 |
|
|
|
|
PROGRAMME INFO |
|
|
|
|
|
From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Open Country travels the UK in search of the stories, the people and the wildlife that make our countryside such a vibrant place. Each week we visit a new area to hear how local people are growing the crops, protecting the environment, maintaining the traditions and cooking the food that makes their corner of rural Britain unique.
Email: open.country@bbc.co.uk
Postal address: Open Country,
成人快手 Radio 4, Birmingham, B5 7QQ.
|
|
|
|
|
LISTEN AGAIN |
|
|
|
|
PRESENTER |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
More about Helen Mark |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PROGRAMME DETAILS |
|
|
|
 |
| Black poplars | |
Helen Mark travels to Buckinghamshire to meet people who are making a difference, either by trying to preserve the wildlife and landscape of the county, or by maintaining an ancient craft which would otherwise die out.
She begins in the village of Mursley with Roger Jefcoate, who has made it his personal mission to plant black poplars wherever and whenever he can. Inspired 30 years ago by a radio programme which highlighted the danger the black poplar was in, he has worked ever since to save the tree made famous by the landscapes of Constable. Although half the UK population of black poplars grows in the Aylesbury Vale, there is, inexplicably, a great imbalance between males and females, which grow happily in equal numbers in other parts of the country. Roger loves the idea that he is recreating landscape and that the fruits of just a few minutes' planting work on his part will be visible on the Buckinghamshire skyline for years to come.
Wim Visscher, of William Cowley in Newport Pagnell is the last parchment maker in the UK. It's an ancient craft, and is sustained largely by the restoration trade and by the demand from calligraphers and, more recently, from interior designers. Parchment is also used for one copy of every Act of Parliament, although even that was recently under threat until MPs voted to continue the traditional practice.
Wim takes Helen through the parchment making process, showing her how skins are washed, stretched on frames, scraped and finally cut to make the end product. He's looking for a successor to learn the trade and, eventually, to take over the business.
Ian and Margaret Robertson have reason to be proud of the patch of land by the Grand Union Canal near Aylesbury where they meet Helen. It was largely through their efforts of counting badgers and brown hare, and joined by others carrying out similar surveys of birdlife, that the site, rich in hedgerows and black poplars, was saved from a 1600 home development. Ian Corbyn, of the local wildlife trust, explains that given the amount of detail called for at public enquiry, it is largely thanks to people like the Robertsons that open spaces like this are protected - and that there really is no substitute for individuals getting out there and doing it themselves.
Finally Helen meets Mike Collard, who has been called in to help lure four young swallows from a factory from where, warm and well-fed on insects in the roof space, they haven't seen the need to migrate. While all attempts to catch them in mist nets or to draw them out with taped bird song have failed, he says that there's only so much you can do to point nature in the right direction. He has more success with his bird ringing work in the back garden, keeping tabs under licence on garden birds which pass through by catching them first in very fine mist nets, before ringing them, weighing them and releasing them until the next time and building up a valuable record of how local birdlife is doing.
The 成人快手 is not responsible for external websites
|
|
|
RELATED LINKS
成人快手 Holiday Category
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Audio Help
|
|
|
|
|
|
PREVIOUS PROGRAMMES |
|
|
|
|
Current Week
Last Week
The A44
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire, River Don
Aberfan
Alderley Edge, Cheshire
Ancient buildings
Anglesey
Applecross Peninsula
Aran Islands
Armistice Day, Somerset & Sussex
Auxiliary Units
Bardsey Island
Batsford Park Estate, Glos
Berkshire
Berwyn Mountains
Birdsong
Blackwater Estuary, Essex
Blaenafon
The Blean, Kent
Bosworth Field
Brecon Beacons
Buckinghamshire
Butterflies
By Brook Valley
The Cairngorms
Caithness
Cambridgeshire
Carmarthenshire
Cheddar Gorge
Cherwell Valley
Cheshire: Harrop Valley
Chesil Bank
Clee Hills, Shropshire
Climbers
Corfe Castle
Cornwall
Cornwall: Cape Cornwall
Cornwall: Padstow Lifeboat
Cornwall: Roseland Peninsula
Cotswold
Cotswold Way
County Clare, Ireland
Cranbourne Chase
Cumbria: Eden Valley
Cumbria: Coniston Water
Cumbria: Sellafield
Cumbria
Daingean in Glengarry
Dee Estuary
Derbyshire
Devon & Somerset: Grand Western Canal
Donegal
Dorset
Dorset: Cranborne Chase
Dorsetman
Dowsing
Dunalastair
Durham
Durham: Witton Park
East Anglian Churches
Eden Valley in Cumbria
Eigg
Eire: Co. Mayo
Eire: Skibbereen
Eire: West Cork
Elan Valley, Wales
Eshott, Norhumberland
Essex
Essex: coastal
Exmoor, churches
Falkirk
Farne Islands, Part 1
Farne Islands, Part 2
Fenn's, Whixall & Bettisfield Mosses National Nature Reserve
The Fens
Fife
Flanders
Forster Country
Glencoe Mountains
Glencoe
Gloucestershire
Goa
Goodwin Sands
Gower Peninsula, June 2006
Gower Peninsula, October 2005
Grouse shooting
Guernsey
Hadrian's Wall 2003
Hadrian's Wall 2004
Hambledon Cricket Club
Hampshire: Odium
Hampshire: Selborne
Hardcastle Crags
Heart of Wales Railway
Hebden Bridge
Herefordshire
Hertfordshire
Hidden Treasures
High Weald, Sussex
Holy Island
Ilmington
Isle of Gigha 2004
Isle of Gigha, 2005
Isle of Man - Seas
Isle of Man
Isle of Wight, 2003
Isle of Wight, 2005
Izak Walton
Kent: Dover
Kent: Dungeness Peninsular
Kent: North
Kielder Water
Kinver Edge
Kingham, Oxfordshire
Lake District
Leicestershire: Bosworth Field
Leicestershire: death rituals
Lincolshire farming
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Loch Morar
Looe Island
Ludlow
Lunar Influence
Don McCullin
Richard Mabey
Marsden, West Yorkshire
Mary Towneley Loop
Mersea Island
Mersey Marshes
Metal Detectingg
Mid-Wales
Morecambe Bay
Moel Findeg, North Wales
Morecombe Sands
Nant Gwrtheyrn
National Forest
New Forest
Newton Dee, nr Aberdeen
Norfolk Broads
Norfolk: Thetford Forest
Norfolk: North Norfolk coast
North Devon Combes
Northants: Sulgrave Manor
Northants: Underground
Northern Ireland: Belfast
Northern Ireland: Border Counties
Northern Ireland: Moneypenny's Lock
Northern Ireland: Sperrin Mountains
Northern Ireland: Strangford Lough
Northern Ireland: Toomebridge
North Norfolk Coast
Northumberland, part 1
Northumberland, part 2
North Wessex Downs
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire Moors
North Yorkshire Moors Railway
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire: Sherwood Forest
Oak Trees
Offa's Dyke
Orford Ness
Orkneys
Out Skerries, Shetland
Outward Bound
Oxfordshire
Peak District
Peak District
Pembrokeshire Coast
Pentland Hills
Perthshire
Poachers
Pony Club
River Severn
Romney Marsh
Rutland Water
Scilly
Scotland: Abernethy Forest
Scotland: Loch Morar
Scotland: Shetland
Scotland: Strathclyde
Scotland: What value the countryside?
Scottish Borders
Sefton Coast
Self-sufficient communities
Severn Valley Railway
Shropshire: Ellesmere
Shropshire: Much Wenlock
Shropshire and Wales, Newport
Skegness
Skomer Island
Snowdon
Snowdonia National Park
Somerset Levels
Somerset Levels
Somerset: Montacute House
Somerset writers
South Downs
South Somerset: watermills
Southwold
Spurn Peninsular
Start Bay
Stour Valley
Survival
Sussex
Sutherland, Scotland
Tamar Valley
Thornham Estate, Suffolk
Thurstonland Cricket Club
Twyford Down
Tyntesfield, North Somerset
Village Life
Terry Waite
Wales
Wales: Flatholm Island
Wales: Nant Gwrtheyrn
Wales: Snowdonia
Warwickshire: rare breeds
Wayoh Reservoir
Wenlock Edge
West Sussex
West Yorks: Calder Valley
Weston Common, Surrey
Wild boar
Wiltshire
Wiltshire: Savernake Forest
Women's Institute
Wroxeter
Yorkshire Dales, June 2002
Yorkshire Dales, 1 July 2006
Yorkshire Dales, 8 July 2006
Z to Z Britain
Open Country looks back 2003
|
|
|
|
|
MESSAGE BOARDS |
|
|
|
|
Join the discussion:
The Learning Curve
Pick of the Week
Questions, Questions
Woman's Hour
Word of Mouth |
|
|
|
|
RELATED PROGRAMMES |
|
|
|
|
Excess Baggage
Changing Places
|
|
|
|
