Helen Glover returns to her beloved childhood patch of Newlyn and Penzance in Cornwall to explore the area where she grew up and discover how it’s changed since she was a girl.

Helen is a double Olympic gold-medal winner and her love of physical activity and the outdoors was shaped by her childhood environment. She recalls running along the prom as part of her training as a schoolgirl athlete, and reflects on fond memories of her Dad’s small but legendary ice-cream business, wheeling supplies up down the road in an old pram. Helen also visits the Penlee Lifeboat with long-time RNLI Coxswain, Patch Harvey and meets the Battery Belles, an outdoor swimming group who plunge into the sea every morning. She considers how the cliffs she’s known all her life are gradually changing through relentless erosion, and speaks to the director of an art school who ran a mass painting event to raise awareness and funds to protect the landscape he loves. She also meets an artist who had a very near miss when the cliff he was painting under collapsed shortly after he left. Helen also reflects on the sad fact that her favourite beaches are now littered with plastic, and catches up with a young beach cleaner who devotes hours to picking up and making art from other people’s waste.

Contributors include: Tina Riggall of the Battery Belles; Landscape painter Paul Lewin; Henry Garfit of the Newlyn School of Art; Patch Harvey, RNLI; Louis-Matisse litter picker and artist. Please scroll down, on the R4 Open Country webpage, for related links.

Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol - Karen Gregor