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| Professor Manning filming Seven Natural Wonders on location |
Presenter Professor Aubrey Manning talks about his experiences of working on the TV programme, 'The Seven Natural Wonders of the South'.
Manning looks at his childhood memories of the South's great landscapes, and comes up to date with his thoughts on what makes the area's natural scenery so memorable.
Presenting the 'Seven Natural Wonders of the South' was a wonderful experience for me.
I've lived in Scotland for many years now, but I was born and brought up in the South and several of the places chosen brought back memories of a happy childhood and student days - Finchampstead Ridges, Stokenchurch, The Devil's Punchbowl and Cuckmere Haven.
It's also interesting to see that five out of the Seven Natural Wonders are on chalk landscapes.
The great sweep of the chalk across the South of England has been a dominating feature for humans for thousands of years and countless generations have worked it and come to love it.
The Past
I remember going to Finchampstead Ridges with my parents when I was a boy - it was so much more open then.
It really has changed in such a short period of time. The Devil's Punchbowl has changed less. It seems just as enormous now as it did then.
When I was a research student at Oxford, I used to do fieldwork on Wytham Hill to the west.
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| One of Professor Manning's favourite sights in the South |
I would look southwards across the vale of the White Horse to the Berkshire Downs and, of course, in my memory it was always a brilliant sunlit landscape.
I always loved going to the White Horse at Uffington, because it's magical to know that it really is old.
This is the one really ancient chalk figure we have in England, 2,800 years old, carved in the late Bronze Age.
It gives you a wonderful link to the people that used to live on this landscape.
During this time at the University I travelled the A40 a great deal. When returning south, the car I had at the time, an old Armstrong Sidley had a tough time getting up the steep hill at Stokenchurch.
I am certain that had there been Red Kites at the time, I would have stopped at top to watch them souring above this area of The Chilterns.
The Present
The vertical stacks of chalk that form The Needles are tremendously impressive close up.
I've never been to the Needles Lighthouse before, so it was really exciting seeing this example of Victorian engineering.
One hundred and fifty years on and its light still shines through the original lenses.
The Charlston reed bed at Cuckmere is a unique habitat. It was lovely to see a male Reed Bunting feeding right in front of us as we filmed.
With The Environment Agency's plans to flood the haven, it will be most interesting to see how it develops as a site for resident and over wintering birds.
But perhaps for me the most wonderful moment was to stand on the great chalk cliffs of Dorset and look down to the sea breaking through the arch of the Durdle Door.
This would certainly be one of my chosen natural wonders of all the world - a glorious place where one can see great beauty in the structure of the Earth and understand how, slowly but inexorably, it is changing.
The Future? ...
Watch this space ...
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