Clips
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The Last Bus
John Craven on board one of Devon's threatened bus services. This week he’s investigating the demise of rural public transport which is leaving some communities increasingly isolated. In North Yorkshire they’re cutting £600,000 from the bus budget. Norfolk plans to reduce current bus support by £1.2 million over two years and in Northamptonshire they’re planning to lose all supported bus services, saving £3 million. Devon County Council - which plans to cut services to the tune of £1.35m - also admits it has a huge funding problem and faces making some unpopular decisions. John talks to the county’s largest independent bus operator Country Bus which is having to axe several non-profit making services because subsidies are being cut. He then travels to the North Devon where communities are coming together in the face of cuts to solve their transport problems.
Transport Minister Norman Baker on Devon Bus Cuts -
All Aboard the Surf Bus
John Craven meets surfers on the beach at Croyde in Devon. They've been banned from taking their boards on the local bus service and currently have to rely on lifts from family and friends to get to the beach. Now though help is at hand. A new 'surf bus' converted to carry sports equipment and passengers, is due to start operating along the North Devon coast this year. It's being partly funded by money from the EU. John reveals an artist's impression of the new bus to members of Croyde Surf Club. 'We're convinced the service will make a profit and will hopefully encourage bus operators to follow suit,' says Laura Holt of North Devon Plus - the development agency behind the project. The bus will link Barnstaple, Braunton, Saunton, Croyde, Woolacombe and Ilfracombe and will start operating at the beginning of May.
Countryfile Making the News -
The Essex Fossil Coast
Matt and geologist Dr Steve Boreham use an 'auger' to take soil samples from the coastline on Mersea Island in Essex. They're looking for fossil evidence of prehistoric life. Elephants, rhinos and hippos all once roamed this landscape but just when were all these animals here? Steve, from Cambridge University, has spent the last 25 years investigating this coastline to find the answers. Matt discovers that this is the place where 100,000 year old animal bones have been found and examines the giant thigh bone (pictured below) of an extinct straight-tusked elephant which was discovered under the island's Coopers Beach 80 years ago.
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Secrets of Mersea Revealed
This giant thigh bone once belonged to a now extinct straight-tusked elephant which was almost twice the size of today's African elephant and weighed up to nine tonnes.
Read more about Matt's visit to Mersea here -
Protecting Deer in Epping Forest
Epping Forest is the largest public open space in London. 6,000 acres stretch 12 miles from Manor Park in East London to just north of Epping in Essex. It’s proximity to England’s capital city is great news for the people who live there – but not so good for the forest’s 150 fallow deer. Thousands of vehicles travel through the forest every day and collisions between deer and cars are on the increase. Julia Bradbury joins forest keepers Mick Collins and Nick Baker who are heading up a new project to try and protect the fallow deer. They’re thinning the woodland at the side of the roads so that motorists can see deer before it’s too late.
Click here to read more about the project -
Baker Does Kite Boarding
Matt Baker tries his hand at kite boarding in Frinton-on-Sea in Essex. The resort has become a firm favourite with kite-boarders. The blustery, dry coastline lends itself perfectly to this daredevil sport – but when Matt arrived the tide was in so he had to settle for the local park!
Click here to see an amazing kite boarding stunt -
Maldon Salt
For two thousand years Essex’s Blackwater estuary has been at the heart of the salt trade. At the head of the estuary is Maldon, a town that’s produced salt for centuries. Salt was so valuable, Roman troops were paid with it – it was called “salarium” from which the term “salary” arises. Fast forward to the 21st century and Steve Osborne makes his “salary” by extracting salt from these marshes too. It’s a family business that benefits from the dry landscape and spring tides. It’s also an area thriving with wild plants, as James Wong finds out with the National Trust at Northey Island.
Northey Island -
Seaside Rendevous
Julia Bradbury meets the people of the Sunshine Coast – that’s the Essex Sunshine Coast. It’s not quite the Costa del Sol but it is one of the driest places in Britain. Frinton-on-Sea might look like a typical seaside town but not everything is as it seems. Frinton once had ambitions to be the East coast’s answer to Saint Tropez. It was the vision of developer, Sir Richard Powell Cooper back at the turn of the last century. He was determined to create a high class, select watering hole for well heeled Londoners out of what was then just a tiny hamlet. Keeping Frinton-on-Sea the refined and proper resort it was intended to be meant lots of rules and regulations. Those early pioneers banned bucket and spade shops and ice cream vans on the seafront, no dogs were allowed on the beach and there was no cycling by the beach huts. And it’s to these stunning beach huts that Julia pays a visit. See them for yourself on this week’s Countryfile.
All About Frinton-on-Sea -
Down on Adam's Farm
Adam delivers three Exmoor ponies to Richard Eames, an apprentice horse logger. Despite running wild on the farm, Richard's aim is to transform the ponies into horse loggers, a traditional and environmentally friendly way of removing logs from a forest. Adam is also trying to get his cattle herd in order. Whilst he awaits the arrival of his new highland bull, he's invited Lawrence Alderson from the White Park Cattle Society to the farm. After losing his stock bull to bovine TB, Adam wants Lawrence to assess his new young bull, and find out if he has what it takes to rebuild the White Park herd.
Credits
- Series Producer
- Teresa Bogan
- Presenter
- Julia Bradbury
- Presenter
- Matt Baker
- Presenter
- John Craven
- Presenter
- Adam Henson
- Presenter
- Jules Hudson
- Executive Producer
- Andrew Thorman
