Open Country

Helen Mark takes a day at the seaside to visit the romance of piers. They have been hailed as great examples of Victorian architecture but the cost of maintenance and repair from weather damage or fire can run into millions. She visits Weston-super-Mare in Somerset where the now hi-tech restored Grand Pier overlooks the damaged remains of Birnbeck. Actors Timothy West and Prunella Scales join her in Clevedon to visit the 'pier of the year' which was once only a vote away from demolition. It was described by Sir John Betjeman as 'delicate as a Japanese print in the mist' but it may have a fragile future. They welcome the paddle steamer Waverley as it docks - revisiting memories of Timothy's childhood holidays.

Produced in Bristol by Anne-Marie Bullock.

The image of a keeper leading a pony off a heather-clad hill, a deer carcass slung across its back, may sound like something from a Landseer painting, but in 21st century Scotland, Highland ponies - or garrons - are still a valued part of the deer stalking business.

Helen Mark visits the Reay Forest estate in Sutherland to find out what ponies can offer which even the toughest off-road vehicle cannot. Garrons were a fixture of most estates until the 1970s, when in many places they were deemed to be part of the past. Some estates, though, kept garrons for use in the most inaccessible corners of their land, and they are now being adopted for the first time by some estates which have come to see the value of these hardy creatures. Helen hears how the garron is part of the Highland landscape not just for sentimental reasons, creating continuity with the past, but for sound economic and practical purposes too.

Produced by Moira Hickey.

Jules Hudson goes to Cannock Chase in Staffordshire to find out about its military past. A major training camp during the First World War, he visits a mock-up of part of the Western Front that was built in order to familiarise troops with the concept of trench warfare, before they were sent to France and Flanders. Now covered in scrub, county archaeologists will begin clearing the site, a model of Messines Ridge, this summer. This is in preparation for the centenary commemorations next year that mark the beginning of the First World War.

Cannock Chase as a whole can be seen as a landscape of commemoration. Besides the mock-up of the Trenches, the area is home to cemeteries for Commonwealth and German soldiers who died in the UK during both world wars, including the crews of the Zeppelins shot down over Britain during the First World War. Jules also visits a memorial to the Katyn Massacre on the Chase, which commemorates the 22,000 Polish soldiers who were shot by the Soviets on Stalin's orders in 1940.

Producer: Mark Smalley.

Felicity Evans visits the Minack Theatre at Porthcurno, in the far west of Cornwall. Built into the rocky cliffs overlooking the sea, the theatre was planned, built and financed by one determined woman - Rowena Cade. Local storyteller Mark Harandon has researched and re-created the character of Billy Rawlings, Cade's gardener, who worked for her for 40 years and helped to build the theatre. Mark, as Billy, leads Felicity around the theatre telling stories collected from the family and people who knew him, and reminiscing about how the theatre was built.

Felicity explores the coast further, visiting the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum, an area which was the hub of international cable communications from 1870-1970. In WWII secret tunnels were dug by Cornish miners to house an underground building and the entire telegraph operations. These bomb proof/gas proof tunnels provided 14 secure cables out of the UK to its allies.

Going east along the coast path from Porthcurno, near the village of Treen, stands The Logan Rock, a massive boulder perched on the edge of a cliff, and locally known as a rocking stone. Felicity hears how legend has it that it could be rocked with one finger, until it was rocked so much by a rowdy group of naval seamen 1824, that it was dislodged from its perch. This apparently upset local residents for whom the rock was a tourist attraction and source of income, who complained so much that the seamen were forced to restore it - at some effort!

Producer: Beatrice Fenton.

What is phenology? Felicity Evans visits Fenland Cambridgeshire to learn about an influential but largely unacknowledged Victorian vicar - the Reverend Leonard Jenyns - who made a lasting contribution to science.

Jenyns is certainly not as well known as Charles Darwin, even though he passed up the chance of sailing on HMS Beagle as the ship's naturalist. In fact, Jenyns never set foot outside the UK, yet his contribution to science was enormous. Felicity hears how phenology has become a key aspect of observing climate change, noting the first and last days of the seasons.

She finds out how much Fenland Cambridgeshire has been dried out since Jenyns' day, and the ways in which this rural vicar bore witness to the habitat destruction and species extinction in his own parish in the mid-Victorian period.

Producer: Mark Smalley.

Helen Mark visits Lyme Regis, along Dorset's Jurassic coast, to explore the Undercliffs, a fascinating jungle-like terrain that's been created by 200 years of landslips, and is still evolving today.

She learns that the exceptional rainfall of the last twelve months has increased the geological instability of this area that lies to the west of Lyme Regis, through which passes the South West Coast Path.

Helen meets geologists, naturalists, and the wildlife artist Elaine Franks, all of whom are passionate about the striking quality of the Undercliffs - a six mile stretch of land that's the nearest to jungle conditions that can be found in Britain.

Producer: Mark Smalley.

Graham Sutherland talked of Pembrokeshire as the place where 'I began to learn painting'. In this week's Open Country, Felicity Evans follows in his footsteps, discovering the landscapes that inspired his work. The abstract shapes and colours of his art are revealed through conversations with a self confessed 'Sutherland Groupie' also known as art historian Sally Moss and geologist and writer Dr Brian John. Felicity also meets with Susie and Nicky Philipps of Picton Castle who recall Sutherland's visits to their ancestral home and local artist Sarah Jane Brown who shares her own artistic view of 'Sutherland's' land.

Presented by Felicity Evans

The Dumfries and Galloway 10th annual Wild Spring Festival takes place this month and Helen Mark is there to find out what's on offer in south west Scotland as the days lengthen.

Helen rides on horseback around the Craigengillan Estate, Dalmellington, to hear how Mark Gibson has involved the local community in his restoration of the 3000 acre estate. Craigengillan falls within the United Nations designated UNESCO Biosphere for Galloway and Southern Ayrshire, which celebrates the area's combination of special landscapes and wildlife areas, rich cultural heritage and communities that care about their environment and culture.

The Biosphere also contains the UK's only Dark Sky Park in Galloway Forest, and Helen meets observatory manager Robert Ince to enjoy the night sky.

"Food Town" Castle Douglas is also playing a part in the Wild Spring Festival and Helen Mark finds out from Wilma Finlay and Clint Burgess about the local, seasonal produce on offer in the region, and talks to Mark Williams about his wild food foraging.

The Galloway Red Kite Trail makes an important contribution to the local economy and the RSPB's Calum Murray takes Helen to see the daily feeding spectacle at Bellymack Hill Farm near Laurieston.

Produced by Beatrice Fenton.

Solar panels and sheep may not be the first things that spring to mind when you think of a monastery but at Stanbrook Abbey you'll find these alongside a woodchip boiler and a roof covered in sedum grass to insulate the building and attract local wildlife.

The sisters at Stanbrook Abbey (and the sheep) live very much in harmony with their North Yorkshire Moors National Park surroundings. The community of sisters embraced their new, high tech, high spec, eco-friendly home after leaving their more traditional, gothic style 20-acre site in Worcestershire in 2009. Having lived there for 171 years, this was not an easy decision to make but the need to down-size and provide a more practical style of accommodation for the future lead them to this setting in Yorkshire, a place with a strong Cistercian heritage, where in their own words they '...seek to become 'lovers of the place', working in harmony with the National Park ethos to conserve and enhance the natural beauty and cultural heritage of this landscape'.

Helen Mark meets with the sisters of Stanbrook as they care for their livestock, explain the eco workings of Stanbrook, the joys of reflecting nature in art and the excitement of new beginnings.

Produced by Nicola Humphries.

In a year when Derry-Londonderry takes centre stage as the UK City of Culture, Helen Mark steps out into the city's back garden to explore the hidden gems of the Inishowen Peninsula. Located at the northernmost tip of Ireland where it meets with the Atlantic Ocean, and with Lough Foyle to the east and Lough Swilly to the west, Inishowen is rich in history, heritage and landscape, with more than its fair share of undiscovered delights.