South West England - Exmouth to Bristol

The Wild West

The wild and rocky South West peninsula sticks out into the Atlantic making it the perfect launching point for some of our most celebrated voyages of discovery, but it's also left exposed to the merciless Atlantic weather which travels across the ocean. This is Britain's Wild West.

Hallsands - Kingsbridge, Devon

The once thriving fishing community of Hallsands on the south Devon coast was washed away one night in 1917. It wasn't decades of erosion that led to the end of this village, but just one spectacular storm. It had been withstanding weather of this force for centuries, but in its final decades Hallsands had been robbed of its beach and left defenceless by intensive dredging.

the South West Coast path passes close to Hallsands but much of the coastline is dangerous and inaccessible.

Plymouth, Devon

Sir Francis Drake is Plymouth's most famous son - firm favourite of Queen Elizabeth the 1st and scourge of the Spanish. He's a hero in many eyes, but author Neil Hanson reveals his more sinister side to Nick Crane. Drake, and his cousin John Hawkins, sailed from Plymouth to West Africa to buy slaves who were sold on to Spanish plantation owners in the Caribbean. This marked the start of the British slave trade which was to last for a further 240 years.

Newlyn, Cornwall

The UK's fishing fleet has been cut by 33% in the last ten years, and the fishing port of Newlyn proves no exception. Nick Crane visits Newlyn to find out how one Cornish fisherman is bucking the trend by going back to traditional techniques and making a success from fishing pilchards.

The harbour is open to the public although great care should obviously be taken. This is a working harbour.

South West Coast Path & Land's End

The South West Coast Path is Britain's longest National Trail and covers some of our coast's most rugged and wild scenery. It switches direction at Land's End - a significant turning point for Nick Crane who stops off at the visitor attraction before heading up Cornwall's exposed north coast.

Geevor Tin Mine

Cornwall was the most important metal mining county in the United Kingdom. At its height in 1870 Cornwall boasted 2,000 tin mines and was responsible for producing half of the world's tin. Within half a century of the boom however, the industry was almost dead in the face of foreign competition. Geevor Tin mine closed in 1990 and Geevor became part of the history of Cornish mining, ending nearly 300 years of tin mining on the site and resulting in the loss of a major source of employment and community cohesion. Today Geevor is a museum standing as the largest preserved tin mining site in Europe and one of the few mines in the UK into which you can still get down. Ex-miners now give tours of the mine at Geevor showing historian Neil Oliver what it was like to mine at Geevor.

North Cornwall Coast - Porbeagle Sharks

The wild west is our shark coast and as well as some surprising seasonal visitors we also have our own resident sharks - porbeagles. Miranda Kristkovnikov teams up with Richard Pierce, a local shark expert worried about the future of our sharks, to try to catch one of these elusive beasts.

Hartland Point & Clovelly, Devon

With its jagged rocks and unpredictable winds Hartland Point is a notorious danger point for passing ships. But there is also a myth that survives on this coast that tells of a more sinister, man-made danger - wrecking. Tales are told of ships being lured onto the rocks with false lights by wreckers who would gather the booty and make a fine profit. Historians Mark Horton and Neil Oliver conduct an experiment to see whether the myth could be based on truth.

Both Hartland Point & Clovelly are accessible by the South West Coast Path.

Bristol Channel and Portbury

The Bristol Channel, cutting deep into the country and marking the border between England and Wales, has the 2nd highest tidal range in the world with 13 billion gallons of water surging through on an average tide. It is the challenge for the pilots and tug operators to manoeuvre a 60,000 tonne ship up the Channel, against the force of the tide, and into the locks at Bristol Port. Nick Crane joins them as he reaches the end of his south west journey.