Open Country

The shores of the Durham coastline were once as black as the coal that was tipped into the waves that crashed onto them. But in recent years an amazing transformation has taken place. Helen Mark finds out about the Durham Heritage Coast.

Richard Uridge explores the Edgelands around Manchester with poets Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts, who urge us to love the disregarded spaces between the city and countryside.

Ponies have roamed the moors of Dartmoor and Bodmin for years and are as much a part of the moors as the heathers that grow there. But is the very survival of the Dartmoor pony, which is the symbol of the National Park, now under threat? Helen Mark is on Dartmoor to meet some of the people whose lives revolve around the ponies and who are fighting to preserve them and ultimately the moorland on wh...

As a nation, we are obsessed with the weather. Studies have shown that over half of us talk about the weather at least once day and check the forecast regularly before making plans and heading out. We despair when it rains, we swoon in the sun, we can't bear the sight of clouds in the sky, yet we hate the thought of hosepipe bans and appear to be spectacularly unprepared for extreme weather events...

Portbury Wharf lies on the land between Portishead and Royal Portbury Dock, adjacent to the Severn Estuary. Helen Mark visits the area's newest developing nature reserve and discovers how local residents are making a unique investment to their natural habitat. Look one way and you'll see a new housing construction, look the other and your eyes will be met with acres of grazing marsh land, hay mead...

Snow, biting winds and a tent made to the design used by nomads in Ulaanbaatar ... but Richard Uridge hasn't travelled to Mongolia for this week's Open Country, he's high up on Exmoor. He meets Hen and Leo - who are braving winter on the moor in pursuit of their dream of a low impact, but not entirely low-tech lifestyle - their pig-farming neighbour and the man who made their yurt. Producer Steve...

Richard Uridge travels the route proposed for high speed rail in Buckinghamshire to find out what is so special about the countryside there that inspires people to battle to protect it.

The River Thames was recently selected as the winner of the international Theiss River Prize, an award which celebrates outstanding achievement in river management and restoration. Fifty years after being declared biologically dead, the Thames scooped the prize thanks to a dramatic turnaround in its environment. Environment organisations now say that the Thames is the cleanest it has been in more...

Owen Sheers is in Worcestershire to learn about the Druidic custom of gathering in the mistletoe. Each year it is harvested and blessed at the Mistletoe Festival in the town of Tenbury Wells. Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Helen Mark is in Dorset to hear how the area around Studland Bay could be affected by a proposed Marine Conservation Zone and how one fishy resident has stirred up passions locally. As parts of the sea around Studland and Swanage are being considered as a possible Marine Conservation Zone, Helen finds out about the possible impacts on the local community; in particular to some of the residents of...

Richard Uridge joins South Cumbrian Wildlife Crime Officers, volunteers and members of the local community on the trail of poachers in an attempt to crack down on wildlife crime. Wildlife Officers receive several wildlife crime reports a month, many of which relate to deer poaching which is becoming big business for criminals, particularly in the run up to Christmas. This year has also seen hundre...

In this weeks Open Country Richard Uridge visits the Norfolk Coast. Better known as an area of coastal erosion, Happisburgh is proving that community spirit is far from eroded as teams of volunteers work tirelessly to protect the local landscape and those who come to enjoy it. Navigation reform could've seen the Happisburgh lighthouse fall into disrepair but a team of volunteers campaigned to keep...

In Open Country this week, Helen Mark visits Ardtornish Estate in Morvern, in the western Highlands of Scotland. The estate covers around sixty square miles of hill, woodland, rivers and lochs and has been in the Raven family for three generations. Hugh Raven describes himself as the present 'steward' of Ardtornish, working on behalf of the whole family and the local community, and, along with his...

In a year that has seen a record rise in the number of people seeking medical help after eating poisonous fungi, Richard Uridge visits the New Forest to hear about the variety of wild mushrooms to be found, the dangers of picking the wrong ones and the problems this can also cause to the ecosystem of the forest. Richard joins mycologist, John Wright, to hear about his lifelong passion for wild mus...

In Open Country this week, Helen Mark visits the Whitelee Plateau in Ayrshire, once a treeless bog grazed by very hardy sheep and cattle but now transformed into a vast conifer plantation of ten million trees. The 'greening' of the Whitelee Plateau was part of a tremendous shift in land use in Scotland, nearly trebling tree cover in just forty years. Historian Ruth Tittensor saw the importance of...

Author and poet Owen Sheers visits South Wales, the setting for his book Resistance, which was inspired by the tales he heard growing up of a secret rural army trained to hold off a potential German invasion during the second world war. Owen meets one of the last surviving members of the rural auxiliary unit and speaks to some of the people who had no idea that members of their family were highly...

Helen Mark visits Pluckley, a village with the reputation as the most haunted in Britain. While genuine ghosthunters, with an interest in all things paranormal, bring with them a welcome boost to local businesses, this reputation is not without problems. In recent years the village has seen an increased police presence due to the sheer number of visitors, particularly around the time of Halloween....

Helen Mark travels along a stretch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and hears from just a few of the people whose lives revolve around it. Stretching 127 miles the canal crosses the Pennines, and climbing to 487 feet at its summit, the canal has 91 locks including the unique 5-rise lock at Bingley in Yorkshire. Helen hears from Vince Moran of British Waterways about the reason for the recent closu...

Helen Mark is in Cornwall to find out why the reintroduction of cattle to graze the Penwith Moors of Cornwall and improve the area's bio-diversity has upset some of the local community. She meets up with archaeologist Craig Weatherhill at the Tregeseal Stone Circle to hear about the damage he says is being caused to these ancient monuments by the horns of the non-native Longhorn breed of cattle be...