The Great British Countryside (2012) s01e01 Episode Script
Cornwall and Devon
The great British countryside.
Beautiful.
Glorious.
And very, very old.
For three billion years, these British Isles have been growing and changing.
They've never stood still.
If you love the British landscape the way we both do, then you might be very familiar with it but there is another story to be told.
The story that's always fascinated me of what happened here those millions of years ago.
And how that still affects our lives every day.
Whoa! Hey, look out.
Look at that.
For a country of our size, we have a greater variety of landscapes than anywhere else on Earth.
It's all down to our dramatic history.
Over millions of years, we've been flooded, frozen and ravaged by mighty earth movements.
What's even more astonishing is how that distant past still shapes the countryside today.
I'm alive! We're going to all four corners of the country to discover how Britain's epic past lives on in the most surprising ways.
I'm ready for a bit of adventuring but you're the geology buff.
Where to first? - Well, I want to go everywhere.
- Of course you do.
- I'm a boy.
- Can I come with you? - Where you going? - Is this a footpath? We're in Cornwall and Devon.
And if you like your landscape tough and craggy, it's paradise.
This part of Britain was shaped by violence - by brutal weather and molten rock - and the result is very impressive.
I've always loved it for walks along the coast.
Scratch the surface and we'll see how the landscape has shaped the history modern industry even legends and brought danger to these shores.
The coastline that so many of us visit every summer has been created by a massive tug of war- a battle between the land, the sea and the weather.
And it's proper weather when we arrive.
But that's what happens if you go in November.
It's a very British thing to be doing, isn't it? Standing here getting blown around by gale force winds.
Well, really it shows how British I am cos I absolutely love this.
- Look at everybody.
- I'm confident it's going to brighten up later.
That's the most British thing you could say.
Yes, that's not confidence.
That's being completely misguided.
But this is Britain's top tourist destination.
You know? Devon and Cornwall.
More people come here than anywhere else.
- It's about ten million a year.
- And you can see why.
You're never very far from the sea.
We're uncomfortably close to it.
If I'm honest.
At the moment.
But up there You've got the moors.
You've got fantastic countryside.
- There's something for everyone.
- And that's because it's this geological jigsaw.
A landscape for every family.
Do you want to play that game where you have to lean into the wind? - See how far forward you can lean.
- When I was about 12.
- That's all right.
You do that.
- Like this? - I'm just getting wetter, though.
- Watch this.
Well, that doesn't count if you do that.
That's not leaning into the wind.
That's just odd.
It is odd, yes.
It is definitely odd.
The wind and the sea pound this coastline.
This corner of Britain sticks straight out into the Atlantic.
Only the toughest of tough rocks can survive the harsh conditions off Land's End.
I want to see how this bit of the country stands up to such a pounding.
Go! OK.
Working controls normal.
It's clear.
So I've hitched a ride to what must be one of the toughest rocks in Britain - Wolf Rock.
This is like mowing the grass at really high speed.
Yeah.
Now we've got ten miles to run.
This isolated lighthouse was built on a tiny outcrop of rock in order to protect our busy Atlantic shipping lanes.
I'm with the maintenance team who fly out regularly to keep it working.
If they can land the helicopter.
That's the landing pad.
It's tiny.
That is effectively the size of basketball hoop and we're going to land on it.
It all seems a bit precarious to me.
OK.
Running in.
Dead ahead.
I've lost sight of it.
Makes me feel a bit nervous.
Forward three.
Dead ahead.
This is ridiculous.
Steady.
Down two.
Whoa! Look at this.
I love this.
And so do the seagulls.
It's a hell of a way to change a light bulb.
But the risks have to be taken because those hard rocks down below are a danger to shipping.
It may seem fairly calm now but Principal Engineer Ron Blakeley faces the very worst of the weather.
So sometimes, if we come here after a winter period, we find half the helipad missing.
That's amazing that.
We're only about a third of the way up, I should think.
And it feels really high here.
But the sea gets so high that it can take bits of the helipad out.
That's correct.
The helipad is at 41 metres.
So the sea just rolls up the tower and just punches the pads out.
So if the sea is powerful enough to punch out the helipad, how come this stubborn lump of rock this lighthouse stands on is still here? Time to step back over 100 million years.
Back then, Wolf Rock was the molten core at the heart of an active volcano.
The North Atlantic was dry land and you could have walked from here to America.
When the volcano became extinct, the molten rock inside solidified into igneous rock - hard rock formed from magma.
Outside, the volcanic cone then suffered 130 million years worth of erosion.
Finally, a succession of ice ages flooded the land with melt water which washed away the last of the cone, leaving only the harder inner core lurking amongst the waves.
It's amazing that we're just sitting on a big lump left after everything else has been washed away.
- That's correct.
- It's amazing, isn't it? Cos all this was once dry land and now it's You know.
Things get eroded so quickly.
Apart from igneous rock which just stays here, wrecking ships.
Which leaves me with one nagging question.
What's the lighthouse built of? The answer, of course, is granite.
Tough enough for lighthouses, kerb stones and industrial-strength kitchen worktops.
And every piece of this granite also comes from Cornwall.
Tough rocks define Cornwall and Devon from the granite that dominates the wild moors to the great jumble of rock on the craggy coastline.
That's where I'm heading first.
The resistant rocks that protect Devon and Cornwall from the Atlantic might prove a bit of a headache for some of the ships, but there's a whole community here that take full advantage of that very same geology.
If it wasn't for that geology, life for them would be pretty dull.
I'm in Newquay on the north coast of Cornwall.
Here, the hard Cornish rock, the soft sand and the Atlantic rollers create a surfer's paradise.
Surf School tutor Aidan Salmon is master of the waves.
When we look out here, what's happening underneath that's having an impact on the waves and the pattern of the waves? OK.
So you've got the sand banks which are ever-changing.
Wherever you've got rock formations, you'll have sand that'll build up around those rocks.
That's going to cause the waves to break.
What happens is, as a wave comes in, it hits shallower water, the bottom part of the wave slows down, whereas the top part of the wave keeps moving.
As that crashes over and breaks, that's when you get your ride and that's what you can see as the wave goes from green to white.
What is it about this place that makes it such a Mecca for surfers in the UK? The main thing is that there are waves almost every day.
And that there's so many different features that make the waves break in different manners that are suitable for everyone.
The shallow, sandy bays of the north coast are protected by headlands of hard rock.
When the Atlantic rolls into the bays, the rocks can create giant waves.
When a big wave hits the rocks at the side of a bay, it bounces back into the wave behind it and pushes that second wave up even higher.
If you're a nasty person, then you call your friend into the first wave cos that's the rubbish one and you wait for the second one.
You can be the best surfer but if you don't know when a wave's coming, you're stuffed.
You probably won't be the best surfer unless you know that.
I'll take his word for it.
The rocks along the rugged coastline of Cornwall and Devon were all created by power struggles millions of years ago.
But they're not the only bits with a violent past.
I'm heading to the wild moors.
I'm on Dartmoor.
I'm not so sure about this.
It also has a reputation that doesn't encourage visitors to hang around when it gets dark.
These moors are famous for weird animal sightings and legends.
It was Dartmoor that inspired Sherlock Holmes's terrifying Hound Of The Baskervilles.
Hiya, Nick.
Nick Groom lectures in Landscape and Literature.
He knows these moors well and he reckons he knows why they're so spooky.
Why is this place the home to so many mysterious legends? Especially revolving around dogs and beasties.
I think because it's a depopulated landscape.
Years ago, of course, it was a very busy landscape.
There were tinners here.
There were stone cutters.
There were many more farmers.
But all those people generally migrated off the land.
So they left this vacuum, this space, which is a savage, untamed country that you can walk across all day and not see another soul alive or dead.
And rather like the mist arising from a mere, these legends and these myths develop.
And you get these abiding images of beasts, of dogs, large cats.
It is, to our eyes, a wilderness, I think.
And these huge tors with their broken granite masonry look like the remains of an ancient civilisation.
Dartmoor didn't always look like this.
Years ago, it was covered in dense woodland.
Then, when people moved into this area, they cut down the trees for building and firewood.
The landscape was devastated.
All the trees were gone.
The people moved out leaving the ancient rocks to create this eerie landscape.
"Standing over Hugo and plucking at his throat, there stood a foul thing.
A great black beast, shaped like a hound yet larger than any hound that ever mortal eye has rested upon.
" Not exactly a bedtime read, is it? "The three shrieked with fear and rode for dear life, still screaming, across the moor.
" - Shall we go home now? - Let's go home.
Wisely, perhaps, I've chosen to come to Dartmoor in daylight but where did these massive granite peaks come from? What's astonishing about this landscape is that it was once all underground.
A huge area of granite was formed.
A huge layer of it, kilometres thick and enormously wide, stretching from way over there in Devon right off the end of Britain, Land's End out to the Scilly Isles.
And it's this granite that gives us these tors.
It give us the moors.
It's fantastic to look at, to walk past, to jump off, to build with.
It really shapes the lives of everybody who lives here.
This rocky high ground started life as giant boils under the skin of Cornwall and Devon.
They began brewing 300 million years ago under a thick layer of rock.
But seven kilometres underground, something was stirring hot magma, rising from the Earth's molten reservoirs, trying to force its way upwards.
But the rock above was too thick, and instead of allowing the magma to erupt in volcanoes, like it did elsewhere, it was forced to gather in giant underground domes.
With no volcanoes to release the pressure, the surface rock strained as it was pushed up.
The underground magma eventually cooled into permanent domes of hard granite.
The broken softer rocks at the peaks were easily weathered away.
And now we're left with the exposed underground granite in the form of granite tors.
But the tors aren't the only thing that makes Dartmoor famous.
There are lots of high areas of moorland in Britain, but there is something about this place that has lodged it in the national consciousness.
It's partly to do with the landscape.
It's partly to do with there being a prison.
But it's also down to another set of inhabitants of this area who are not residing at Her Majesty's Pleasure - Dartmoor ponies.
This ancient breed of ponies has evolved to be as tough as the moors they thrive on.
You go back 3,500 years ago, we know there was ponies, there was cattle and there were sheep.
And that's exactly how farming today is carried out on Dartmoor.
It works.
Dru Butterfield runs the Dartmoor Pony Heritage Trust.
She's helping a local farmer round up his ponies from common land on the moor.
Each farmer will own so many ponies depending on the number of rights that they have to graze the common and this particular farmer has got 20 mares running with a stallion.
And we're bringing them in now because we're going to pick out some ponies which will be sold to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust.
The ponies help preserve the landscape that our ancestors created by grazing.
If we didn't graze the area, if we didn't keep the gorse under control, it would just turn into a huge scrub area.
People wouldn't be able to access the moor.
It would look a totally different place.
They graze in such a different way to cattle and sheep.
They browse the moor and they're eating for up to 18 hours a day.
So they are organic scrub cutters.
They are integral to this area.
To lose them is like losing your family silver.
It's unthinkable, actually.
Back in the 1930s, Dartmoor's ponies worked in the mines and quarries that were here then.
And there were 30,000 of them on the moor.
Nowadays, about 1,000 ponies are enough to conserve it.
Now all that mining has gone, they have a rather more sedate life.
If you can say that about living in this harsh moorland environment.
But they're still vital.
Because they keep this moor looking exactly how we like it.
But the powerful forces that created the moors did more than just build up this high ground.
They also created a giant mash-up on what is now Cornwall's north coast.
I've come to Tintagel, where nothing is where it should be.
All the rocks are higgledy-piggledy.
And it's all rather magical.
Which may be why it's such a centre of folklore and legend.
King Arthur was supposedly conceived here.
So in spite of the fact that you don't get this landscape anywhere else in these islands, you can't really get much more British than this.
The reason for Tintagel's extraordinary landscape is, well, delightfully complicated.
Because, as geologist Jane Anderson will explain, these rocks are interlopers, Johnny-come-latelies brought here by the massive forces that shaped Cornwall and Devon.
These rocks have not come from here.
It's at least Bodmin Moor and maybe further beyond that.
- So that's, like, 30 miles or something, is it? - At least.
And the drag associated with them has folded and faulted them.
And when they've come to rest here, they've been uplifted to angles of 45 degrees but it's all weakened the rock.
Incredibly, millions of years ago, even before the sea was here, great chunks of ground from inland where dumped here at Tintagel.
A giant lasagne of hard and soft rocks - volcanic rock, slate, sandstone - slid downhill and concertinaed into this folded and jumbled landscape.
And when the sea arrived, it got in wherever it could.
And at the end of each fault, the sea has got in at the base but it produces these wonderful landforms.
Caves and even a waterfall here.
And one of these is Merlin's cave, isn't it? Yes, it's that one there.
And you can At low tide, you can walk all the way through.
So, basically, it is fantastically weird because it's fantastically weird.
Yeah.
Exactly it.
Yeah.
Very, sort of, mystic and craggy and It's great, isn't it? Tintagel is a chaotic mix of rocks and I'm on the lookout for one rock in particular.
The rock formations here are really strange.
Now, normally, you would expect to get younger rocks, sheets of them, on top of older rocks.
But here, there is so much buckling and twisting that you sometimes get older rocks, and sheets of that, on top of younger rocks.
It's very bizarre.
But if you want proof of how bizarre it really is, you want to have a look at this compass.
At the moment, it's telling me that north is over there.
But when I hold it up to this rock here it just spins right round.
Whoa! And that's cos this is a mineral called magnetite.
It's the most magnetic mineral on earth and it makes your compass go crazy.
You actually have no idea where you are.
So, next time you lose your bearings in Tintagel, maybe outside the pub, you can blame it on the rocks.
We've really begun to get a sense of the powerful forces that shape this dramatic beautiful landscape and the lives of the people that live here.
But there's even more for me and Hugh to discover - That's a proper "we woz here" mark.
- It certainly is.
from deep underground - Big wave! to the craggy coastline.
That was fantastic.
Before that, we're off to a very special bit of the coast.
How many people do you think know that Devon gave its name to one of the great geological periods? Well, not very many, I don't suppose.
But it did.
It's called the Devonian.
But I suspect more people know that this swathe of coast, say, from here right through to Dorset, is called the Jurassic Coast.
- You can't forget that.
- Well, because of Jurassic Park.
It is the time of the dinosaurs.
Which goes back a long time.
Older than you even.
Considerably older than me and thanks for that.
If you combine the age of Bruce Forsyth, Michael Parkinson and the entire cast of Last Of The Summer Wine, you would get nowhere near it.
It's about 150 million, 200 million years ago.
It's good, though.
Look.
This is the magnificent Jurassic Coast, 95 miles long and one of the best places in Britain to look for prehistoric fossils.
Which is what I'm doing with dedicated fossil hunter Mike Harrison.
Most people start off looking for small bones.
Small backbones of ichthyosaurs and vertebras.
Erm But do most people start on a stormy beach at low tidejust before nightfall? So this isn't great weather for fossil hunting, presumably? - This is the perfect conditions for fossil hunting.
- Is it? Lots of rain and rough sea.
The rain washes down the clay and washes the face of the cliffs.
The sea erodes what's washed out.
In Jurassic times, this was the seabed of a warm, tropical ocean filled with prehistoric creatures.
- The - No.
No.
That's something This is from the Cretaceous.
Right at very the top.
When storms come in, more fossils come to light.
I don't know what that is.
Though not where I am, it seems.
All it takes is time and patience.
More than I've got.
Especially for the big finds.
Of which Mike has plenty.
And one in particular- a fossil discovery of huge scientific interest.
Oh, that is ridiculous.
- You found that? - I did, yeah.
- And what is that? - It's an ichthyosaur skull.
- And it's a what? It's a marine reptile, is it? - Marine reptile.
- Top predator of its time.
- And this is just its head.
How big was an ichthyosaur? This one would have probably been about 25 to 30 foot.
So there's a lot more to collect.
What you going to do? You're going to run out of room.
- You're going to have it right at the front door.
- It would be.
Except for it's going to take me a few years to get it all.
Mike first discovered parts of this huge reptile in 2008 after the coast's biggest landslip in 100 years.
The trouble is, he'll have to wait for more storms to reveal the rest of it.
Piece by piece.
How did you feel when you found it? Like winning a very big scratch card.
Massive scratch card.
It's like the Euro Lottery, I would have thought.
You spend years looking for this sort of thing.
People don't realise that you know, you go out time and time again and, you know, pretty fruitlessly.
And, you know, these things don't come up very often.
That's fantastic because you don't You're not a professional fossil hunter.
So what do you do most of the time? - Work at Tesco's.
- Do you? How did you get that in your trolley? There's incredible detail in this find.
It's thought the silt on the Jurassic Coast seabed was so fine there was very little oxygen in it.
So this whole creature decomposed slowly enough to become a perfect fossil.
What a journey this thing has had, then.
If you think about it.
- Well, it is fascinating.
- It's now popped out of the cliff in Dorset.
- And now it's heading back to the sea.
- Well, it's heading to your kitchen.
That's the most unexpected bit of its journey.
- It didn't see that, did it? No-one saw that.
- It didn't see that coming.
No.
Mike knows there are many other prehistoric creatures hidden here.
If he finds any more big ones, he might just need a bigger kitchen.
There are many other hidden treasures here.
These are Cornwall's famous tin mines.
For centuries, they brought wealth to the area.
Then the industry fell on hard times.
All the mines were closed.
But now preparations are under way to reopen one ancient Cornish mine.
These rocks don't surrender their rewards without a lot of hard work, dirt and some risk taking.
Dean, we've got a situation.
We need the team in as soon as possible.
This is the South Crofty Rescue Team.
Like fire-fighters, every member of the team has to be on call 24-7.
Just be aware, obviously, of team safety.
Unlike fire-fighters, they have to be prepared for anything.
We have got a vehicle that's crashed.
There are reports of smoke.
But unlike fire-fighters, these men do it all underground.
Air on.
OK.
South Crofty tin mine is about to reopen after a shut down that's lasted more than a decade.
Mine rescue.
Can you hear us? Practice drills like this are essential.
Simulate a fire in the engine bay.
Right.
Hold it there.
Normal emergency services aren't trained to deal with the extreme conditions.
If things go wrong down here, they can go wrong fast.
- He's not responding.
- We've got to get him out of here quickly.
The team must be ready to deal with situations up to a kilometre underground.
Fire, floods, tunnel collapse or total darkness.
We're almost up, OK? All this effort to prepare the mines should be worth it.
South Crofty's geologist, Gareth Joseph, wants to show me what's still down there.
He's discovered new veins of metals like copper that were previously ignored.
OK.
So we can look here and this tells us.
So we've got some copper here.
1%.
- And tin.
Just over 4%.
- That's pretty good, isn't it? Very good.
If we had a few tonnes of that, we'd be very happy.
So you need to go back to that seam.
This This would be a good place? That's right.
So what we've done with this drilling is we've identified a zone.
So we now have to put some more holes into that.
Eventually, we can connect all the points together and then we know exactly where we can go and mine.
Super hot liquid carried these valuable metals from deep underground.
And left them behind in the rock.
There's such a variety of rock here, isn't there? - That's right.
- It's a geologist's dream really.
It is a geologist's dream.
Some might say, at times, it can be a geologist's nightmare.
It all makes it very challenging to piece it all together and work out the best way to get in there and find where the metals are.
It's well worth the effort.
Metals like copper and tin have rocketed in value again because they are essential components of our electronic gadgets.
South Crofty mine is poised to reopen for its fifth century of business.
I bet when you were studying geology, you didn't think you'd end up here.
That's right.
I didn't.
I grew up in this area.
And the mine closed, actually, the year that I left sixth form.
So to actually be here 10, 12 years later, being involved with helping to reopen it You know, you couldn't imagine it.
So it's a real opportunity.
It's quite exciting.
It's not just the geologists who are excited.
Local miners like Chief Health and Safety Officer, Robin Whale look forward to a whole new era of mining.
I've yet to meet a miner who isn't truly passionate about their job.
I mean, what is it about spending hour upon hour underground in dark, wet, cold conditions.
What goes on in your head? It is a bit of a strange thing.
I remember, when I was a teenager, my doctor told me, "If you spend six months underground, your brain turns to granite.
" That was his official medical opinion.
- And is he right? - Oh, yes.
And the Cornishmen have travelled all over the world, haven't they? Delivering their expertise to mines everywhere.
There's a saying that if a hole is deep enough, you'll find a Cornishman at the bottom.
And one of the main reasons is, that in Cornwall, our geology is so different.
One week you can be drilling rocks so hard your drill bounces off it.
The next week, you can hit a patch of granite so soft you can push your finger in.
So we have lots of different geologies, lots of different rock types, lots of different problems.
Precious metals and fossils aren't the only things that the violent past of Cornwall and Devon have given us.
I'm en route to discover another ancient treasure in a tiny valley tucked away near the village of Beer in Devon.
It's not metal ore.
It's a very special kind of stone.
A rock that has built some of the greatest buildings in Britain.
People started carving through this rock 2,000 years ago and these are not natural grooves, they're tool marks.
This labyrinth of underground stone quarries was first dug out centuries ago.
You can find rounded arches carved by Romans square Saxon tunnels even Norman pillars.
Owner John Scott explains what's so great about the stone down here.
What attracted the Romans to this stone? Well, they realised that it was perfect for very fine, detailed carving but when you take it into the outside world, it dries and then becomes five times harder.
So it is the perfect building material.
You can still find reminders of the lives of the quarrymen who worked here.
To think these candle holds were first blackened by Saxon candles over 1,000 years ago.
Julia, we always say that every pillar here tells a story.
If you look, you can actually see where two men who were quarrying Beer stone wrote their names in 1750.
You can tell they were quarrymen because they always wrote with charcoal whereas every stonemason who worked here throughout the centuries carved his name with pride.
So even a signature to this day will tell you what trade a man was all those years ago.
That is an incredible thought.
- John Hayes and George Rossiter Senior.
- That's a proper "we woz here" mark.
- It certainly is.
The fine quality limestone from Beer has always been in great demand.
Four-tonne blocks were hauled hundreds of miles to decorate some of the most important buildings in Britain - the Tower Of London St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.
And close by, there's Exeter Cathedral.
Resident Master Mason, Gary Morley, is still using stone from Beer to maintain this magnificent building.
Why is this stone, Beer stone, so magical to work with? Well, it's very It's got very fine grain, for a start.
And you can get very fine detail carved into stone.
And it also gives a good sharpness in the cut of the stone and it also forms shadow and so, it gives it that crisp look.
And that really is unique? That really is It is different from any other stone? In Exeter Cathedral, Beer stone was reserved for the most delicate carving work.
These carvings are hundreds of years old.
Limestone is usually soft and erodes easily.
But when the damp lime in Beer stone eventually dries in the air, it forms a hard skin like cement setting.
So all you're doing is taking it level by level and as you're working in, you then follow the same chisel line what you've just done and then work the next line in.
This is a great stone for a great craftsman to work with.
And apparently, even I can't mess it up.
So, let's have a go.
Ooh.
It's not easy.
What I'm frightened to do is to go too far down.
I'm trying to follow the line.
It's OK.
- Right.
I've done a little bit.
Let's have a look.
- That's all right.
How's that? That's all right.
There's no big It's not a big block.
Not a big lump out of there.
I'll take you on.
All right? The limestone of Beer has been used all over Britain.
Another treasure from Cornwall and Devon is even more widespread.
It's not as grand and you've probably got some on your kitchen table right now.
We associate mining and quarrying with serious industrial activity and it's not difficult to imagine where those heavy duty raw materials end up.
Although you might be surprised.
Mysterious landscapes that look like distant planets are actually much closer to home.
This is not the birthplace of extraterrestrial life.
It's actually the birthplace of millions of teacups.
These are the china clay deposits near St Austell in Cornwall.
And they're even a source of inspiration for artists.
Whenever I come into the clay pits, it's a heightening of er of the senses completely.
Jenny Beavan is artist-in-residence.
Well, artist knee-deep in clay and water, anyway.
I think, to any outsider, it might seem quite a crazy thing to do on a day like this.
You know, which is, for me, just great fun, actually.
Jenny uses china clay for her ceramics because it's uniquely strong and delicate.
That's why it makes such fabulously good teapots, cups and saucers.
But, unlike some artists, Jenny likes to get hands on with her raw materials.
Well, just being here, you can see the graduation between the rock and then something that's a bit softer.
And it gets softer and softer until you can really, you know, dig it.
And it's quite nice taking it in layers because the kind of transition from hard to soft is quite inspiring.
Being so pliable is one of the things that makes china clay great to use.
It was created in an act of unbelievable alchemy.
These hills were originally granite until a corrosive chemical cocktail attacked the rock.
It was so powerful, it transformed parts of the rock into a substance called kaolin.
When it's fired, this soft clay goes rock hard.
Perfect for the finest quality china and, in its raw form, lots of other things in our homes.
Of course you find china clay in things like plates and cups but what about paper? Plastic toys? Toilet seats? Even indigestion remedies.
You've probably come into contact with china clay today.
If all this clay is in Cornwall, why is it known as china clay? Well, China was the first to use kaolin successfully.
But Cornwall became the world's biggest producer over 200 years ago.
So far, £15 billion worth of this glorified mud has been sluiced out.
And that's worth more than all of Cornwall's tin and copper put together.
¤ our brotherhood ¤ Unmarred by greed or race Like many of Britain's mining communities, the clay pits have inspired a strong musical tradition.
Some say the singing helped clear out the lungs after a hard day's work in the mines, in the days when it was all a lot dustier.
¤ to be so desired ¤ That we may glorify our God ¤ And live ¤ To serve mankind We've had a good look at the rocks hidden underground.
But above ground, one thing you notice is that the fields of Cornwall are divided by these very distinctive hedges.
Distinctive mainly because they are not hedges at all.
Well, we all know what a hedge is.
It's a hedge.
It's a long row of plants separating fields or gardens.
Not in Cornwall.
Down here, the hedges are, in fact, made from rock.
And making them is an ancient tradition.
¤ And I look out across the wall ¤ Look out across the wall ¤ And into the Atlantic - Hi, John.
- Oh, hiya.
John Wakefield is a member of the Guild of Cornish Hedgers.
Will he show me how to build a hedge? Oh, that doesn't sound right.
Why is it called a hedge, then, when it's quite obviously a wall? Well, it's called a hedge because it's a living thing.
You've obviously got grass growing on the top or any other shrubs.
Gorse.
Any local vegetation.
And it's different to the dry stone walling because the dry stone has stone from one side to the other, whereas this is two independent sides.
- So there's earth in the middle.
- Yeah.
- Massive stones at the bottom.
- Yeah.
They're called the grounders.
That makes sense.
And it's like that, isn't it? It's thicker at the bottom than it is at the top.
Yeah.
It's thicker at the bottom so the way it's angled, it will tighten itself.
The design of the Cornish hedge is actually very clever.
It makes a solid wind break for farming.
It also prevents soil erosion and reduces flash flooding.
Which is just the thing in a landscape as weather-beaten as this one.
And how fast can you do this? A double-sided hedge, a metre long, would take about a day.
- Do you want me to do a bit? - If you like.
There's a hammer.
I will not have weird-looking stones in my wall.
Listen, there are standards.
Some of these walls - sorry, hedges - were first laid down in the Bronze Age.
Loose stones from the fields have been used to top them up ever since.
If a wall is built properly, like this one, how long will it last? Oh, hundreds of years.
Yeah.
The Guild of Cornish Hedgers guarantee them 100 years.
So - You guarantee 100 years? - Yeah.
Yeah.
- That's without the extended warranty? - Yeah.
Without that.
Yeah.
As the sun sets on a satisfying bit of proper manly work, it's good to know that there's a little piece of Cornwall that will forever be Hugh Dennis.
Until the cameras have gone and John builds it again properly.
Devon and Cornwall bear all the scars of the continual battle between the landscape and the relentless forces of nature.
And if you want to feel close to them, there's no better place.
Wild weather and merciless winds scour the hills.
But the coastline is still the biggest battleground.
So I'm going back to the frontline for one last bit of Cornish fun coasteering - a daring mix of jumping, swimming and climbing.
And, apparently, it's sufficiently dangerous that I have to look like I'm going to a fancy dress party dressed as Tinky Winky.
So what we're going to do for you is we're going to stop there, have a quick safety chat.
For adrenaline junkies Sam Starkie and Dave Rainbird - even their names are out there - the wild coast of Cornwall is the perfect venue for coasteering.
I wonder if it began as some sort of dance craze? Roman handshake, OK? And it's November.
I said I wanted to look at what was underneath Britain but this isn't really what I meant.
- You OK? - Yeah, I swallowed Try and keep your mouth closed.
If you get your feet nice and high up against the rock.
And it's feet first.
My only defence against being dashed on the rocks.
So whenever we're around the rocks, this is the position we want you in and that way you can just fend it off quite easily.
Can you try and get used to just, sort of, relaxing and floating around? Oh, yeah.
I'm really relaxed now.
Big wave.
Stand there.
There's nothing more likely to take your mind off things than being tossed around in the world's second biggest ocean.
- All right, Hugh? - Yeah.
Just hang back a little bit.
Just waiting for it to go nice and calm.
The Cornish coast has been standing up to the sea for over 50 million years.
I, by contrast, am finding five minutes a bit of a challenge.
Just have a little swim in.
That's it.
Well done, Hugh.
That was brilliant.
Just to cling on to these jagged rocks is really difficult because they are a razor sharp mixture of hard slates and soft clays laid down over millions of years.
Some areas can be quite fragile and break off in your hands.
You've got to be a little bit careful of that.
Watch out for the waves splashing up at us.
Yes, the trouble with following Sam and Dave up here is that you know what's going to have to happen.
A nice big step out of here, Hugh.
- Whenever you're ready, you can go for it.
- OK.
Common sense tells you not to try swimming, climbing or jumping around here.
I'm alive! But once you've mastered doing all three safely, you can do things like this.
Ready? Whoo-hoo! I imagine they're thinking an awful lot about the geology at the moment.
I think it's probably the thing that really excites them.
One, two, three Coasteering gives you access to parts of the coastline that you would never find any other way.
Like the caves that once made perfect hiding places for smugglers.
I've just been in a group of caves called the Tea Taverns.
They're called that because tea was smuggled here.
There was a very high tax on tea at one point.
So all the contraband was put into those caves and horses would wait at the top of the hill and then they'd take all that contraband away.
Pretty good swimmers, aren't they? Do you not think you'd be happier maybe working in an office? Yee-ha! After all that, Sam and I will share a moment of geological contemplation.
So it is a real proper mixture, isn't it, of soft and hard? As you can see behind us, totally burrowed out by the sea.
Drawn out and leaving some amazing little features.
This is fantastic, isn't it? That arch is great.
- Yeah.
It's amazing.
- That's scary.
- Tonnes of rock is being held up by this foot of - OK.
Don't go on about it.
It's not something you're really going to think about when you're lying on a beach here, but for centuries, from piracy and smuggling right through to the present day, with coasteering and the whole tourist industry, in these beaches and coves, life in Devon and Cornwall has been determined really by this fantastic landscape, by this intricate jumble of rocks and water.
And by the jigsaw of its geology.
Picture postcard views are just the cover page of the story of Britain.
Scratch the surface in an area like Cornwall and Devon, and you see how much geology is part of who we are, and how the tough rocks created millions of years ago still shape our lives today.
There's an iceberg melting and a volcano erupting somewhere.
- It's changing everything as we speak.
- It all changes all the time, in fact, doesn't it? - But so slowly.
- And this coast is going.
In hundreds of millions of years, it's not going to look like this.
Nothing'll be the same.
I think it's my favourite toe of Britain.
Sort of stuck into the Atlantic.
You're thinking of Britain as someone sitting down with their legs sticking out the front.
Yeah.
With bits.
With dangly bits.
Very oddly-shaped person.
The landscapes of Cornwall and Devon have had a tough upbringing.
But they wear it well.
And we get breathtaking scenery that's world class in its variety.
Beautiful.
Glorious.
And very, very old.
For three billion years, these British Isles have been growing and changing.
They've never stood still.
If you love the British landscape the way we both do, then you might be very familiar with it but there is another story to be told.
The story that's always fascinated me of what happened here those millions of years ago.
And how that still affects our lives every day.
Whoa! Hey, look out.
Look at that.
For a country of our size, we have a greater variety of landscapes than anywhere else on Earth.
It's all down to our dramatic history.
Over millions of years, we've been flooded, frozen and ravaged by mighty earth movements.
What's even more astonishing is how that distant past still shapes the countryside today.
I'm alive! We're going to all four corners of the country to discover how Britain's epic past lives on in the most surprising ways.
I'm ready for a bit of adventuring but you're the geology buff.
Where to first? - Well, I want to go everywhere.
- Of course you do.
- I'm a boy.
- Can I come with you? - Where you going? - Is this a footpath? We're in Cornwall and Devon.
And if you like your landscape tough and craggy, it's paradise.
This part of Britain was shaped by violence - by brutal weather and molten rock - and the result is very impressive.
I've always loved it for walks along the coast.
Scratch the surface and we'll see how the landscape has shaped the history modern industry even legends and brought danger to these shores.
The coastline that so many of us visit every summer has been created by a massive tug of war- a battle between the land, the sea and the weather.
And it's proper weather when we arrive.
But that's what happens if you go in November.
It's a very British thing to be doing, isn't it? Standing here getting blown around by gale force winds.
Well, really it shows how British I am cos I absolutely love this.
- Look at everybody.
- I'm confident it's going to brighten up later.
That's the most British thing you could say.
Yes, that's not confidence.
That's being completely misguided.
But this is Britain's top tourist destination.
You know? Devon and Cornwall.
More people come here than anywhere else.
- It's about ten million a year.
- And you can see why.
You're never very far from the sea.
We're uncomfortably close to it.
If I'm honest.
At the moment.
But up there You've got the moors.
You've got fantastic countryside.
- There's something for everyone.
- And that's because it's this geological jigsaw.
A landscape for every family.
Do you want to play that game where you have to lean into the wind? - See how far forward you can lean.
- When I was about 12.
- That's all right.
You do that.
- Like this? - I'm just getting wetter, though.
- Watch this.
Well, that doesn't count if you do that.
That's not leaning into the wind.
That's just odd.
It is odd, yes.
It is definitely odd.
The wind and the sea pound this coastline.
This corner of Britain sticks straight out into the Atlantic.
Only the toughest of tough rocks can survive the harsh conditions off Land's End.
I want to see how this bit of the country stands up to such a pounding.
Go! OK.
Working controls normal.
It's clear.
So I've hitched a ride to what must be one of the toughest rocks in Britain - Wolf Rock.
This is like mowing the grass at really high speed.
Yeah.
Now we've got ten miles to run.
This isolated lighthouse was built on a tiny outcrop of rock in order to protect our busy Atlantic shipping lanes.
I'm with the maintenance team who fly out regularly to keep it working.
If they can land the helicopter.
That's the landing pad.
It's tiny.
That is effectively the size of basketball hoop and we're going to land on it.
It all seems a bit precarious to me.
OK.
Running in.
Dead ahead.
I've lost sight of it.
Makes me feel a bit nervous.
Forward three.
Dead ahead.
This is ridiculous.
Steady.
Down two.
Whoa! Look at this.
I love this.
And so do the seagulls.
It's a hell of a way to change a light bulb.
But the risks have to be taken because those hard rocks down below are a danger to shipping.
It may seem fairly calm now but Principal Engineer Ron Blakeley faces the very worst of the weather.
So sometimes, if we come here after a winter period, we find half the helipad missing.
That's amazing that.
We're only about a third of the way up, I should think.
And it feels really high here.
But the sea gets so high that it can take bits of the helipad out.
That's correct.
The helipad is at 41 metres.
So the sea just rolls up the tower and just punches the pads out.
So if the sea is powerful enough to punch out the helipad, how come this stubborn lump of rock this lighthouse stands on is still here? Time to step back over 100 million years.
Back then, Wolf Rock was the molten core at the heart of an active volcano.
The North Atlantic was dry land and you could have walked from here to America.
When the volcano became extinct, the molten rock inside solidified into igneous rock - hard rock formed from magma.
Outside, the volcanic cone then suffered 130 million years worth of erosion.
Finally, a succession of ice ages flooded the land with melt water which washed away the last of the cone, leaving only the harder inner core lurking amongst the waves.
It's amazing that we're just sitting on a big lump left after everything else has been washed away.
- That's correct.
- It's amazing, isn't it? Cos all this was once dry land and now it's You know.
Things get eroded so quickly.
Apart from igneous rock which just stays here, wrecking ships.
Which leaves me with one nagging question.
What's the lighthouse built of? The answer, of course, is granite.
Tough enough for lighthouses, kerb stones and industrial-strength kitchen worktops.
And every piece of this granite also comes from Cornwall.
Tough rocks define Cornwall and Devon from the granite that dominates the wild moors to the great jumble of rock on the craggy coastline.
That's where I'm heading first.
The resistant rocks that protect Devon and Cornwall from the Atlantic might prove a bit of a headache for some of the ships, but there's a whole community here that take full advantage of that very same geology.
If it wasn't for that geology, life for them would be pretty dull.
I'm in Newquay on the north coast of Cornwall.
Here, the hard Cornish rock, the soft sand and the Atlantic rollers create a surfer's paradise.
Surf School tutor Aidan Salmon is master of the waves.
When we look out here, what's happening underneath that's having an impact on the waves and the pattern of the waves? OK.
So you've got the sand banks which are ever-changing.
Wherever you've got rock formations, you'll have sand that'll build up around those rocks.
That's going to cause the waves to break.
What happens is, as a wave comes in, it hits shallower water, the bottom part of the wave slows down, whereas the top part of the wave keeps moving.
As that crashes over and breaks, that's when you get your ride and that's what you can see as the wave goes from green to white.
What is it about this place that makes it such a Mecca for surfers in the UK? The main thing is that there are waves almost every day.
And that there's so many different features that make the waves break in different manners that are suitable for everyone.
The shallow, sandy bays of the north coast are protected by headlands of hard rock.
When the Atlantic rolls into the bays, the rocks can create giant waves.
When a big wave hits the rocks at the side of a bay, it bounces back into the wave behind it and pushes that second wave up even higher.
If you're a nasty person, then you call your friend into the first wave cos that's the rubbish one and you wait for the second one.
You can be the best surfer but if you don't know when a wave's coming, you're stuffed.
You probably won't be the best surfer unless you know that.
I'll take his word for it.
The rocks along the rugged coastline of Cornwall and Devon were all created by power struggles millions of years ago.
But they're not the only bits with a violent past.
I'm heading to the wild moors.
I'm on Dartmoor.
I'm not so sure about this.
It also has a reputation that doesn't encourage visitors to hang around when it gets dark.
These moors are famous for weird animal sightings and legends.
It was Dartmoor that inspired Sherlock Holmes's terrifying Hound Of The Baskervilles.
Hiya, Nick.
Nick Groom lectures in Landscape and Literature.
He knows these moors well and he reckons he knows why they're so spooky.
Why is this place the home to so many mysterious legends? Especially revolving around dogs and beasties.
I think because it's a depopulated landscape.
Years ago, of course, it was a very busy landscape.
There were tinners here.
There were stone cutters.
There were many more farmers.
But all those people generally migrated off the land.
So they left this vacuum, this space, which is a savage, untamed country that you can walk across all day and not see another soul alive or dead.
And rather like the mist arising from a mere, these legends and these myths develop.
And you get these abiding images of beasts, of dogs, large cats.
It is, to our eyes, a wilderness, I think.
And these huge tors with their broken granite masonry look like the remains of an ancient civilisation.
Dartmoor didn't always look like this.
Years ago, it was covered in dense woodland.
Then, when people moved into this area, they cut down the trees for building and firewood.
The landscape was devastated.
All the trees were gone.
The people moved out leaving the ancient rocks to create this eerie landscape.
"Standing over Hugo and plucking at his throat, there stood a foul thing.
A great black beast, shaped like a hound yet larger than any hound that ever mortal eye has rested upon.
" Not exactly a bedtime read, is it? "The three shrieked with fear and rode for dear life, still screaming, across the moor.
" - Shall we go home now? - Let's go home.
Wisely, perhaps, I've chosen to come to Dartmoor in daylight but where did these massive granite peaks come from? What's astonishing about this landscape is that it was once all underground.
A huge area of granite was formed.
A huge layer of it, kilometres thick and enormously wide, stretching from way over there in Devon right off the end of Britain, Land's End out to the Scilly Isles.
And it's this granite that gives us these tors.
It give us the moors.
It's fantastic to look at, to walk past, to jump off, to build with.
It really shapes the lives of everybody who lives here.
This rocky high ground started life as giant boils under the skin of Cornwall and Devon.
They began brewing 300 million years ago under a thick layer of rock.
But seven kilometres underground, something was stirring hot magma, rising from the Earth's molten reservoirs, trying to force its way upwards.
But the rock above was too thick, and instead of allowing the magma to erupt in volcanoes, like it did elsewhere, it was forced to gather in giant underground domes.
With no volcanoes to release the pressure, the surface rock strained as it was pushed up.
The underground magma eventually cooled into permanent domes of hard granite.
The broken softer rocks at the peaks were easily weathered away.
And now we're left with the exposed underground granite in the form of granite tors.
But the tors aren't the only thing that makes Dartmoor famous.
There are lots of high areas of moorland in Britain, but there is something about this place that has lodged it in the national consciousness.
It's partly to do with the landscape.
It's partly to do with there being a prison.
But it's also down to another set of inhabitants of this area who are not residing at Her Majesty's Pleasure - Dartmoor ponies.
This ancient breed of ponies has evolved to be as tough as the moors they thrive on.
You go back 3,500 years ago, we know there was ponies, there was cattle and there were sheep.
And that's exactly how farming today is carried out on Dartmoor.
It works.
Dru Butterfield runs the Dartmoor Pony Heritage Trust.
She's helping a local farmer round up his ponies from common land on the moor.
Each farmer will own so many ponies depending on the number of rights that they have to graze the common and this particular farmer has got 20 mares running with a stallion.
And we're bringing them in now because we're going to pick out some ponies which will be sold to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust.
The ponies help preserve the landscape that our ancestors created by grazing.
If we didn't graze the area, if we didn't keep the gorse under control, it would just turn into a huge scrub area.
People wouldn't be able to access the moor.
It would look a totally different place.
They graze in such a different way to cattle and sheep.
They browse the moor and they're eating for up to 18 hours a day.
So they are organic scrub cutters.
They are integral to this area.
To lose them is like losing your family silver.
It's unthinkable, actually.
Back in the 1930s, Dartmoor's ponies worked in the mines and quarries that were here then.
And there were 30,000 of them on the moor.
Nowadays, about 1,000 ponies are enough to conserve it.
Now all that mining has gone, they have a rather more sedate life.
If you can say that about living in this harsh moorland environment.
But they're still vital.
Because they keep this moor looking exactly how we like it.
But the powerful forces that created the moors did more than just build up this high ground.
They also created a giant mash-up on what is now Cornwall's north coast.
I've come to Tintagel, where nothing is where it should be.
All the rocks are higgledy-piggledy.
And it's all rather magical.
Which may be why it's such a centre of folklore and legend.
King Arthur was supposedly conceived here.
So in spite of the fact that you don't get this landscape anywhere else in these islands, you can't really get much more British than this.
The reason for Tintagel's extraordinary landscape is, well, delightfully complicated.
Because, as geologist Jane Anderson will explain, these rocks are interlopers, Johnny-come-latelies brought here by the massive forces that shaped Cornwall and Devon.
These rocks have not come from here.
It's at least Bodmin Moor and maybe further beyond that.
- So that's, like, 30 miles or something, is it? - At least.
And the drag associated with them has folded and faulted them.
And when they've come to rest here, they've been uplifted to angles of 45 degrees but it's all weakened the rock.
Incredibly, millions of years ago, even before the sea was here, great chunks of ground from inland where dumped here at Tintagel.
A giant lasagne of hard and soft rocks - volcanic rock, slate, sandstone - slid downhill and concertinaed into this folded and jumbled landscape.
And when the sea arrived, it got in wherever it could.
And at the end of each fault, the sea has got in at the base but it produces these wonderful landforms.
Caves and even a waterfall here.
And one of these is Merlin's cave, isn't it? Yes, it's that one there.
And you can At low tide, you can walk all the way through.
So, basically, it is fantastically weird because it's fantastically weird.
Yeah.
Exactly it.
Yeah.
Very, sort of, mystic and craggy and It's great, isn't it? Tintagel is a chaotic mix of rocks and I'm on the lookout for one rock in particular.
The rock formations here are really strange.
Now, normally, you would expect to get younger rocks, sheets of them, on top of older rocks.
But here, there is so much buckling and twisting that you sometimes get older rocks, and sheets of that, on top of younger rocks.
It's very bizarre.
But if you want proof of how bizarre it really is, you want to have a look at this compass.
At the moment, it's telling me that north is over there.
But when I hold it up to this rock here it just spins right round.
Whoa! And that's cos this is a mineral called magnetite.
It's the most magnetic mineral on earth and it makes your compass go crazy.
You actually have no idea where you are.
So, next time you lose your bearings in Tintagel, maybe outside the pub, you can blame it on the rocks.
We've really begun to get a sense of the powerful forces that shape this dramatic beautiful landscape and the lives of the people that live here.
But there's even more for me and Hugh to discover - That's a proper "we woz here" mark.
- It certainly is.
from deep underground - Big wave! to the craggy coastline.
That was fantastic.
Before that, we're off to a very special bit of the coast.
How many people do you think know that Devon gave its name to one of the great geological periods? Well, not very many, I don't suppose.
But it did.
It's called the Devonian.
But I suspect more people know that this swathe of coast, say, from here right through to Dorset, is called the Jurassic Coast.
- You can't forget that.
- Well, because of Jurassic Park.
It is the time of the dinosaurs.
Which goes back a long time.
Older than you even.
Considerably older than me and thanks for that.
If you combine the age of Bruce Forsyth, Michael Parkinson and the entire cast of Last Of The Summer Wine, you would get nowhere near it.
It's about 150 million, 200 million years ago.
It's good, though.
Look.
This is the magnificent Jurassic Coast, 95 miles long and one of the best places in Britain to look for prehistoric fossils.
Which is what I'm doing with dedicated fossil hunter Mike Harrison.
Most people start off looking for small bones.
Small backbones of ichthyosaurs and vertebras.
Erm But do most people start on a stormy beach at low tidejust before nightfall? So this isn't great weather for fossil hunting, presumably? - This is the perfect conditions for fossil hunting.
- Is it? Lots of rain and rough sea.
The rain washes down the clay and washes the face of the cliffs.
The sea erodes what's washed out.
In Jurassic times, this was the seabed of a warm, tropical ocean filled with prehistoric creatures.
- The - No.
No.
That's something This is from the Cretaceous.
Right at very the top.
When storms come in, more fossils come to light.
I don't know what that is.
Though not where I am, it seems.
All it takes is time and patience.
More than I've got.
Especially for the big finds.
Of which Mike has plenty.
And one in particular- a fossil discovery of huge scientific interest.
Oh, that is ridiculous.
- You found that? - I did, yeah.
- And what is that? - It's an ichthyosaur skull.
- And it's a what? It's a marine reptile, is it? - Marine reptile.
- Top predator of its time.
- And this is just its head.
How big was an ichthyosaur? This one would have probably been about 25 to 30 foot.
So there's a lot more to collect.
What you going to do? You're going to run out of room.
- You're going to have it right at the front door.
- It would be.
Except for it's going to take me a few years to get it all.
Mike first discovered parts of this huge reptile in 2008 after the coast's biggest landslip in 100 years.
The trouble is, he'll have to wait for more storms to reveal the rest of it.
Piece by piece.
How did you feel when you found it? Like winning a very big scratch card.
Massive scratch card.
It's like the Euro Lottery, I would have thought.
You spend years looking for this sort of thing.
People don't realise that you know, you go out time and time again and, you know, pretty fruitlessly.
And, you know, these things don't come up very often.
That's fantastic because you don't You're not a professional fossil hunter.
So what do you do most of the time? - Work at Tesco's.
- Do you? How did you get that in your trolley? There's incredible detail in this find.
It's thought the silt on the Jurassic Coast seabed was so fine there was very little oxygen in it.
So this whole creature decomposed slowly enough to become a perfect fossil.
What a journey this thing has had, then.
If you think about it.
- Well, it is fascinating.
- It's now popped out of the cliff in Dorset.
- And now it's heading back to the sea.
- Well, it's heading to your kitchen.
That's the most unexpected bit of its journey.
- It didn't see that, did it? No-one saw that.
- It didn't see that coming.
No.
Mike knows there are many other prehistoric creatures hidden here.
If he finds any more big ones, he might just need a bigger kitchen.
There are many other hidden treasures here.
These are Cornwall's famous tin mines.
For centuries, they brought wealth to the area.
Then the industry fell on hard times.
All the mines were closed.
But now preparations are under way to reopen one ancient Cornish mine.
These rocks don't surrender their rewards without a lot of hard work, dirt and some risk taking.
Dean, we've got a situation.
We need the team in as soon as possible.
This is the South Crofty Rescue Team.
Like fire-fighters, every member of the team has to be on call 24-7.
Just be aware, obviously, of team safety.
Unlike fire-fighters, they have to be prepared for anything.
We have got a vehicle that's crashed.
There are reports of smoke.
But unlike fire-fighters, these men do it all underground.
Air on.
OK.
South Crofty tin mine is about to reopen after a shut down that's lasted more than a decade.
Mine rescue.
Can you hear us? Practice drills like this are essential.
Simulate a fire in the engine bay.
Right.
Hold it there.
Normal emergency services aren't trained to deal with the extreme conditions.
If things go wrong down here, they can go wrong fast.
- He's not responding.
- We've got to get him out of here quickly.
The team must be ready to deal with situations up to a kilometre underground.
Fire, floods, tunnel collapse or total darkness.
We're almost up, OK? All this effort to prepare the mines should be worth it.
South Crofty's geologist, Gareth Joseph, wants to show me what's still down there.
He's discovered new veins of metals like copper that were previously ignored.
OK.
So we can look here and this tells us.
So we've got some copper here.
1%.
- And tin.
Just over 4%.
- That's pretty good, isn't it? Very good.
If we had a few tonnes of that, we'd be very happy.
So you need to go back to that seam.
This This would be a good place? That's right.
So what we've done with this drilling is we've identified a zone.
So we now have to put some more holes into that.
Eventually, we can connect all the points together and then we know exactly where we can go and mine.
Super hot liquid carried these valuable metals from deep underground.
And left them behind in the rock.
There's such a variety of rock here, isn't there? - That's right.
- It's a geologist's dream really.
It is a geologist's dream.
Some might say, at times, it can be a geologist's nightmare.
It all makes it very challenging to piece it all together and work out the best way to get in there and find where the metals are.
It's well worth the effort.
Metals like copper and tin have rocketed in value again because they are essential components of our electronic gadgets.
South Crofty mine is poised to reopen for its fifth century of business.
I bet when you were studying geology, you didn't think you'd end up here.
That's right.
I didn't.
I grew up in this area.
And the mine closed, actually, the year that I left sixth form.
So to actually be here 10, 12 years later, being involved with helping to reopen it You know, you couldn't imagine it.
So it's a real opportunity.
It's quite exciting.
It's not just the geologists who are excited.
Local miners like Chief Health and Safety Officer, Robin Whale look forward to a whole new era of mining.
I've yet to meet a miner who isn't truly passionate about their job.
I mean, what is it about spending hour upon hour underground in dark, wet, cold conditions.
What goes on in your head? It is a bit of a strange thing.
I remember, when I was a teenager, my doctor told me, "If you spend six months underground, your brain turns to granite.
" That was his official medical opinion.
- And is he right? - Oh, yes.
And the Cornishmen have travelled all over the world, haven't they? Delivering their expertise to mines everywhere.
There's a saying that if a hole is deep enough, you'll find a Cornishman at the bottom.
And one of the main reasons is, that in Cornwall, our geology is so different.
One week you can be drilling rocks so hard your drill bounces off it.
The next week, you can hit a patch of granite so soft you can push your finger in.
So we have lots of different geologies, lots of different rock types, lots of different problems.
Precious metals and fossils aren't the only things that the violent past of Cornwall and Devon have given us.
I'm en route to discover another ancient treasure in a tiny valley tucked away near the village of Beer in Devon.
It's not metal ore.
It's a very special kind of stone.
A rock that has built some of the greatest buildings in Britain.
People started carving through this rock 2,000 years ago and these are not natural grooves, they're tool marks.
This labyrinth of underground stone quarries was first dug out centuries ago.
You can find rounded arches carved by Romans square Saxon tunnels even Norman pillars.
Owner John Scott explains what's so great about the stone down here.
What attracted the Romans to this stone? Well, they realised that it was perfect for very fine, detailed carving but when you take it into the outside world, it dries and then becomes five times harder.
So it is the perfect building material.
You can still find reminders of the lives of the quarrymen who worked here.
To think these candle holds were first blackened by Saxon candles over 1,000 years ago.
Julia, we always say that every pillar here tells a story.
If you look, you can actually see where two men who were quarrying Beer stone wrote their names in 1750.
You can tell they were quarrymen because they always wrote with charcoal whereas every stonemason who worked here throughout the centuries carved his name with pride.
So even a signature to this day will tell you what trade a man was all those years ago.
That is an incredible thought.
- John Hayes and George Rossiter Senior.
- That's a proper "we woz here" mark.
- It certainly is.
The fine quality limestone from Beer has always been in great demand.
Four-tonne blocks were hauled hundreds of miles to decorate some of the most important buildings in Britain - the Tower Of London St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.
And close by, there's Exeter Cathedral.
Resident Master Mason, Gary Morley, is still using stone from Beer to maintain this magnificent building.
Why is this stone, Beer stone, so magical to work with? Well, it's very It's got very fine grain, for a start.
And you can get very fine detail carved into stone.
And it also gives a good sharpness in the cut of the stone and it also forms shadow and so, it gives it that crisp look.
And that really is unique? That really is It is different from any other stone? In Exeter Cathedral, Beer stone was reserved for the most delicate carving work.
These carvings are hundreds of years old.
Limestone is usually soft and erodes easily.
But when the damp lime in Beer stone eventually dries in the air, it forms a hard skin like cement setting.
So all you're doing is taking it level by level and as you're working in, you then follow the same chisel line what you've just done and then work the next line in.
This is a great stone for a great craftsman to work with.
And apparently, even I can't mess it up.
So, let's have a go.
Ooh.
It's not easy.
What I'm frightened to do is to go too far down.
I'm trying to follow the line.
It's OK.
- Right.
I've done a little bit.
Let's have a look.
- That's all right.
How's that? That's all right.
There's no big It's not a big block.
Not a big lump out of there.
I'll take you on.
All right? The limestone of Beer has been used all over Britain.
Another treasure from Cornwall and Devon is even more widespread.
It's not as grand and you've probably got some on your kitchen table right now.
We associate mining and quarrying with serious industrial activity and it's not difficult to imagine where those heavy duty raw materials end up.
Although you might be surprised.
Mysterious landscapes that look like distant planets are actually much closer to home.
This is not the birthplace of extraterrestrial life.
It's actually the birthplace of millions of teacups.
These are the china clay deposits near St Austell in Cornwall.
And they're even a source of inspiration for artists.
Whenever I come into the clay pits, it's a heightening of er of the senses completely.
Jenny Beavan is artist-in-residence.
Well, artist knee-deep in clay and water, anyway.
I think, to any outsider, it might seem quite a crazy thing to do on a day like this.
You know, which is, for me, just great fun, actually.
Jenny uses china clay for her ceramics because it's uniquely strong and delicate.
That's why it makes such fabulously good teapots, cups and saucers.
But, unlike some artists, Jenny likes to get hands on with her raw materials.
Well, just being here, you can see the graduation between the rock and then something that's a bit softer.
And it gets softer and softer until you can really, you know, dig it.
And it's quite nice taking it in layers because the kind of transition from hard to soft is quite inspiring.
Being so pliable is one of the things that makes china clay great to use.
It was created in an act of unbelievable alchemy.
These hills were originally granite until a corrosive chemical cocktail attacked the rock.
It was so powerful, it transformed parts of the rock into a substance called kaolin.
When it's fired, this soft clay goes rock hard.
Perfect for the finest quality china and, in its raw form, lots of other things in our homes.
Of course you find china clay in things like plates and cups but what about paper? Plastic toys? Toilet seats? Even indigestion remedies.
You've probably come into contact with china clay today.
If all this clay is in Cornwall, why is it known as china clay? Well, China was the first to use kaolin successfully.
But Cornwall became the world's biggest producer over 200 years ago.
So far, £15 billion worth of this glorified mud has been sluiced out.
And that's worth more than all of Cornwall's tin and copper put together.
¤ our brotherhood ¤ Unmarred by greed or race Like many of Britain's mining communities, the clay pits have inspired a strong musical tradition.
Some say the singing helped clear out the lungs after a hard day's work in the mines, in the days when it was all a lot dustier.
¤ to be so desired ¤ That we may glorify our God ¤ And live ¤ To serve mankind We've had a good look at the rocks hidden underground.
But above ground, one thing you notice is that the fields of Cornwall are divided by these very distinctive hedges.
Distinctive mainly because they are not hedges at all.
Well, we all know what a hedge is.
It's a hedge.
It's a long row of plants separating fields or gardens.
Not in Cornwall.
Down here, the hedges are, in fact, made from rock.
And making them is an ancient tradition.
¤ And I look out across the wall ¤ Look out across the wall ¤ And into the Atlantic - Hi, John.
- Oh, hiya.
John Wakefield is a member of the Guild of Cornish Hedgers.
Will he show me how to build a hedge? Oh, that doesn't sound right.
Why is it called a hedge, then, when it's quite obviously a wall? Well, it's called a hedge because it's a living thing.
You've obviously got grass growing on the top or any other shrubs.
Gorse.
Any local vegetation.
And it's different to the dry stone walling because the dry stone has stone from one side to the other, whereas this is two independent sides.
- So there's earth in the middle.
- Yeah.
- Massive stones at the bottom.
- Yeah.
They're called the grounders.
That makes sense.
And it's like that, isn't it? It's thicker at the bottom than it is at the top.
Yeah.
It's thicker at the bottom so the way it's angled, it will tighten itself.
The design of the Cornish hedge is actually very clever.
It makes a solid wind break for farming.
It also prevents soil erosion and reduces flash flooding.
Which is just the thing in a landscape as weather-beaten as this one.
And how fast can you do this? A double-sided hedge, a metre long, would take about a day.
- Do you want me to do a bit? - If you like.
There's a hammer.
I will not have weird-looking stones in my wall.
Listen, there are standards.
Some of these walls - sorry, hedges - were first laid down in the Bronze Age.
Loose stones from the fields have been used to top them up ever since.
If a wall is built properly, like this one, how long will it last? Oh, hundreds of years.
Yeah.
The Guild of Cornish Hedgers guarantee them 100 years.
So - You guarantee 100 years? - Yeah.
Yeah.
- That's without the extended warranty? - Yeah.
Without that.
Yeah.
As the sun sets on a satisfying bit of proper manly work, it's good to know that there's a little piece of Cornwall that will forever be Hugh Dennis.
Until the cameras have gone and John builds it again properly.
Devon and Cornwall bear all the scars of the continual battle between the landscape and the relentless forces of nature.
And if you want to feel close to them, there's no better place.
Wild weather and merciless winds scour the hills.
But the coastline is still the biggest battleground.
So I'm going back to the frontline for one last bit of Cornish fun coasteering - a daring mix of jumping, swimming and climbing.
And, apparently, it's sufficiently dangerous that I have to look like I'm going to a fancy dress party dressed as Tinky Winky.
So what we're going to do for you is we're going to stop there, have a quick safety chat.
For adrenaline junkies Sam Starkie and Dave Rainbird - even their names are out there - the wild coast of Cornwall is the perfect venue for coasteering.
I wonder if it began as some sort of dance craze? Roman handshake, OK? And it's November.
I said I wanted to look at what was underneath Britain but this isn't really what I meant.
- You OK? - Yeah, I swallowed Try and keep your mouth closed.
If you get your feet nice and high up against the rock.
And it's feet first.
My only defence against being dashed on the rocks.
So whenever we're around the rocks, this is the position we want you in and that way you can just fend it off quite easily.
Can you try and get used to just, sort of, relaxing and floating around? Oh, yeah.
I'm really relaxed now.
Big wave.
Stand there.
There's nothing more likely to take your mind off things than being tossed around in the world's second biggest ocean.
- All right, Hugh? - Yeah.
Just hang back a little bit.
Just waiting for it to go nice and calm.
The Cornish coast has been standing up to the sea for over 50 million years.
I, by contrast, am finding five minutes a bit of a challenge.
Just have a little swim in.
That's it.
Well done, Hugh.
That was brilliant.
Just to cling on to these jagged rocks is really difficult because they are a razor sharp mixture of hard slates and soft clays laid down over millions of years.
Some areas can be quite fragile and break off in your hands.
You've got to be a little bit careful of that.
Watch out for the waves splashing up at us.
Yes, the trouble with following Sam and Dave up here is that you know what's going to have to happen.
A nice big step out of here, Hugh.
- Whenever you're ready, you can go for it.
- OK.
Common sense tells you not to try swimming, climbing or jumping around here.
I'm alive! But once you've mastered doing all three safely, you can do things like this.
Ready? Whoo-hoo! I imagine they're thinking an awful lot about the geology at the moment.
I think it's probably the thing that really excites them.
One, two, three Coasteering gives you access to parts of the coastline that you would never find any other way.
Like the caves that once made perfect hiding places for smugglers.
I've just been in a group of caves called the Tea Taverns.
They're called that because tea was smuggled here.
There was a very high tax on tea at one point.
So all the contraband was put into those caves and horses would wait at the top of the hill and then they'd take all that contraband away.
Pretty good swimmers, aren't they? Do you not think you'd be happier maybe working in an office? Yee-ha! After all that, Sam and I will share a moment of geological contemplation.
So it is a real proper mixture, isn't it, of soft and hard? As you can see behind us, totally burrowed out by the sea.
Drawn out and leaving some amazing little features.
This is fantastic, isn't it? That arch is great.
- Yeah.
It's amazing.
- That's scary.
- Tonnes of rock is being held up by this foot of - OK.
Don't go on about it.
It's not something you're really going to think about when you're lying on a beach here, but for centuries, from piracy and smuggling right through to the present day, with coasteering and the whole tourist industry, in these beaches and coves, life in Devon and Cornwall has been determined really by this fantastic landscape, by this intricate jumble of rocks and water.
And by the jigsaw of its geology.
Picture postcard views are just the cover page of the story of Britain.
Scratch the surface in an area like Cornwall and Devon, and you see how much geology is part of who we are, and how the tough rocks created millions of years ago still shape our lives today.
There's an iceberg melting and a volcano erupting somewhere.
- It's changing everything as we speak.
- It all changes all the time, in fact, doesn't it? - But so slowly.
- And this coast is going.
In hundreds of millions of years, it's not going to look like this.
Nothing'll be the same.
I think it's my favourite toe of Britain.
Sort of stuck into the Atlantic.
You're thinking of Britain as someone sitting down with their legs sticking out the front.
Yeah.
With bits.
With dangly bits.
Very oddly-shaped person.
The landscapes of Cornwall and Devon have had a tough upbringing.
But they wear it well.
And we get breathtaking scenery that's world class in its variety.