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| | | 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.
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Richard Uridge | | | | |
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|  | Point de la Moye
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Richard Uridge travels to Guernsey, the largest of the seven islands in the Bailiwick of Guernsey - curiously part of the British Isles but not of the United Kingdom. It's only 30 miles from France and 80 miles from the south coast of Britain. The name is thought to come from the Norse "Grenezay" or Green Isle and the island measures about 25 square miles with 20 bays and beaches, wooded valleys, spectacular cliffs, marshland and rolling countryside. The Gulf Stream warms the islands.
Guernsey Tourist Board
Richard is surprised to find that the island has attracted visitors as far back as Neolithic times. At L'Ancresse Bay he meets Heather Sebire, archaeology officer with the Guernsey Museum. From the Neolithic tomb at La Varde they look across a remnant buried landscape containing evidence of early farming, Medieval sand-blows, and many many generations of defences.
Guernsey Museum
Escaping from a brisk wind, Richard visits Gillian Lenfesty's cosy farmhouse kitchen. An expert on local costume, she explains the importance of the patterns on traditional Guernsey sweaters and how the medieval trade of knitting stockings on Guernsey changed court life in England by stopping the "Nora Batty" effect and the curious enmity between Guerney and Jersey, where your name is a dead give-away as to which island you come from.
Manor House Knitting
Richard's back out on to a blustery cliff to walk the Victor Hugo trail with Ian Shepherd. The author of Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame spent 15 years in exile on the island and spent hours walking along the cliff tops. He was captivated by the scenery - the harshness of its cliffs and the calm of the inland villages and, even after his return to France, he came back to the island several times. Richard and Ian walk to Point de la Moye to visit places mentioned in the book Hugo wrote about Guernsey - Les Travailleurs de la Mer (The Toilers of the Sea). The book's dedication says: "I dedicate this book to the rock of hospitality, to this corner of old Norman land where resides the noble little people of the sea, to the Island of Guernsey, severe and yet gentle".
Victor Hugo information
Richard's final port of call is to meet a very unusual visitor to Guernsey. GT1 is the unglamorous name of the first green turtle to be washed up alive on British shores. Martin Gavet from the Marine Biology Section of La Société Guernesiaise explains the life of these endangered creatures and John Knight (a vet with the GSPCA) shows Richard how they feed her minced squid and rocket salad through a tube to keep her strength up.
La Société GuernesiaiseMartin Gavet
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Yorkshire Dales, June 2002
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Yorkshire Dales, 8 July 2006
Z to Z Britain
Open Country looks back 2003
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