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OPEN COUNTRY

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	PROGRAMME INFO

	Saturday 6.10-6.35am Repeated Thursday 1.30-2.00pm


	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


	Listen to Open Country for 14 January


	PRESENTERS

	HELEN MARK and RICHARD URIDGE



	More about Helen Mark




	More about Richard Uridge


	PROGRAMME DETAILS

	Saturday 14 January
The Tamar Valley marks the border between Devon and Cornwall. Overgrown and wild now, the steep sides were once home to hundreds of families, each with a few acres, growing strawberries, apples and especially cherries. Every spare inch was cultivated and the produce sent off to the markets of Covent Garden and the great industrial cities of the north. But that has all gone. Today a handful of families remain and the valleys of the Tamar are returning to the scrub and woodland they once were. A beautiful, forgotten piece of England echoes to the sound of curlews and waders as a blanket of tranquility settles over the river and the valley that once fed England. Tamar Valley info Allen Dewitt lives in a boat on the River Tamar. He is an eel fisherman and loves his life. His father took him salmon fishing as a young boy and he has made a living from the river ever since. He knows every rock, tributary and fold of this valley intimately. He tells Richard of the wildlife and characters that have made the river their home. The swans and geese are his neighbours and curlews and waders fill the air with their calls - the river is his domain and it is his life. Mary Martin is an artist and orchardist. She has embarked on the task of preserving as many varieties of Cornish apples as she can. The old varieties, adapted and bred to fit the unique growing conditions of the valley are no longer needed and are being lost. Mary and her partner James have rescued them and see it as their duty to preserve the gene pool and grow as many Tamar valley apples as possible. Even the names of the apple tell a story, each one has a social and family history attached to it, so Mary's project of genetic preservation has become an act of preserving the social history of the valley. Tamar Valley events Natalie Allen has written extensively on the characters and language of the valley. Born and brought up in the parish of St Dominick's, she gives Richard a quick lesson in the Cornish dialect. Although rich and imaginative, the language too is endangered. Natalie's books and oral history projects are an act of preservation just as vital and valuable as Mary Martin's. Re-claimed by the elder and oak trees that used to grow there, the slopes of the Tamar Valley have reverted back to their natural state, wiping out any visible traces of its cultivated past, but the people of the valley require a tangible testament to their lives and the act of keeping the unique phrases and dialect of the Tamar Valley alive is one way of doing that. Natalie's books are a fitting tribute to these resourceful and resilient people. Email Open Country: [email protected] The BBC is not responsible for external web sites

	RELATED LINKS BBC Holiday Category BBC Country file