proper house.
13:02That could be a street in Central Hull.
13:04Yeah.
13:05There were ten houses there, with the families.
13:08And then this little building here, at the end, actually was the schoolhouse.
13:13So the kids went to school here.
13:14The kids had a school down here.
13:15And families.
13:16Yeah, that's right.
13:17And nature's just come back in.
13:19Half the buildings that are left are now filled with sand.
13:22Simon, how does that make you feel, having been here for so long and seen those changes?
13:26You know, it's life, you know.
13:27Things do change.
13:29But, I mean, the place, Spurn itself, it's, if you like, it's going back to being wild again.
13:34Right.
13:34Without man's interference, you know.
13:37So that's what I like about the place.
13:39But does everyone appreciate the wild, shifting nature of Spurn Point on these shores?
13:45Joanne Clubley is a fourth-generation farmer whose land shares the same coastline as Spurn Point.
13:52Along with partner Mark, they've been farming on the front line.
13:56The farm was rented by my great-grandfather.
13:59He got that in 1927.
14:01And then, after World War II, my grandad then bought it.
14:05Your family goes back to 1927.
14:08I mean, farming's in your veins.
14:09This land is in your veins.
14:11Yes, it is, yes.
14:12It's in your DNA, isn't it?
14:13It's a beautiful spot.
14:15But it must come with challenges, given you're right on the coast, right on the North Sea here.
14:19Yes, it does.
14:20Because we lose approximately two metres a year.
14:23Two metres of land a year?
14:25Yes, a year.
14:26I'm looking at this field.
14:27We are on the coast, aren't we?
14:29We are.
14:29So this field gets two metres shorter every single year?
14:34Yes, it does.
14:35And you're smiling, but how does that make you feel?
14:38We just learn to accept it.
14:41So, yeah, over the years we've just become sort of immune to the feeling,
14:47because there's nothing that we get for it.
14:49It's just one of those things, nature takes it.
14:51Yeah.
14:52So we just have to live with it.
14:54What do you think about the future of this place, then, the farm and the coastline here?
14:59We've got Charles, which is my nephew.
15:01He's our fifth generation, and he's very optimistic, the same as we all are.
15:05I think over time it will disappear, but we love it here.
15:11So we'll just keep doing what we have to do until, well, we can no longer do it.
15:22Storms last Christmas cut Spurn Point off when the road gave way to erosion.
15:27Repairs are now underway, but it's a pretty stark reminder that this is no easy place to live.
15:40My adventure continues on the dystopian Orford Ness,
15:44with historian Bill Parker walking me through the Spitz' secretive military history.
15:51Well, this is quite the view.
15:54This is the best place to view the whole of the island.
15:59This is known as the Bomb Ballistics Building.
16:02In 1933, they built this building so they could put all the technical equipment,
16:07so they could track how bombs fall out of aircraft.
16:10Why was this area so well suited to testing bombs?
16:14It's flat.
16:15It's away from public gaze.
16:18Does anyone know what it was whilst it was being used in all that time?
16:21It was very much a don't ask.
16:24And some of the people who used to work on the site used to say that they would never ask
16:28what the person next to them was doing because it was just deemed that you worked on your particular issue.
16:35You know the word boffin?
16:36Yeah.
16:37That stands for Back Office Information.
16:40So the only people who really did know what was going on here were those who were working in the
16:44back offices on the logistics and all those types of things.
16:46The boffins.
16:47What was that building there?
16:48What looks like a lighthouse?
16:49That is known as the Black Beacon.
16:52It was built in 1929.
16:54It had a rotating aerial in it and it was one of the very first aerial navigation systems.
17:01You see this big concrete ring that was here?
17:04It was developed as an over-the-horizon radar to try and monitor any nuclear explosions.
17:10If anyone else was testing?
17:12Absolutely.
17:13It bounces signals off the ionosphere, off the high sky.
17:16Yeah.
17:17And that can go all the way around the world whereas a normal radar can only do line of sight.
17:22I've got some photographs of it.
17:24So this is an amazing structure.
17:26It looks like a roller coaster.
17:27What is that?
17:28OK, so it is 50 metres across and then this helix, that's 33 metres long.
17:35So it was based on there and used to rotate and track around that ring.
17:41There's been a lot of speculation about what this ring was for because nobody knew.
17:45Wow.
17:46Until when?
17:47Last year.
17:48God.
17:49So they kept it secret for that long?
17:51Some of my colleagues at the International Research Group for Orford Ness,
17:55they met the chief designer who's 94 years old and as sharp as anything in the States and he gave
18:00them lots of information on these pictures.
18:02And look at this, this just looks like something from NASA, doesn't it?
18:06It is.
18:06It's proper, I mean it is, it's future technology.
18:09So for two and a half to three years this was operating 24 hours a day monitoring whether there were
18:14any nuclear explosions around the world.
18:15Which is ironic considering this place was designed to test nuclear weapons.
18:20Yes.
18:20And it was a really useful place to have it because it's got a clear view of the horizon and
18:25also there's very little population so there's not a lot of other noise to interfere.
18:29That's so cool, there's so much history here.
18:32I'm just trying to picture what this might have been like.
18:35There would have been planes flying low overhead because all the planes flew over here whichever bomb route they were
18:41on.
18:42It was real cutting edge technology and all sorts of things.
18:45Bill, you are the font of all Orford Ness knowledge.
18:49You know every little bit of detail.
18:52It is such a unique landscape, there's wonderful wildlife, so many secrets and hidden buildings and so on.
18:59It attracts you and absorbs you and you just get involved with it.
19:03Weapons testing stopped in the 1980s with the military moving out soon after, leaving Orford Ness for nature to reclaim.
19:14Just taking in this desolate, mysterious, very cool landscape and thinking about the 70 years of history here, all the
19:22people that worked here, all the stories and all the secrets, some of them that we'll just never know.
19:35Just as Orford Ness was taken over for military purposes, swathes of Dorset were too during the Second World War,
19:44as tens of thousands of Allied troops prepared for the invasion of Western Europe, as Charlotte discovered in 2024.
19:54It's not just the armed forces who played their part in the run-up to D-Day.
19:59Civilians, too, made enormous sacrifices.
20:06For the 225 residents of Tynum in Dorset, this meant losing their homes.
20:17In the winter of 1943, it was requisitioned by the War Office.
20:24Military historian Dr Stuart Mitchell has been researching the archival records to find out why this picturesque village, still frozen
20:33in time, was chosen to aid the war effort.
20:38Tynum and the surrounding countryside was chosen because it was relatively sparsely populated.
20:44It's also close to the coast, so it gave space for the newer weapon systems, new tanks with heavier armour
20:52and bigger guns to train with to give them the best preparation for D-Day.
20:59Tynum Village and some of the surrounding area was used in a couple of ways during the Second World War,
21:05the first was that the Women's Auxiliary Air Force was stationed here, the second was that the U.S. Army
21:13were brought in later in the war and stationed here in vast numbers in preparation for D-Day.
21:20It was just six days before Christmas in 1943 that the villagers were given as the deadline for leaving.
21:28They took their belongings, left their homes and looked forward to coming back once the war was over.
21:35A note was left on the church door for incoming troops.
21:40Please treat the church and houses with care.
21:43We have given up our homes where many of us have lived for generations to help win the war to
21:49keep men free.
21:50We will return one day and thank you for treating the village kindly.
21:55But they never got the chance to come back.
22:00So when the residents left, they took the organ with them to the nearby parish.
22:06The church today is deconsecrated, but they still hold remembrance services here.
22:19Today, the village and surrounding countryside is still being used by the Ministry of Defence, for many of the same
22:26reasons it was useful during the Second World War.
22:33After being out of bounds for more than 30 years, Tynum is now open to the public on most weekends
22:40and school holidays, allowing those with connections to the village to come back and visit.
22:48This is my parents' old home, small as it might be for five of them.
22:59Sheela Orchard's father was a shepherd in Tynum at the time of the evictions, and lived in Post Office Row
23:06with his wife and three children.
23:17Lovely photos.
23:20My mother's and father's wedding day, my family.
23:23That was my elder sister, my next brother, and then the other one that was born here, and that was
23:29Cyril.
23:30And now they've all passed and it's just me left.
23:37On the 16th of November, 1943, the village was issued with an evacuation notice.
23:43They were given just 28 days to leave Tynum.
23:48Sheela was born a few years later, in the family's new home, 11 miles away in Studland.
23:55But the village provides a special connection to her past.
24:00I guess this is the woods my brothers and sisters used to say they played in.
24:27It's the school where my brother and sister went a long time ago.
24:33The village school has been preserved, and looks much like it did on the day the doors were locked 81
24:39years ago.
24:41I would say they were 12 and 10 when they came here.
24:44They loved coming to school.
24:46I love to come and see my sister's work, which is on display here, and it's interesting,
24:51and the teacher's remarks at the end of it.
24:54It's just lovely coming back to see it, and her name on her coat peg in the hall.
25:02She came back many years ago, but she hadn't been back in all those years,
25:07and for her to see her work here I think was quite emotional.
25:11It's just memories.
25:12We love to come back.
25:13It just brings you back in time.
25:16We enjoy being here, and we still wander in and out of the cottages and the church.
25:21We just love it.
25:33It's Margaret, Stephen, Percy, and Cyril.
25:38I've never heard anything other than happy times here,
25:41and I've never heard anyone say they weren't happy here.
25:45My brothers and my sisters all enjoyed being here.
25:55The evacuation of Tynum may have played only a small part in the run-up to D-Day,
26:00but there's no doubt that the villagers' sacrifice did help prepare troops for what lay ahead,
26:05and six months later, British and Allied forces put their top-secret plan into action.
26:13D-Day, the day that would mark the beginning of the end of the Second World War, began.
26:20Almost 160,000 soldiers left the south coast of England to begin the invasion of mainland Europe.
26:38I'm at Orford Ness on the Suffolk coast, exploring one of the UK's most secretive shorelines to see how the
26:46place has evolved over the years.
26:49Since the military moved away from here in the 1990s, visitors have been allowed back, but only at certain times.
26:56And when you do visit, you have to stick to the past, because there are potentially still unexploded bombs out
27:03there.
27:03The upside is that it's given nature time to reclaim the land.
27:09Matt Wilson is the National Trust's Countryside Manager, and has been watching the wildlife thrive here.
27:18Hello, Matt.
27:20Hi, Anita.
27:21What a place.
27:22Yeah, it's impressive, isn't it?
27:24It's seriously impressive.
27:26Our vegetated shininga was what makes it so special.
27:29All the greenery grows on these ridges across the side.
27:32How has that happened? How has nature reclaimed this bit of land?
27:36The vegetated shingle is very rare in the UK anyway.
27:39Orford Ness is the largest vegetated shingle spit in Europe.
27:42Wow.
27:43And that's what makes it so special here.
27:45Those lichens and those plants form a special turf across the tops of the ridges.
27:48And within that, we've got thousands of species that are quite often specialists for these particular areas.
27:54And these buildings that we're looking at here in particular, these are called the pagodas locally,
27:58but these are technically Laboratory 4 and Laboratory 5.
28:01What went down in Laboratory 4 and Laboratory 5, do you know?
28:04So, we're not really sure.
28:06Because so much was covered by the Official Secrets Act, we don't actually know what's going on here.
28:10And then when the military came off site, they became derelict.
28:13And the National Trust took over the site in 1993.
28:16We surveyed all of the site and the buildings.
28:18The Ministry of Defence actually offered to demolish everything, level the whole site.
28:22But we kept these ones.
28:24They're somewhat iconic.
28:25There's only a handful of them in the world and two of them are here.
28:28May I take these and see what's going on?
28:30So, who have we got on the top of them?
28:32Because they've been derelict and undisturbed for so long, there's now vegetation that's on the top of these pagodas, on
28:37that roof space.
28:38And we've got some of our large gull species using them as nesting platforms.
28:42So, effectively, they're now artificial cliffs.
28:44How brilliant.
28:45And actually, the gulls don't care whether it's a cliff or the top of an old military pagoda.
28:49Not at all.
28:50So, what we'll have up there will be some of our herring gulls, so some of our largest gull species.
28:55And for this site in particular, lesser black-back gulls as well.
28:59They look very happy up there, sunning themselves.
29:01Absolutely.
29:02It's a great space for them.
29:03It's nice and safe.
29:04It's good for nesting.
29:05So, it's a soft material.
29:06So, it's the same shingle that's all around us.
29:08It's on top of that roof.
29:09It's close to their feeding sites.
29:11We've got big intertidal mud areas and the shore's just beyond us there.
29:15And they're not being disturbed.
29:16And also, relatively safe from predators as well.
29:18What else is doing well on this peculiar end-of-the-world landscape?
29:25We've seen quite a lot of brown hares.
29:27They do really well on this site.
29:28We've seen a few Chinese water deer.
29:31Bird species.
29:32We've got wetland birds and wading birds.
29:34We have some that are resident all year round, so some of our warblers and buntings.
29:37But then also, we have things like red shank, marsh harrier, of which we've got a couple
29:42of hares that nest on site.
29:43There's something really satisfying about nature taking over.
29:48Something that was used for such a man-made reason.
29:53And now we've got nature doing its thing and thriving.
29:56Because this was bobbing range for so long, there's so much unexploded bombs around that
30:01we do have to keep people off it.
30:03So actually, it reduces that disturbance, that human impact on some of the species that we
30:07have here.
30:08What do you think about it when you look at it?
30:10It's so different.
30:11From a geological point of view, it's been forming for 7,000 years.
30:14It's still a really dynamic coastal site.
30:17It's still changing.
30:18It's getting longer.
30:19It's getting narrower.
30:20From a wildlife perspective, I've never seen so many brown hares as I have on this site
30:24anywhere.
30:25I've seen quite a few.
30:26The hares love it here.
30:28Nature moving into these buildings and into this wider space, this landscape, it's one
30:33of the reasons why it's become one of the most important sites for nature recovery and
30:37nature full stop on the East Coast.
30:50Orford Ness isn't the only abandoned landscape where nature has staged a comeback.
30:57As Margarita found out when she visited Dungeness in Kent a few years ago.
31:04Looming large across this windswept landscape stand three concrete structures.
31:11Acoustic mirrors, remnants of the interwar period.
31:15They were built in the late 1920s and early 1930s as part of an experimental early warning
31:22system to detect approaching aircraft.
31:25However, they became obsolete shortly after the invention of radar in 1935.
31:34Reflecting the geology of the area, this concrete and the gravel on which it sits seem inhospitable.
31:40But life has found a way.
31:44Dungeness is one of the largest expanses of shingle in Europe.
31:48A place where the lack of soil and exposure creates a challenging environment for plant life
31:54to thrive.
31:55Naturalist and author Emma Mitchell has studied the secret to their survival.
32:02Emma, why is Dungeness so challenging for plants?
32:06Well, essentially it's a vast pile of pebbles and it started to build up five and a half thousand
32:12years ago.
32:13What we're talking about is an incredibly dry environment.
32:16It's got maritime winds and storms buffeting it.
32:20And of course, the surface of a pebble can get extremely hot on a sunny day.
32:25So it's brutally challenging for any plant life at all.
32:30So it's a challenging environment and yet it is green.
32:34There is so much growing here.
32:35So what's unique about Dungeness is that it's a place where plants have been permitted to
32:42come and grow because of the presence of lichens, which are pioneer organisms.
32:49So they can tolerate extreme dryness, beating down of the sun, high temperatures.
32:55So they came along first and started to knit the pebbles together.
32:59Then small amounts of seed heads and tiny particles of plant material would just blow here.
33:06That literally began to build up soil and then plants will start to colonise, which is
33:12astonishing.
33:13So this is the creation of new soil from a deeply stark environment.
33:19Dungeness is home to over 600 plant species, representing a third of all plant species found in the UK.
33:27Plants like viper's bugloss and sea kale thrive here.
33:33The vast sound mirrors surrounding us might seem like an odd location for a naturalist on the hunt.
33:40But their plain concrete surface has something to tell us about how life began and continues
33:46to thrive on the shifting shingle.
33:51Emma, when some people look at this, they may just see the sound mirror itself.
33:55When you're looking at the surface of this structure, what do you see?
33:59I see a tiny micro ecosystem that's being, it's begun to form due to the colonisation of lichen.
34:10And even in this little space, what can you see that's going on?
34:13Well, we've got at least four species here.
34:16And I can tell that just from the subtly different and very beautiful colours.
34:20And in fact, some lichens are used to dye yarn and produce beautiful kind of heath-like colours.
34:26We've got various greys and a pale whitish grey.
34:31And then here we have another one.
34:33It's almost neon, greenish-yellow.
34:36And what's interesting about this is that it's having a reproductive moment and it's created
34:42these tiny little cups on the surface.
34:44And that's where the spores actually are produced and dispersed from.
34:49What is it about these lichen that you adore so much?
34:53Well, not only are they adapted for these extraordinary ecological environments
35:00and are able to live where no life can live beforehand.
35:05Lichens are basically a symbiosis or a mutualism between at least two types of very different organisms.
35:13What we have here is a fungus living together in incredibly close proximity.
35:18Literally, the cells are next to one another, a fungus living with an alga.
35:24So that is a sort of plant living with a fungus.
35:28Or there's also sometimes a cyanobacterium also living with a fungus.
35:34Depending on the species, the combination is very specific to the individual lichen.
35:40But we have four different colours here.
35:42These represent four different species of lichen that have colonised the sound mirror here.
35:48So this is the start of something?
35:50It is very much the start of something.
35:52And you can see that they're starting to overlap here.
35:54They're starting to intermingle with one another.
35:56That can actually happen on the pebbles and then start to create this,
36:01what's essentially lichen heath, where the lichen start to create almost like a mat.
36:07And that's the beginning of soil.
36:08But we have it here, this very first step in the colonisation of Dungeness.
36:16Nature will continue to colonise these structures,
36:20eventually covering them in their very own intricate ecosystem.
36:31Entries for the Countryfile Photographic Competition in Aid of Children in Need are still open.
36:37And if you're interested in finding out more, here's John with the details.
36:42From dramatic landscapes to fleeting wildlife moments,
36:46there are certain things that really capture the feel of the season
36:50and make you want to stop and reach for your camera.
36:53And that's exactly what we want to celebrate in this year's photographic competition.
36:58Our theme is Signs of the Seasons.
37:01So get out into the summer with your cameras, join the next few weeks.
37:06But also check through your camera galleries for shots that you're really proud of
37:11that you might have taken in winter, autumn or spring.
37:14Because we want photographs that really show the beauty of the British countryside right through the year.
37:22It might be new life, finding its feet, a great seasonal spectacular or one of nature's miraculous little details.
37:32Or it could be the changing moods of the countryside, brooding skies, golden light, dramatic weather.
37:40And we certainly get a lot of that.
37:41But what we want and what we always get are your very best pictures.
37:47From all the entries received, 12 photographs will be selected to star in the Countryfile calendar for 2027.
37:55All in support of BBC Children in Need.
38:00Once all the entries are in, our panel of judges will choose the winning photos to appear in the Countryfile
38:07calendar 2027.
38:10Sold in aid of BBC Children in Need.
38:13And then the overall winning image will be chosen by you, the Countryfile viewers.
38:19Not only will that picture feature on the cover of the calendar,
38:23but the winner will also get a £1,000 gift card to spend on photographic equipment of their choice.
38:30And whoever takes the judge's favourite photo will receive a gift card for £500
38:35to spend on their choice of photographic equipment.
38:39You can enter up to three photographs in total that fit with the theme, Signs of the Seasons.
38:46To submit your photographs, go to bbc.co.uk forward slash countryfile,
38:51where you'll find a link to the entry form.
38:54Photographs that have won national or international competitions,
38:58or have been taken by professionals, can't be submitted.
39:01Pictures must have been taken within the UK, the Channel Islands, or the Isle of Man.
39:07And we can only accept online entries.
39:10All the details on how to enter the competition can be found on our website,
39:15plus the terms and conditions, and the privacy notice.
39:19The competition's submission period closes at 10am on Monday, the 27th of July, 2026.
39:27So now, it's over to you.
39:29The very best of luck, and we can't wait to see your Signs of the Seasons.
39:41I'm on the Orford Ness Peninsula,
39:43with the National Trust's Countryside Manager, Matt Wilson,
39:47an area where this clandestine coastline
39:50has turned into one of nature's most surprising success stories.
39:54So we're walking out across the Shingle to the seaward side of Orford Ness.
39:58One of the things that we've had here for the last five years is a new species.
40:02We've got grey seals that have formed a colony here on the Ness.
40:06And they weren't here before?
40:07They weren't here before.
40:08There's always been seals on the Suffolk coast, grey seals and common seals.
40:11There's harbour seals.
40:13But back in November 2021, after a storm, 200 hauled out onto Orford Ness.
40:18And is there any reason why that would have happened?
40:20Well, we think it was mainly that storm event,
40:21but also looking at the national picture,
40:23where colonies just get that bit too big, you get breakaway groups.
40:26Here, that November 2021, 200, and they stayed and they had pups.
40:31So they had 25 pups that first year.
40:33Are they here, though?
40:35They are here to stay, yes.
40:36Can we go and see?
40:37Yeah, absolutely.
40:39Let's do this.
40:41When viewing wild seal colonies like this one,
40:44you should always try to stay at least 100 metres away from them
40:48so they don't get disturbed.
40:53Is that seals?
40:55That's seals.
40:57So they've been up and down the coast all day today.
40:59Oh, my God.
41:01There's probably about 100.
41:02They're spaced over a big distance.
41:05And they're happy at the moment.
41:06They're hauled out, the tide's coming in,
41:08and so they're just drying out and resting at the moment.
41:11So the ones that are darker generally will be the adults.
41:13Yeah.
41:14And the ones that are much lighter silver colour
41:16are probably some of this year's pups.
41:18Oh, my gosh.
41:20They are so full of character, aren't they?
41:24Yeah.
41:24What's making it even funnier
41:25is the way their heads are just bobbing up and down.
41:28We can see you.
41:28We can.
41:30It's a good environment for them
41:31because it's such a large site.
41:33And it's a big beach as far as they're concerned.
41:35And that lack of disturbance from people.
41:37And they've got direct access straight out into the North Sea,
41:39so all that they need to do and go and feed is right out there.
41:42And this is perfect for them,
41:44particularly on a day like today with the sun shining.
41:46Absolutely.
41:47What a spot.
41:48So every year they've come back,
41:49and every year they've grown in number.
41:51We've gone from that 200 up to 800 adults
41:53on peak counts this year,
41:55and 25 pups born in 2021 to over 400 this year.
42:00So the colony's just growing.
42:01And what we're seeing now is that
42:03some of those pups that were born three, four years ago
42:06are now coming back and having their own.
42:08Wonderful.
42:08It's amazing to think what nature can do when it's left to its own devices.
42:12Absolutely.
42:13Give nature space, give it some quiet and lack of disturbance,
42:16and it moves in.
42:28Today at Orford Ness, there's a glorious blue sky,
42:32beautiful sunshine, freezing chill in the wind,
42:35but it's absolute perfection.
42:37What's the weather doing next week?
42:38Here's the Countryfile forecast.
42:47Hello.
42:48Temperatures this afternoon reached 28 Celsius across southeast England.
42:52It has been another very warm day.
42:53However, it is set to get hotter over the next few days across England and Wales,
42:58with temperatures eventually peaking at around about 33 degrees Celsius,
43:02with the hottest days probably Tuesday or Wednesday.
43:04The reason it's going to heat up is down to this layer of warm air out in the Atlantic.
43:08This has come from the tropical Atlantic.
43:10That gets moved to the southwest and then across the UK,
43:13where it will meet this ridge.
43:15That causes the air to descend down through the atmosphere.
43:17The air gets compressed, and that also causes it to heat up.
43:20So there's a few reasons why it's set to get a little bit hotter.
43:24Before we get there, though, we've got a bit of patchy rain around at the moment.
43:27There's not been a single drop recorded so far today in Wisley,
43:30where we've now had 39 consecutive days without any rainfall at all,
43:35with a similar picture, actually, across parts of southern Hampshire.
43:39Now, overnight tonight, there will be bits and pieces of rain around,
43:41mostly across the northwest of England and Wales,
43:44a little bit for West Scotland and Northern Ireland.
43:46But for most, little if any rain falling.
43:49Temperatures, for most, staying up into double figures.
43:51And tomorrow, looking at the weather picture,
43:53we've got cloud and bits and pieces of rain again,
43:55affecting northwestern areas of the UK.
43:57Whereas, for most of England and Wales, it should be another dry and sunny day.
44:02And it's going to be hotter as well.
44:03I think temperatures could well reach about 32 degrees Celsius
44:06across parts of southeast England.
44:08So you'll start to feel the heat really building
44:10across the southeast of England in particular.
44:13Heading into Tuesday, well, you might remember that the jet stream
44:16would be running close to Scotland.
44:17And here, we're looking at an area of low pressure developing.
44:20That's going to be bringing more rain.
44:21Now, for the Highlands, we've already had more rain than an average July.
44:25So this extra rain will certainly be pushing us over
44:28into it being a very wet month here.
44:30The rain also affecting other parts of Scotland.
44:33Bits and pieces of rain for Northern Ireland.
44:35Most of England and Wales dry and sunny and turning hotter.
44:39Now, temperatures will be reaching the upper 20s
44:41across parts of Wales.
44:4327 or so for Cardiff.
44:44The warmest spots East Anglia in the southeast,
44:46where we're looking at temperatures climbing again into the low 30s.
44:51For Wednesday, we still have weather fronts
44:53across Scotland and Northern Ireland.
44:54There will be some rain here, but it's quite a weak front.
44:57There will still be some spells of sunshine.
44:59It won't be raining all day.
45:00But temperatures on the whole will be kept into the low 20s here.
45:03Whereas across England and Wales,
45:04it's another very warm, if not hot day,
45:07with temperatures climbing widely into the high 20s
45:09and peaking into the low 30s.
45:11Maybe a 33 somewhere across East Anglia and southeast England.
45:15That is probably the last of the really hot days,
45:18because later in the week we see this weather front,
45:21this cold front, moving southwards and eastwards across the UK.
45:24It's another front moving into high pressure.
45:27It's going to be very weak.
45:28There'll be little, if any, rain again, I'm afraid,
45:30across parts of southern and eastern England.
45:31But that boundary will tend to drop the temperatures.
45:35Here it comes then.
45:35This little bit of cloud,
45:37a few spots of rain working in across the Midlands and Lancashire.
45:39Temperatures ahead of that still into the high 20s.
45:42But for the rest of the UK,
45:43more or less, we're looking at temperatures
45:44into the high teens to low 20s pretty widely.
45:47And that fresher air will have reached East Anglia
45:49and southeast England as we head into Friday.
45:52So maximum temperatures could just about reach 27.
45:55Breezy conditions for the northwest of Scotland,
45:57where again, we're looking at some showers
45:59or some longer spells of rain.
46:02Beyond that, as we look at the forecast through the weekend
46:04and into the following week,
46:05I think increasingly as we head towards August,
46:08there's a greater risk of seeing
46:09some more potent areas of low pressure
46:11and they could bring more general outbreaks of rain our way.
46:22I'm spending the day at Orford Ness on the Suffolk coast,
46:26a shoreline with a secretive past.
46:30What is this?
46:32This is a nuclear bomb.
46:34No way.
46:35An actual nuclear bomb.
46:37But since the military moved out,
46:40this land has been left alone,
46:42giving nature an opportunity to move in.
46:46We've got some of our large gull species
46:48using them as nesting platforms.
46:49So effectively, they're now artificial cliffs.
46:51How brilliant.
46:53And actually, the gulls don't care whether it's a cliff
46:55or the top of an old military pagoda.
46:57Not at all.
46:58Whilst the spit here has been shaped by the crashing waves.
47:05Further inland,
47:07the sea has the ability to transform entire landscapes,
47:11as Matt found out a few years ago
47:13just up the Suffolk coast at Hazelwood Marshes.
47:19Today, it's a salt marsh habitat
47:21and home to a rich variety of wildlife.
47:24But it hasn't always looked like this.
47:27To tell me the evolving story of this spot,
47:30I'm meeting Andrew Excell.
47:32He's the South East Suffolk Sites Manager
47:34for the Suffolk Wildlife Trust.
47:38How long have you been site manager here, Andrew?
47:40Oh, a few years now.
47:42I started here back in 2012.
47:44What did it look like when you first arrived here?
47:47This was a really quite pastoral scene.
47:50You know, lovely lush green,
47:52wet marshland, really, with cattle grazing it.
47:54The whole thing's interspersed with dikes, ditches.
47:57So very pretty,
47:58very traditional Suffolk coast grazing marsh.
48:02But on the night of the 5th of December, 2013,
48:05a storm surge breached the outer wall
48:08that protected this freshwater habitat.
48:10Six of my reserves,
48:12thousands of acres of land
48:14were completely underwater.
48:16It was initially looking quite devastating, really.
48:19And I could see that it wasn't just water
48:21that had come over the river wall.
48:22It had actually broken the river wall
48:25in two or three places.
48:27Rather than rebuild the outer wall
48:29and try to restore the freshwater habitat,
48:32the decision was taken to leave it to nature
48:34and let the saltwater tides take over.
48:40To check on exactly what new life they've ended up with
48:43at the now-saltwater hazelwood marshes,
48:45we've headed into the hide.
48:52Plenty of life out there.
48:54Yes, I can see quite a few oyster catchers.
48:56Yep.
48:57Much more likely to eat cockles and mussels than oysters.
49:03Around 30 different species and 2,000 birds a day
49:07can be spotted here,
49:08from red shanks to widgeons.
49:12There's an avocet just come into view.
49:14Mmm.
49:15There's petrol blue legs.
49:17You know, a signature bird.
49:19You know, it's, like I say, extinct.
49:21And then post-war,
49:22they started breeding again on the Suffolk coast.
49:25And we still have breeding avocet
49:27on the reserve here on these islands.
49:29I love the way they feed.
49:31That sort of side-to-side sweeping.
49:34You know, the beak is turned up,
49:36so they feed in the water itself
49:38rather than probing into the mud.
49:42Is that a curly who's just hiding in the grass there?
49:45Oh, right there.
49:47Yeah, that is, yeah.
49:48That's definitely curly.
49:49Our biggest wader.
49:52Well, there are clearly plenty of wading birds
49:55feeding in all the silt.
49:56And Andrew's asked me to help him to find out
49:58just how much the nutrient-rich marsh is building up.
50:02And joining us for some mud measuring
50:04is fellow South East Suffolk warden,
50:07Rachel Norman.
50:09It's looking pretty sludgy out there.
50:11Yeah, that looks perfect.
50:12Yeah, does it?
50:13Yeah.
50:14How sturdy is it underfoot?
50:15And are we going to sink?
50:16We'll sink a little bit,
50:18but hopefully not to a dramatic level.
50:20Great.
50:20Well, let's go for a wade stroke sink.
50:23Who knows what's going to happen?
50:25Glide.
50:26How far do you want the first stake?
50:29Shall we go around here?
50:30Yeah, somewhere around here.
50:32You can't stay still for too long, can you?
50:34No, you actually do feel yourself slowly going.
50:37I'm definitely getting lower.
50:41Oh, it's lovely seeing all of the footprints as well, though, isn't it?
50:44And the wading birds that have just left.
50:46Loads of footprints and loads of little tiny holes
50:48where they've been probing as well.
50:53So, keep going.
50:54It's gliding in nicely.
50:57Yeah, perfect.
50:58In an ideal world,
50:59what are you hoping to see here
51:00with the increase in the amount of silt?
51:03Some sites, you know,
51:04a good result would be something like
51:05two millimetres of accretion a year.
51:07But here, I mean,
51:08we've seen in excess of ten millimetres a year.
51:11Have you?
51:11Yeah, so it's incredibly fast.
51:13I mean, look how dark.
51:14I know, it's a really good matter.
51:17Look at the blackness on the bottom of my welly.
51:19It might not be the prettiest stuff,
51:20but it's full of nutrients,
51:22it's full of microscopic particles
51:24and all sorts of seeds from salt marsh.
51:27And obviously more silt is going to mean more food,
51:30it's going to mean more bird life,
51:31so, you know,
51:32who knows what this place is going to look like
51:33in the next 20, 30 years.
51:35And that's one of those things, you know,
51:36and we just don't want to interfere with it too much now,
51:39just let it happen at its own pace.
51:42Ten years after the catastrophic flooding,
51:45Hazelwood Marshes is a great example of nature
51:48snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
51:54The wildlife at Hazelwood Marshes
51:56and all along the estuary are continuing to thrive.
52:05While just around the corner at Orford Ness,
52:09it wasn't long ago that instead of seals surrounding the shoreline,
52:13it was wartime secrets.
52:16It's this unusual juxtaposition
52:18that's inspired many artists today.
52:23Like singer-songwriter Hayden Thorpe,
52:26who's had a 20-year career in music
52:28and has written an album all about this peculiar place.
52:33Oh, sounds great.
52:35Oh, thank you.
52:36Lovely.
52:37Nice to meet you, Hayden.
52:38Nice to meet you too.
52:39How did you first learn about this place?
52:42My brother, for one of my birthdays,
52:43gave me a book by Robert McFarlane.
52:45I just kind of became lost in this world of Ness.
52:49It's a world unto itself, a world within a world,
52:52and I crossed a threshold that I have yet to come back from.
52:56Robert McFarlane's book, which was about this landscape,
52:59just struck a chord with you.
53:00What happened next?
53:01We set up a little event
53:03where I was to play guitar to Rob's reading of Ness,
53:08and there was just some kind of eureka moment.
53:11Some epiphany happened, and we both realised,
53:13wow, there's something here.
53:15To help bring this vast landscape to life,
53:19Hayden has collaborated with the Syrinx Choir from South London.
53:27He nears Ness, he musumashes
53:31This march matches no one's gate
53:35He pours himself forwards
53:39Skipping, looping, flowing from all the...
53:43So where do you begin
53:44when you're writing music that reflects a landscape?
53:47The question I ask myself is
53:48what does an atomic English desert music sound like?
53:53So my starting point was Morricone,
53:55who created the Spaghetti Western soundtracks.
53:58I used this, my baritone guitar,
54:01because to me it's kind of the cowboy instrument.
54:04It kind of speaks of these arid, vast plains,
54:07and I went about converting Rob McFarlane's language,
54:10his epic poem, into song.
54:12All singing the high notes, the over sound
54:16From within the heap can hear, put your bird
54:20Shriek, devil, howler, and shriek, howl
54:24Right in the darkness for what's going on
54:28All singing the low notes, the undersong
54:33So tell me about the songs we're going to hear.
54:35One is called He.
54:36He is an interesting song.
54:38First and foremost, he, masculine, the masculine energy,
54:41and it's interesting, I see Ness as being versions
54:44of the ultimate machismo,
54:45and he kind of strips that back down
54:48and makes a mockery of it, really.
54:50You know, it's about the gulls
54:51and the different birds heckling
54:53and really making fun of that stupidity.
54:56Ever the jag and haggle of the gulls
54:57is the kind of refrain in the song,
55:00and it is really a mocking of that hyper-masculinity.
55:03And ever the jag and haggle of the gulls
55:06There is no trap as needle so it fled
55:10Black birds shaking like pennies and glass
55:14I've spent all day here
55:17truly trying to take it all in,
55:19and especially with the backdrop
55:21of what's happening in the world.
55:22You're in this place that for so long
55:25was about might and military and bombs.
55:27And nature has come back.
55:29Yes, I mean, how many spaces in the world
55:31are now devoid of human presence?
55:34It's an experiment to see what happens to a place
55:36when you take away the human presence,
55:38and it does really well.
55:39What does it feel like being here today?
55:41I mean, you've read about it,
55:42you've got a deep connection to it,
55:44you've written an album about this landscape.
55:46The thing about Ness is it's different every time.
55:48You can see on the horizon line
55:49the kind of heat makes the land shimmer.
55:53Yeah.
55:53You get this kind of warping horizon,
55:55and it adds to that very surreal feeling of being here.
55:59Proportion is all messed up.
56:01You know, you see hares that look the size of dogs
56:04and, you know, marsh harriers that look like pterodactyls
56:07and, you know, all kinds of strange goings-on.
56:10And it's cut off from the mainland.
56:12There's something about being on the other side,
56:15you know, the ferryman getting the boat across
56:17and something that happens.
56:19Eerie, poetic, apt.
56:21And part of why Ness is such a beautiful redemption story
56:24is the fact that nature won back.
56:27And I think that's why it's obviously made it
56:29such a life-affirming project,
56:31because it is that redemption story.
56:34And ever the dragon haggle of the gulls
56:38And ever the dragon haggle of the gulls
57:06I cannot stop smiling,
57:08because this trip has been extraordinary.
57:11What fun!
57:11Driving up through Essex and into Suffolk,
57:14meeting some brilliant characters
57:16and seeing how humans and nature
57:18are doing their bit to save our coastline.
57:21Next week, Adam is in the Ariri National Park
57:25meeting a young farmer taking on the family farm.
57:28Come by!
57:32Not easy moving ewes and lambs.
57:35No, they're quite protective, aren't they, as you can see?
57:37And they've got a mind of their own.
57:39Naughty little lambs.
57:41Oh, look, what's going on there?
57:42Oh, stop it!
57:44It does come off eventually.
57:46I can smell this silence.
57:48It's lovely, all homegrown.
57:49Is it?
57:49You made some good stuff.
57:51I enjoy being out in the field on my own with a dog.
57:54Nothing better, is there?
58:00On Thursday, your BBC local radio station will introduce you to people
58:04who get your food from farm to fork.
58:07Farm Watch 2026 is a 24-hour broadcast marathon
58:12that follows the twists and the turns of a day in the life of farming.
58:17For more information, search Farm Watch on BBC Sounds
58:20and listen to your BBC local radio station.
58:26What an incredible journey it's been.
58:28I'm just going to keep going.
58:29See you.
58:36On BBC iPlayer, design and architecture needs heart and soul
58:41to make the final of Wales' home of the year.
58:44And Sophie Willans seamlessly taking over the hosting duties
58:47on the Great British OMB.
58:49Watch now.
58:51Music
58:51.
58:52.
58:52.
58:52.
58:53.
58:53.
58:53.
58:53.
58:58.
59:03.
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