 | | | | | PROGRAMME INFO | | | |
| | | From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Open Country travels the UK in search of the stories, the people and the wildlife that make our countryside such a vibrant place. Each week we visit a new area to hear how local people are growing the crops, protecting the environment, maintaining the traditions and cooking the food that makes their corner of rural Britain unique.
Email: [email protected] Postal address: Open Country,
BBC Radio 4, Birmingham, B5 7QQ. | | | | | LISTEN AGAIN | | | |
|
|
| | PRESENTER | | | |
|  | | | | More about Helen Mark | | | | |
| | | | | | PROGRAMME DETAILS | | | |
|  | | Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire | |
Helen Mark visits the scenic fishing village of Robin Hood's Bay in North Yorkshire. The coast curves along a rocky shore with scaurs of rock running out to the sea. The small town was once a more prosperous and important fishing centre than Whitby. In the 1820s there were 130 fishermen sailing 35 cobles and five large herring boats. But the bay itself isn't big enough for a proper harbour and, as the size of fishing boats grew, the industry declined. Today it's best known for its locally-caught crab. The origins of the name are unknown but it might refer to Robin Goodfellow, the original Puck.
It's a place also known for its wild winter weather - with the North Sea battering the coast. It was not until 1975 that a strong sea wall was built to protect the village from the sea and it's the highest in Britain, 40 feet high and 500 feet long.
 | | Harry Collet | |
Harry Collet is a Story Walker and he shows Helen round the ginnels and alleyways of the village. Smuggling during the 18th and 19th centuries was rife and Robin Hood's Bay was ideal for the purpose. Harry tells tales of the ways the villagers secreted contraband away from the houses and inns with connecting cellars and cupboards and it was said that "a bale of silk could pass from the bottom of the village to the top without seeing daylight". Harry talks about the excise men being bamboozled by coffins being carried up the hill and across the moors containing, of course, smuggled booty rather than bodies.
Harry Collet
Down on the beach, marine biologist Tom Mallows from English Nature takes Helen in search of seaweed. The Bay is a Special Area for Conservation and Scientific Interest, with a very diverse range of species. In the rock pools they find the very rare coraline algae, which has a skeleton and an outer shell looking like coral.
English Nature
Back in the village outside a local pub Helen encounters Brian Kringel and John Grieves. Brian is a relative newcomer to the town - only living there for 30 years. John was born and bred in the area. Together the men reminisce about the village past and present, and sing songs of the Bay, both old and new.
As night falls, Helen walks out on to the sea wall to meet local UFO investigator Russ Kellett. The coast around the Bay is a fruitful one for spotters of strange things in the skies (there have been several sightings reported to local radio stations in recent weeks alone). And after experiencing a curious happening himself in 1988, Russ has devoted his life to following up and logging such sitings and incidents. Although a sceptic to begin with, he is beginning to think that there really is something out there.
Russ Kellett
The following day the sun shines bright again and Helen meets up with local fossil enthusiast Richard Bell. The geology of the area is largely Jurassic and the boulder clay contains a wealth of ancient marine life. Fossil stories abound in the Bay - after thunderstorms if people found cuttle-fish fossils they would believe they had discovered a thunderbolt. And squid fossils are known as "devil's toenails". Richard's passion for all things sedimentary led to his book Yorkshire Rock - a sort of comic strip version of 600 million years of Yorkshire's past, inspired by Herge's Adventures of Tin Tin.
Richard Bell's Nature Diary
The BBC is not responsible for external websites | | |
RELATED LINKS
BBC Holiday Category
BBC Countryfile
| | |
| | | | | | |  | | | | | | | | | Audio Help | | | | | | PREVIOUS PROGRAMMES | | | | | Current Week
Last Week
The A44
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire, River Don
Aberfan
Alderley Edge, Cheshire
Ancient buildings
Anglesey
Applecross Peninsula
Aran Islands
Armistice Day, Somerset & Sussex
Auxiliary Units
Bardsey Island
Batsford Park Estate, Glos
Berkshire
Berwyn Mountains
Birdsong
Blackwater Estuary, Essex
Blaenafon
The Blean, Kent
Bosworth Field
Brecon Beacons
Buckinghamshire
Butterflies
By Brook Valley
The Cairngorms
Caithness
Cambridgeshire
Carmarthenshire
Cheddar Gorge
Cherwell Valley
Cheshire: Harrop Valley
Chesil Bank
Clee Hills, Shropshire
Climbers
Corfe Castle
Cornwall
Cornwall: Cape Cornwall
Cornwall: Padstow Lifeboat
Cornwall: Roseland Peninsula
Cotswold
Cotswold Way
County Clare, Ireland
Cranbourne Chase
Cumbria: Eden Valley
Cumbria: Coniston Water
Cumbria: Sellafield
Cumbria
Daingean in Glengarry
Dee Estuary
Derbyshire
Devon & Somerset: Grand Western Canal
Donegal
Dorset
Dorset: Cranborne Chase
Dorsetman
Dowsing
Dunalastair
Durham
Durham: Witton Park
East Anglian Churches
Eden Valley in Cumbria
Eigg
Eire: Co. Mayo
Eire: Skibbereen
Eire: West Cork
Elan Valley, Wales
Eshott, Norhumberland
Essex
Essex: coastal
Exmoor, churches
Falkirk
Farne Islands, Part 1
Farne Islands, Part 2
Fenn's, Whixall & Bettisfield Mosses National Nature Reserve
The Fens
Fife
Flanders
Forster Country
Glencoe Mountains
Glencoe
Gloucestershire
Goa
Goodwin Sands
Gower Peninsula, June 2006
Gower Peninsula, October 2005
Grouse shooting
Guernsey
Hadrian's Wall 2003
Hadrian's Wall 2004
Hambledon Cricket Club
Hampshire: Odium
Hampshire: Selborne
Hardcastle Crags
Heart of Wales Railway
Hebden Bridge
Herefordshire
Hertfordshire
Hidden Treasures
High Weald, Sussex
Holy Island
Ilmington
Isle of Gigha 2004
Isle of Gigha, 2005
Isle of Man - Seas
Isle of Man
Isle of Wight, 2003
Isle of Wight, 2005
Izak Walton
Kent: Dover
Kent: Dungeness Peninsular
Kent: North
Kielder Water
Kinver Edge
Kingham, Oxfordshire
Lake District
Leicestershire: Bosworth Field
Leicestershire: death rituals
Lincolshire farming
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Loch Morar
Looe Island
Ludlow
Lunar Influence
Don McCullin
Richard Mabey
Marsden, West Yorkshire
Mary Towneley Loop
Mersea Island
Mersey Marshes
Metal Detectingg
Mid-Wales
Morecambe Bay
Moel Findeg, North Wales
Morecombe Sands
Nant Gwrtheyrn
National Forest
New Forest
Newton Dee, nr Aberdeen
Norfolk Broads
Norfolk: Thetford Forest
Norfolk: North Norfolk coast
North Devon Combes
Northants: Sulgrave Manor
Northants: Underground
Northern Ireland: Belfast
Northern Ireland: Border Counties
Northern Ireland: Moneypenny's Lock
Northern Ireland: Sperrin Mountains
Northern Ireland: Strangford Lough
Northern Ireland: Toomebridge
North Norfolk Coast
Northumberland, part 1
Northumberland, part 2
North Wessex Downs
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire Moors
North Yorkshire Moors Railway
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire: Sherwood Forest
Oak Trees
Offa's Dyke
Orford Ness
Orkneys
Out Skerries, Shetland
Outward Bound
Oxfordshire
Peak District
Peak District
Pembrokeshire Coast
Pentland Hills
Perthshire
Poachers
Pony Club
River Severn
Romney Marsh
Rutland Water
Scilly
Scotland: Abernethy Forest
Scotland: Loch Morar
Scotland: Shetland
Scotland: Strathclyde
Scotland: What value the countryside?
Scottish Borders
Sefton Coast
Self-sufficient communities
Severn Valley Railway
Shropshire: Ellesmere
Shropshire: Much Wenlock
Shropshire and Wales, Newport
Skegness
Skomer Island
Snowdon
Snowdonia National Park
Somerset Levels
Somerset Levels
Somerset: Montacute House
Somerset writers
South Downs
South Somerset: watermills
Southwold
Spurn Peninsular
Start Bay
Stour Valley
Survival
Sussex
Sutherland, Scotland
Tamar Valley
Thornham Estate, Suffolk
Thurstonland Cricket Club
Twyford Down
Tyntesfield, North Somerset
Village Life
Terry Waite
Wales
Wales: Flatholm Island
Wales: Nant Gwrtheyrn
Wales: Snowdonia
Warwickshire: rare breeds
Wayoh Reservoir
Wenlock Edge
West Sussex
West Yorks: Calder Valley
Weston Common, Surrey
Wild boar
Wiltshire
Wiltshire: Savernake Forest
Women's Institute
Wroxeter
Yorkshire Dales, June 2002
Yorkshire Dales, 1 July 2006
Yorkshire Dales, 8 July 2006
Z to Z Britain
Open Country looks back 2003
| | | | | MESSAGE BOARDS | | | | | Join the discussion:
The Learning Curve
Pick of the Week
Questions, Questions
Woman's Hour
Word of Mouth | | | | | RELATED PROGRAMMES | | | | | Excess Baggage
Changing Places
Similar programmes this week on Radio 4
| | |
|
