Open Country
Episodes
White Cliffs of Dover
26 Jul 2012
Contributed by Lukas
In a year in which the world will be looking in on Britain as we celebrate the Diamond Jubilee and host the London Olympics, Helen Mark goes in search...
Hampstead Heath Ponds
19 Jul 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Jules Hudson explores the waters of Hampstead Heath which have been used for over 200 years by champion swimmers and year round bathers. How and why d...
12/07/2012
12 Jul 2012
Contributed by Lukas
As the excitement mounts around London 2012 Helen Mark visits Much Wenlock, the birthplace of the modern Olympics, and explores the landscape around W...
Eels
05 Jul 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Helen Mark is in Gloucestershire to find out more about one of our most fascinating creatures, the eel, and hear why efforts are being made to save th...
Devon Farm Vet
10 May 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Jules Hudson shadows a farm vet in Devon. As the landscape has changed and farms have grown larger the role of the farm vet has changed also. A large ...
Northamptonshire Inspiration
03 May 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Uridge is in Northamptonshire to discover the inspirational landscape around Rockingham Forest.He meets musician, Nick Penny, who explains to ...
Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal
26 Apr 2012
Contributed by Lukas
As the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal celebrates its 200th anniversary, Helen Mark takes a boat trip to find out about the canal's importance to the S...
Herefordshire Churches
19 Apr 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Where might you find the spot where Saint George killed the dragon and the oldest complete set of medieval bells? The answer lies in the Herefordshire...
Drought
05 Apr 2012
Contributed by Lukas
As parts of the country face a hosepipe ban for the first time in 20 years, Jules Hudson is in Berkshire to find out how the drought is affecting the ...
29/03/2012
29 Mar 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Flat Holm is the most southerly point in Wales. The Island sits just off the Cardiff Coast. In 1982, the Flat Holm Project was established. The aim wa...
22/03/2012
22 Mar 2012
Contributed by Lukas
To celebrate the bicentenary of Charles Dickens, Helen Mark visits the Medway towns to find out how important a part the Kent landscape played in Dick...
02/02/2012
02 Feb 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Jules Hudson discovers an ancient landscape buried deep beneath the East Anglian fens which gives, possibly, the best idea yet of what life was like h...
26/01/2012
26 Jan 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Deep in the countryside of eastern England, British troops train in a mock Afghan village designed to look, feel, and sound like the real thing. The 3...
19/01/2012
19 Jan 2012
Contributed by Lukas
It's been seven years since hunting with hounds was abolished. But it's claimed the country's hunts, which no longer chase a live animal but a trail o...
Olympics
12 Jan 2012
Contributed by Lukas
This is the year of the London 2012 Olympic Games. In just 6 months time, 60,000 people are expected to flood into Weymouth and Portland every day for...
Knockando Woolmill
05 Jan 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Knockando woolmill, near Aberlour on Speyside, has produced fabric since 1784. Its original machinery has supported families down the centuries and th...
29/12/2011
29 Dec 2011
Contributed by Lukas
The fisherman’s gansey (a word thought to derive from ‘guernsey’) is a seamless woollen pullover worn by generations of seamen for work and at l...
22/12/2011
22 Dec 2011
Contributed by Lukas
This is one of the busiest times of year on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland Coast. Almost 1,500 seal pups are being born and almost half of t...
Snowdonia: Search and Rescue Dog Association
15 Dec 2011
Contributed by Lukas
The Search and Rescue Dog Association (SARDA) Wales is a specialist element of Mountain Rescue in England and Wales responsible for the training and d...
Lancashire: Shale Gas
08 Dec 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Does the British landscape hold the key to a new and revolutionary form of energy? Jules Hudson is in Lancashire to find out about shale gas, a by-pro...
03/12/2011
01 Dec 2011
Contributed by Lukas
British Waterways is responsible for over two thousand miles of canals and navigable rivers across the country. Next year, it is just one of many bodi...
24/11/2011
24 Nov 2011
Contributed by Lukas
In the second of two programmes on the Channel Islands, Open Country visits Jersey to find out what it was like to live on the Island during the Germa...
17/11/2011
17 Nov 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Today on Open Country, Richard Uridge visits what's known as the jewel of the Channel Islands. Herm stretches just a mile and a half long. The whole i...
10/11/2011
10 Nov 2011
Contributed by Lukas
It's been dubbed the foot and mouth of the tree world. Phytophthora ramorum or sudden oak death as its commonly known is ravaging forests across the U...
Horseback UK
05 Nov 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Helen Mark is in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire to find out how horses and the natural landscape of Royal Deeside are helping wounded and serving military pers...
The Dark Peaks
03 Nov 2011
Contributed by Lukas
On the 22nd July 1937 the 6 man crew of Heyford K6875 were briefed to carry out a night cross country exercise from RAF Leconfield in east Yorkshire, ...
Heather Moorland
10 Sep 2011
Contributed by Lukas
75% of heather moorland is found here in the UK. The North York Moors are perhaps best known for their glorious purple carpets and on Open Country Jul...
Neptune's Army of Rubbish Cleaners
03 Sep 2011
Contributed by Lukas
The 'Big Society' is alive and well in Pembrokeshire conservation. As grants are cut more organisations rely on volunteers to help keep our rarest hab...
The Devil's Beeftub
27 Aug 2011
Contributed by Lukas
17th Century Scotland was a troubled time. Immortalised by Sir Walter Scott the cavernous 'Devil's Beeftub' and the spectacular 'Grey Mare's Tail' wat...
Island Revival
20 Aug 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Just off the coast of Mull lies the tiny island of Ulva. For 200 years it has been virtually abandoned. The Highland Clearances saw the removal of mos...
13/08/2011
13 Aug 2011
Contributed by Lukas
The Wye historically has been England's greatest salmon river. However stocks have declined massively as a result of drift nets at sea, estuarine putc...
06/08/2011
06 Aug 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Ordnance Survey, the organisation responsible for mapping every inch of land in England, Scotland and Wales, was set up in 1791 as a military mapping ...
30/07/2011
30 Jul 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Dale Farm Traveller site in Essex was started in the 70's. It's now the largest Irish Traveller site in the UK and as the site has grown so has local ...
Northumberlandia
23 Jul 2011
Contributed by Lukas
How are the people of Cramlington reacting to the open cast mining in their area and to the creation of the largest replica of the human body in their...
The South Downs - An Inspirational Landscape
16 Jul 2011
Contributed by Lukas
The chalk hills of the South Downs and the rolling Sussex landscape are rich in history, culture and a traditional way of life. The valleys, the woods...
Trailblaze on the South Downs
09 Jul 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Why has a new scheme to encourage people onto our national trails upset some people? For the first of two programmes from Sussex, Helen Mark has her r...
Hay Meadows
02 Jul 2011
Contributed by Lukas
When we hear about the threat to some of our precious and important habitats, our minds often turn to the polar ice cap or the rainforests of the Amaz...
Foot and Mouth - Ten Years On
14 May 2011
Contributed by Lukas
When Foot and Mouth disease struck the UK in 2001, it caused a major crisis in agriculture and the British countryside. Hundreds and thousands of shee...
Welsh Highland Railway
07 May 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Helen Mark takes a ride on the new Welsh Highland Railway, which eaves Caernarfon and takes in the stunning Snowdonian landscape, before arriving at i...
Mingulay
30 Apr 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Barra, Vatersay and Mingulay are three of the southernmost islands of the Outer Herbrides and their shared history is one of survival by moving with t...
Herefordshire film
23 Apr 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Uridge is in Herefordshire at the annual film festival to hear why it's important to bring the cinema experience to rural areas. On a farm out...
Sherwood Forest
09 Apr 2011
Contributed by Lukas
For this week's Open Country, Richard Uridge is in the Birklands area of Sherwood Forest finding out about its ancient past when he visits Thynghowe, ...
Durham Heritage Coast
02 Apr 2011
Contributed by Lukas
The shores of the Durham coastline were once as black as the coal that was tipped into the waves that crashed onto them. But in recent years an amazin...
Edgelands
26 Mar 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Uridge explores the Edgelands around Manchester with poets Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts, who urge us to love the disregarded spaces...
Death on the Moors
19 Mar 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Ponies have roamed the moors of Dartmoor and Bodmin for years and are as much a part of the moors as the heathers that grow there. But is the very sur...
Weather in Wiltshire
29 Jan 2011
Contributed by Lukas
As a nation, we are obsessed with the weather. Studies have shown that over half of us talk about the weather at least once day and check the forecast...
Portbury Wharf
22 Jan 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Portbury Wharf lies on the land between Portishead and Royal Portbury Dock, adjacent to the Severn Estuary. Helen Mark visits the area's newest develo...
Yurts
15 Jan 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Snow, biting winds and a tent made to the design used by nomads in Ulaanbaatar ... but Richard Uridge hasn't travelled to Mongolia for this week's Ope...
High Speed Rail
08 Jan 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Uridge travels the route proposed for high speed rail in Buckinghamshire to find out what is so special about the countryside there that inspi...
River Thames
01 Jan 2011
Contributed by Lukas
The River Thames was recently selected as the winner of the international Theiss River Prize, an award which celebrates outstanding achievement in riv...
Mistletoe
25 Dec 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Owen Sheers is in Worcestershire to learn about the Druidic custom of gathering in the mistletoe. Each year it is harvested and blessed at the Mistle...
18/12/2010
18 Dec 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Helen Mark is in Dorset to hear how the area around Studland Bay could be affected by a proposed Marine Conservation Zone and how one fishy resident h...
Wildlife Crime
11 Dec 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Uridge joins South Cumbrian Wildlife Crime Officers, volunteers and members of the local community on the trail of poachers in an attempt to c...
Lighthouse
04 Dec 2010
Contributed by Lukas
In this weeks Open Country Richard Uridge visits the Norfolk Coast.Better known as an area of coastal erosion, Happisburgh is proving that community s...
Ardtornish
27 Nov 2010
Contributed by Lukas
In Open Country this week, Helen Mark visits Ardtornish Estate in Morvern, in the western Highlands of Scotland. The estate covers around sixty square...
New Forest Mushrooms
20 Nov 2010
Contributed by Lukas
In a year that has seen a record rise in the number of people seeking medical help after eating poisonous fungi, Richard Uridge visits the New Forest ...
Ayrshire
13 Nov 2010
Contributed by Lukas
In Open Country this week, Helen Mark visits the Whitelee Plateau in Ayrshire, once a treeless bog grazed by very hardy sheep and cattle but now trans...
Resistance
06 Nov 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Author and poet Owen Sheers visits South Wales, the setting for his book Resistance, which was inspired by the tales he heard growing up of a secret r...
Pluckley: The Most Haunted Village in Britain
30 Oct 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Helen Mark visits Pluckley, a village with the reputation as the most haunted in Britain. While genuine ghosthunters, with an interest in all things p...
Leeds-Liverpool Canal
11 Sep 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Helen Mark travels along a stretch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and hears from just a few of the people whose lives revolve around it. Stretching ...
Conservation Grazing in Cornwall
04 Sep 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Helen Mark is in Cornwall to find out why the reintroduction of cattle to graze the Penwith Moors of Cornwall and improve the area's bio-diversity has...