Britain and the Sea_4of4_Pleasure and Escape
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00:00For centuries, the sea has protected us and provided for us.
00:12It's been a source of food, wealth, opportunity,
00:17and our front line of defence against invasion.
00:24But over the last 200 years, our view of the sea has changed.
00:31It's become our playground,
00:35a place of pleasure and relaxation.
00:41I like the houses along there.
00:47I'm setting out on my boat Rocket along the coast of East Anglia
00:52to chart this transformation.
00:54I'll see how a day at the seaside
00:58became an irresistible subject for artists.
01:02I'm stopping now. Artists of all kinds.
01:05It looks like one of those pilot things, doesn't it?
01:08How it transformed our coastal architecture.
01:13And how it created a seaside culture that is uniquely British.
01:19That's the way to do it!
01:24ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS
01:29DOG BARKS
01:52For this journey, I'm going to sail from Galston-on-Sea
01:56down the Suffolk and Essex coasts and into the Thames,
02:01ending at the very heart of our maritime power, Greenwich.
02:22This is our idea of a seaside resort.
02:26The wide, sandy beaches, the deck chairs, the windshields,
02:31children playing, the Grand Hotel, the B&Bs, the Music Hall,
02:36and it's all the creation of the Victorians
02:39to make the ideal place for a family holiday.
02:42Not Mallorca, not Florida, but Galston.
02:51Galston-on-Sea is a small seaside town
02:54on the southern edge of Great Yarmouth.
02:57And, like its neighbour, it was transformed in the Victorian age.
03:10By the mid-1800s, 80,000 visitors
03:14were heading to Great Yarmouth and Galston each summer.
03:19And they all came by the new creation of industrial genius,
03:23the railway.
03:28Tempting though it is to stay, I have a boat to board.
03:38Rocket, the gaff cutter I've owned for over 30 years,
03:42is anchored just off the beach, awaiting my arrival.
03:46Hi, John. Hi.
03:48And on board, my crew.
03:50Thanks very much. Are you coming up? Yeah.
03:53Thanks.
03:56In you move, Stanley.
03:58Stanley the dog, always happy to get under my feet.
04:04John Holden, Stanley's owner,
04:06who's spent his life around boats and looks after Rocket.
04:10OK, Callie, get the anchor up.
04:12Right, Rock.
04:14Callie Stubbs, a local sailor
04:16who brings valuable experience of these tricky waters.
04:20John, I'll just hold her head to wind and we can get the sails up.
04:24Sails up, anchor up, and it's time to go.
04:29ROCKET ENGINE ROARS
04:42Our first stop is just a few miles along the coast.
04:46We're heading to the port of Lowestoft.
04:50During the 19th century, all along this coastline,
04:54people flocked to the seaside,
04:56keen to escape the dirt of the cities, even for a day.
05:03It was a spectacle that captivated artists and writers of the time.
05:10In 1851, the painter William Frith
05:13went down with his canvas boat,
05:15to Ramsgate in Kent.
05:17He did a series of sketches
05:19and then a huge painting called Ramsgate Sands,
05:22Life At The Seaside.
05:28The painting was controversial.
05:30Frith had captured the confusion of social classes.
05:34The sands were open to all.
05:37The beaches, swarmed with a variety of characters,
05:40all muddled up together.
05:42People who would never normally have thought of mixing.
05:48And the seaside was an open invitation to abandon convention.
05:54For years, artists had delighted in it,
05:57with all its scope for social embarrassment and sexual titillation.
06:04Welcome to Lowestoft.
06:06Have you been through here?
06:08Yeah, about 20 years ago.
06:10All right.
06:12We're safely into Lowestoft,
06:15but our destination is just a little further upriver.
06:18Where are we going? I can see a swan.
06:20We're looking for a bald man waving at us.
06:22A man?
06:23Yes, a man.
06:25A man?
06:26Yes, a man.
06:27A man?
06:28Yes, a man.
06:29A man?
06:30Yes, a man.
06:31A man?
06:32Yes, a man waving at us.
06:34OK.
06:37Oulton Broad lies on the outskirts of Lowestoft,
06:41right on the edge of the Norfolk Broads.
06:45Thank you.
06:46Thanks very much, Kelly.
06:48Thanks, John. OK, David.
06:50Brilliant manoeuvre, I thought.
06:52We'll give you ten out of ten for that one.
06:54Bye-bye. See you.
06:57The Victorians may have created our image
07:00of the traditional seaside holiday,
07:03but I've come to see evidence that Lowestoft was attracting tourists
07:07long before the reign of Queen Victoria.
07:18This is Lowestoft porcelain,
07:21among the earliest porcelain produced in Britain,
07:24much of it dating from the 1760s onwards.
07:31There's some very fine examples here.
07:34This is a tankard, made in about 1790,
07:38showing the entrance to the beach at Lowestoft
07:41with cottages along the front.
07:43On one side, the lighthouse on the hill,
07:46the stone lighthouse which still stands,
07:49and an interesting little lighthouse here that was moveable.
07:53It could go along the beach to show the smaller boats
07:56at the right channel to come up.
07:58Big ships at that time couldn't come in.
08:00There was no proper harbour. They had to go up to Great Yarmouth.
08:03And then this, a brandy flask.
08:06Fairly conventional picture on one side,
08:08merchant ships flying the Red Ensign.
08:10But what's really interesting, on the other side,
08:13it's proof that Lowestoft was already,
08:16like all the resorts along this coast, being used for holidays.
08:20Here is a bathing machine.
08:22A man here, with his long coat,
08:25going up into the bathing machine.
08:27He had changed there. Well, not changed.
08:29He had actually stripped naked.
08:31It was thought very important you should go naked into the sea,
08:34not have any clothes on,
08:35nothing to prevent the sea salt water getting to you.
08:38That was the cure they wanted for their health.
08:41And then on this end, a funny kind of three-ribbed tent
08:45which went down into the water.
08:47You'd hid inside this thing so nobody could see you.
08:49So you couldn't swim, you just stood in the water and washed yourself.
08:53And then this is obviously an ink pot.
08:56Ink in there, quill pens, four places for them.
08:59And this is its twin, really.
09:01This was to dry the ink before blotting paper.
09:05It would have had sand or a combination of sand and flour in it.
09:09You just shook it out on the wet ink and blew it off.
09:12And the ink would dry.
09:15But what's significant is, look, a trifle from Lowestoft.
09:19Each of them has written on it.
09:21A trifle from Lowestoft.
09:23Hundreds and hundreds of these are trifle from Lowestoft,
09:26proving that this place was a holiday resort
09:29and these were, in effect, souvenirs,
09:32a reminder of a few days away from the rat race of the 18th century.
09:37Can I take this off now? Yeah, that's fine.
09:42I never thought Rocket would go on the broads, John.
09:47We're heading back downriver to Lowestoft
09:50to find the British seaside at its most traditional.
10:00Along the seafront, there's just time to catch a show.
10:15Punch and Judy is a seaside favourite.
10:18Just the other day, it was voted one of the top icons of Englishness.
10:24Except Mr Punch is not English at all.
10:29He's actually Italian,
10:31a mischievous character who used to entertain the crowds
10:34in the streets and squares.
10:38He was imported to Britain in the 17th century,
10:41first performing in Covent Garden.
10:44It was the Victorians who moved him to the coast
10:47and turned a raucous street show for adults
10:50into a children's seaside treat.
10:53Here we go, here we go.
10:57Every Punch and Judy show has its own characters.
11:00This one's got the crocodile, we've already had the ghost,
11:03we've had the policeman, and there's a lot of slapstick and hitting.
11:06It's not actually nearly as fierce as the original Punch and Judy.
11:10In the true story, Punch kills the wife,
11:13kills everybody who comes near,
11:15he kills the policeman,
11:17the hangman comes to hang Mr Punch,
11:19and Mr Punch tricks the hangman into hanging himself instead of Mr Punch,
11:23and finally, he kills the devil.
11:25He looks as though he's about to be killed here.
11:27But what the appeal of it is, it's very interesting,
11:29cos it's not exactly funny, it's quite cruel,
11:32and yet the children seem to love it.
11:36Hello, Mr Punch!
11:38Hello, Mr Punch!
11:44The man behind the curtain is Brian Clark.
11:48He's been a Punch and Judy man for over 60 years,
11:51and he's been working these beaches since he was a boy.
11:58But he's not just a performer, he's also a craftsman.
12:03So this is where they're all made? Yes, this is the workshop.
12:06At his home near Lowestoft,
12:08Brian carves his own Punch and Judy puppets.
12:12He's made and sold hundreds over the years.
12:18Is there a particular look that Mr Punch has to have?
12:21Cos they're slightly different, all of them.
12:23Yeah, the hook nose, hook chin, red nose, red chin.
12:27This is called a sugar loaf hat.
12:29He's clowny looking, he's sort of a jester looking,
12:33and he's Italian, and he comes from Italy.
12:35We get all our pictures from this book here,
12:38which was illustrated by that wonderful illustrator
12:41called George Cruikshank in about 1840.
12:44It was like the Bible for the Punch and Judy man.
12:49He saw a Punch and Judy show and he did the drawings,
12:52which are in the book, and from that we got this punch.
12:56But over the years, Punch has become more stylised,
12:59he's become more sort of friendly,
13:01but basically we still sort of keep him Italian,
13:05with all his goggle eyes.
13:07Some people are very frightened of clowns,
13:09sort of slightly eerie about the clown.
13:11But they're never frightened of Punch. Are they not?
13:14I think the distinctive voice, the children love it.
13:18How do you do that voice?
13:20It's made by these things, which is called a swazzle.
13:24A swazzle. And it's a little reed, like this,
13:28and then we place it in our mouth, like that, on our tongue,
13:31and then it goes to the roof of your mouth.
13:33HE LAUGHS
13:35That's the way to do it.
13:37That's the distinctive voice, and I can talk to you.
13:40When we're learning, we go one, two, three, four, five, six,
13:44and so you get that alternate voice coming in with each other.
13:47You're very nice, Mr Punch. Very good.
13:49And you've got a very nice gentleman in front of you.
13:53I don't know.
13:55No, you can't hit him with a slapstick.
13:57So, you know, it's just fun, isn't it?
13:59My Mr Punch is a bit like that, I think. Yeah, yeah.
14:02But he's certainly got a big hooked nose.
14:04That's a bit like you. Yeah, thank you, yes.
14:07No, no, they do say that, you know, like a dog,
14:11people grow like they're dogs when you grow like the puppets, you know.
14:15I don't think my eyes are quite goggled eyes like that.
14:23Another sunny morning, and we're setting off early to catch the tide.
14:30Is Stanley all right? Yeah, he's good.
14:33He just likes to see where he's going,
14:35but he doesn't want to go on the side, I guess.
14:46Our next destination is the most beautiful place in the world,
14:50our next destination is the seaside village of Walberswick.
15:02Today, Walberswick is a tranquil and rather exclusive place.
15:07In the late 1800s, it was the site of an artistic revolution.
15:13In 1884, a young artist, Philip Wilson Steer,
15:17came to Walberswick to paint.
15:20He stayed here at Valley Farm.
15:24He'd been studying in Paris,
15:26and there he'd come under the influence of the French Impressionists
15:29with their intense study of the effect of light on landscape.
15:33And it was that that he found here in Walberswick,
15:36making a new stage in his career
15:38and the beginning of British Impressionism.
15:53It was in this marshy estuary and the beach beyond
15:57that Steer found his artistic inspiration.
16:09His canvases are shimmering landscapes and figure studies.
16:16Fleeting moments of youthful freedom
16:19captured in brilliant dots of colour.
16:25A fellow artist said,
16:27''I have never seen a canvas which is more like sun and wind.
16:32''You feel like sunshine and wind and youth,
16:36''a glorious things,
16:38''and that life is a gift to be grateful for.''
16:56Even today, Walberswick is a mecca for artists.
17:00Jason Bowyer is a professional painter
17:03who's been coming here for 30 years.
17:07So what was it that brought Steer to Walberswick?
17:10I think that when he was here, he felt the shackles were off.
17:14You know, and I'm sure that was the opportunity to experiment.
17:18You know, it's a beautiful little estuary,
17:21and I think he loved the light that came off there.
17:26Obviously, the wonderful sparkling sea,
17:29the movement, the winds.
17:34Is the light similar to the light the French Impressionists got?
17:39Is this Britain's French Impressionist scenery?
17:42Yeah, I mean, this is...
17:44You know, a lot of paintings of this type
17:47are painted against the light.
17:49Those wonderful roofs at the end of the harbour wall
17:52there on the left-hand side now,
17:54and then the fishing boat,
17:56just with that little bit of delicacy of line.
17:59And then this landing stage in front of us,
18:02you get a sense which is a time.
18:05It is now, but it transcends you into something
18:09which I suppose is much more eternal.
18:15You haven't given me any brown. I can't do these browns.
18:19I've only got blues and yellows here.
18:21Well, you're getting on further than me.
18:23You've got some paint on your canvas.
18:25LAUGHTER
18:28I'm talking more than you.
18:30I've done enough.
18:43Next day, we're back on Rocket,
18:45but our luck with the weather seems to be running out.
18:50It's not exactly plain sailing.
18:54It's a bit frustrating today
18:56because the way we want to go is dead into the wind.
19:00And, of course, you can't sail dead into the wind.
19:03Your sail's just flat like our ensign is.
19:05What you'd like is the wind, well, ideally for Rocket,
19:08the wind on the side or behind you,
19:10and then you can go roaring along,
19:12which is designed for sailing.
19:14But still, you can't do anything about the weather,
19:17you can't do anything about the tide,
19:19you can't do anything about the wind,
19:21which is why sailing is one of the most...
19:25..difficult sports.
19:28Fun, nevertheless.
19:29And now the sun's coming up, which is great.
19:32Beautiful.
19:40Our next stop is just a little way down the Suffolk coast.
19:44We're heading for Aldeburgh.
19:55This town, with its long beach washed by the cold North Sea,
19:59has attracted artists for generations.
20:04At the beginning of the 20th century,
20:06one man in particular was drawn to it
20:09and inspired by it to compose some of our greatest music.
20:17Musicians often talk about the things that stir their imagination.
20:21For one of our most famous composers, Benjamin Britten,
20:24it was the sea.
20:26He was brought up, back up the coast there at Lowestoft,
20:29and he remembers, as a child,
20:31his whole life being coloured by fierce storms,
20:34which drove ships ashore,
20:36which ate away great sections of the neighbouring cliffs.
20:40He left all that and went to the balmy sunlight of California
20:45just before the Second World War,
20:47but halfway through the war he suddenly realised
20:50that this place was his real home and, at some risk to himself,
20:54he came back across the Atlantic, daring the U-boats,
20:58and arrived here in Aldeburgh and settled here,
21:01because he knew that this place, these beaches, this sea,
21:07was his real inspiration.
21:14Even from a very young age,
21:16Britten had been drawn to the sound and movement of the sea.
21:25Here at the Red House, now a museum to Benjamin Britten's life,
21:29there are passionate devotees of his work.
21:33This is Britten's piano, his Steinway.
21:35His own piano? Yes, from the late 1960s.
21:38Lucy Walker explains how, even as a young man,
21:41he was fascinated by the changing moods of the sea.
21:46PIANO PLAYS
21:51This piece, Sailing, starts in a very peaceful way.
22:02Just slipping along in a gentle breeze, isn't it? Yes.
22:08It's lovely. It's like rocket on a calm sea.
22:11Yes. And then what happens?
22:13And then this middle section,
22:15where the sea is much more turbulent in this stage.
22:26Everybody madly rushing around, pulling on the ropes, no help!
22:29Yes, exactly.
22:30And then is peace restored, or do they sink?
22:34Peace is restored towards the end,
22:36where the same peaceful music comes back, just towards the end here.
22:43PIANO PLAYS
22:51It's lovely. I love it.
22:53How old was he when he wrote that?
22:55He was just shy of his 21st birthday. Oh, really?
22:58So one of his first compositions.
23:00One of his early, mature compositions.
23:02He'd already written huge amounts as a child already.
23:05Called Holiday. Well, he called it...
23:07The published score, it's gone through several changes of title.
23:10It's called Yachting.
23:11On the manuscript, it's called Yachting.
23:13Because he swam, didn't he, a lot?
23:15It seemed that way.
23:16His diaries of this time, while he was composing this piece,
23:19is full of tales of him having a rough sea bath in the North Sea,
23:22and it happens on regular occasions, all long walks.
23:25So you can't take the sea out of Britain, really?
23:28I don't think you can, no.
23:41The next leg of our journey takes us across
23:44one of the busiest shipping lanes in Britain,
23:47heading to Harwich.
23:58So, Callie, this is your country we're coming into, Harwich.
24:01Yes. It's quite an old town.
24:03Harwich looks rather beautiful from here.
24:05I've never seen it like that.
24:07The first time I ever, ever went to sea was from Harwich.
24:11Oh, really?
24:12When I was about 12, I went from here to Holland...
24:15Yeah. ..on the night ferry with a bicycle, with my mum.
24:20But I remember the excitement of coming to Harwich
24:22because it was dark when we got here.
24:24It was ten o'clock, the ferry left, or something.
24:27We were on one of those old-fashioned Pullman cars
24:30where you had real china on the tables
24:33and armchairs to sit in on the train.
24:35Then we got on board and I can't remember anything
24:37until we suddenly arrived in Holland.
24:39I'd never been abroad before.
24:40First time I'd ever been abroad. How old were you then?
24:4212.
24:43It was just after we'd smashed the Germans, you know.
24:52Today, Harwich is dominated by the container port of Felixstowe,
24:56just across the estuary.
25:00But at the turn of the 20th century,
25:02these waters were better known
25:04for the rather more leisurely pursuit of yachting,
25:08a hobby brought to Britain by a king.
25:14In 1660, the Dutch presented King Charles II with a gift,
25:19a 52-foot sailing boat built solely for pleasure.
25:25For amateur yachtsmen, this is where it all began.
25:32Here at the Harwich Low Lighthouse, now their maritime museum,
25:37I've come to see a remarkable record of this craft.
25:46This is a model of the first royal yacht.
25:50She was called the Mary
25:52and she was presented to Charles II by the city of Amsterdam.
25:56The very word yacht comes from the Dutch, yacht,
25:59which was the word used for a sort of small working boat
26:02that flitted in and out among the fleet,
26:04carrying people and provisions and doing jobs.
26:07And in the Dutch design, of course, with these leeboards here,
26:10like the Thames barges have,
26:12but with little elaborate touches to demonstrate
26:15that this is a private yacht, in effect.
26:18A unicorn gilded at the bow there
26:22and little gilding round the cannons
26:27and then an elaborate stern
26:30with a coat of arms of the King of England.
26:35So a very fine boat and he was very fond of her
26:38and, in fact, he sort of became addicted to yachting.
26:41In the 25 years of his reign, he had 26 royal yachts built
26:46and this is one of the finest.
26:48This is a model thought to be of a ship called the Catherine
26:52and this model itself is very precious.
26:55It was made in the late 1600s
26:57and this shows how the royal yacht
27:00gradually became more and more elaborate.
27:04The detail is really fine.
27:06It's only possible because the wood they use for the carving
27:09is fruit wood, apple, pear wood,
27:12which grows very, very slowly and so has no grain,
27:15so it's more like carving marble
27:17and you can get this absolute exquisite detail of tiny little bits.
27:22The head has got two figures.
27:26The wreaths are very elaborate round the gun ports
27:30and as we come back down the side here,
27:33this great frieze of acanthus leaves,
27:37very elaborate Baroque decoration.
27:40Poseidon here trampling a monster.
27:45Lamps on the stern
27:48and then two puttee with anchors on the back here.
27:56If you peer over down there, there's golden steps to the cabins.
28:00Inside there, again, four-poster bed,
28:04paintings on the walls, fine furniture,
28:07entirely a sort of pleasure dome for the king.
28:13Charles II loved the sea.
28:16He'd go to sea at any excuse.
28:18He'd take his court to sea, he'd meet his admirals on the sea.
28:21He took up racing his yacht or his yacht for pleasure.
28:26It was the beginning of a whole industry
28:29that started rather like horse racing.
28:31It started with the monarch and then trickled down.
28:39For the first time, boats became about more than fighting and fishing.
28:44They were built for fun.
28:48John, why do you like sailing?
28:51Why? Yeah.
28:53I like that feel when you're just still and then the wind picks up
28:57and you just lean over and accelerate
28:59and there's just nothing better than that.
29:01I think the strange thing about it is that you take it out to sea
29:05and you're completely at the mercy of the winds...
29:08The winds and the tide and...
29:12..it's like having a little sort of domestic scene
29:16that you suddenly cast onto the wild sea.
29:25Not far up the River Orwell from Harwich
29:28is the tiny village and boatyard of Pin Mill.
29:42I think there was a seal there.
29:45Just there.
29:55In 1935, this idyllic stretch of river became the home of a man
30:00who probably did more than anybody else
30:02to introduce generations of children
30:05to the pleasures and the excitements of sailing.
30:08His name was Arthur Ransom
30:10and he wrote Swallows and Amazons.
30:19Swallows and Amazons is a children's classic.
30:22Golly, he's got the parrot!
30:2412 novels recount the innocent adventures
30:27of the children of two families during carefree summer holidays.
30:31Mail aboard!
30:33Mostly spent sailing dinghies.
30:39A keen sailor himself, Ransom turned sailing
30:42into the ideal image of childhood fun and escape.
30:46Nearly there, nearly there, nearly there!
30:49The early novels are set in the Lake District
30:52but he later moved the action
30:54to the coastal waters of Suffolk and Essex.
30:59Pin Mill hasn't really changed much since the 1930s.
31:05This little village captivated Ransom
31:09and he used to come here to the butt of the river.
31:15Ransom's father, Arthur Ransom,
31:18was a sailor and sailor was a sailor.
31:21Ransom's father, Arthur Ransom,
31:23was a sailor and sailor was a sailor.
31:26And he used to come here to the butt and oyster for a pint.
31:34In 1937, he wrote a famous book that's based here.
31:38It's called We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea.
31:41It's actually rather a terrifying story
31:43of a group of children who get landed on a boat alone,
31:46the owner having gone ashore,
31:48and then drift out to sea
31:50and are forced to sail in a gale at night to Holland.
31:54So it's quite an alarming story.
31:56But it's very Arthur Ransom. It has his own illustrations.
31:59The hard here, for instance, is the first picture
32:02and there are pictures of how to tie bowlins
32:05and how to work an anchor and all sorts of things.
32:08And a very obsessive attention to the detail of sailing.
32:12He doesn't mind boring you silly with two or three pages
32:15of how to hoist a sail or how to take in a reef.
32:18But it was this book and these books that really entranced children,
32:22and I think also frightened them.
32:24When I first read it, I thought I'd never go to sea if it was like this,
32:28but that's clearly the secret of what he did, to dramatise sailing.
32:34MUSIC PLAYS
32:52The boat the children were in when they didn't mean to go to sea
32:55was based on a real boat that Arthur Ransom had bought
32:59and which he renamed the Nancy Blackett
33:01after the main character in Swallows and Amazons, Nancy Blackett,
33:06who had been called Ruth Blackett.
33:09But she wanted to be the chief of the pirates
33:11and she was told that pirates were Ruth-less.
33:15So she changed her name to Nancy.
33:17And the Nancy Blackett, the real boat, has been found and restored
33:21and is here now at Pin Mill.
33:23And I'm just on my way to see her.
33:32Hi, Peter. Hello.
33:34On board is Peter Willis, the man responsible for looking after her.
33:39I borrowed this thingy to get out here and it's a bit of a bathtub.
33:43Bit of string, OK?
33:45You all right? You got her? Yeah, yeah.
33:47Good. Is this strong?
33:51OK, great. Thank you very much. Absolutely.
33:53Welcome aboard. Thank you.
33:55Come below. Have you had to do a lot of work to her?
33:58This is all the original wood, is it?
34:00Some of it is.
34:01The interior was totally reshaped to bring her back
34:04as she would have been when Mansem owned her.
34:06There's a lot of space, isn't there? Yeah.
34:09What's the picture there?
34:11That's himself sailing aboard Nancy.
34:14Galley here. Galley there, sink there. Yeah.
34:18It's very... She's quite heavy inside.
34:20I mean, wooden drawers and all that. Solid. Solid construction, yeah.
34:24It's very nice.
34:28What do you think Mansem saw in this boat and in the sea?
34:33For this boat, he just felt totally at home in her.
34:37She was a good sea boat. She was all he ever wanted.
34:41He went on to have bigger boats and wider boats and all sorts of boats.
34:45But this was the best boat he ever owned, he said.
34:49Very nice to see a boat that carries so many memories.
34:53I mean, I remember reading,
34:55we didn't want to go to sea as a child.
34:58Scared the living daylights out of me.
35:01Did you read as a child? Oh, yes.
35:03Have you always been a Ransom fan? Yes, very much. Why so?
35:07I think for the reason practically everybody is,
35:10you get totally sucked in to the world of these children, of sailing.
35:16It turned me on to sailing totally, Ransom,
35:20and that's why I've never lost the fondness for the books.
35:26I love you, Sam.
35:47With plenty of wind to fill our sails and the tide running in our favour,
35:52we're leaving Suffolk behind us and crossing into Essex.
36:01What speed are we doing, as a matter of curiosity?
36:04Seven knots. Seven knots.
36:06Maximum speed.
36:11It's just a few hours to our next destination,
36:14the little town of Frinton-on-Sea.
36:23Come on, Sammy.
36:28Frinton is a small, rather old-fashioned town on the Essex coast.
36:40Between the wars, it was a byword for genteel seaside holidays.
36:46But I'm here to see a more recent addition to Frinton's seafront.
36:52It's a surprise already attracting a crowd of onlookers.
36:58This is the original art of the seaside, taken to its extreme.
37:05Nicola Wood is a sand sculptor,
37:08and she and her team have been hard at work since the 1880s.
37:15And since dawn.
37:17Just caught you before you finished. Yes.
37:20My sandcastle has never looked like this.
37:23I can see it's smooth.
37:25How do you get the smoothness, first of all?
37:28Well, the sand itself is very dense and very compact,
37:31so you can apply quite a lot of pressure onto it to make a smooth surface.
37:36You can kind of massage the grains into position, I suppose.
37:42And just a variety of different tools and smoothing devices.
37:45This is tips for children on the beach?
37:47Yeah. If you want to make the perfect sandcastle.
37:50If you want to make the perfect sandcastle, the trick is in the preparation.
37:54You need a lot of water and you need to prepare your pile of sand in layers.
37:59What sand is this?
38:00Well, this is Frinton beach sand.
38:02There's quite a lot of stones in it, so it makes it quite difficult for carving with.
38:06But it is beautiful beach sand. I mean, it's really, really old.
38:09Tell me about how you make the look of it right.
38:12Because, I mean, she is the most wonderful shape.
38:14It's one way of putting it.
38:16Well, she is. But where did you begin?
38:18How did you get the height? How did you get all the angles right?
38:21Is there something inside there? Is there a framework?
38:23No, there's nothing inside. A lot of people think that there is.
38:26But this was, when we arrived, just a big blob of sand.
38:30And this is what we did for the head.
38:32Make a big wooden box, compressed it down, put loads and loads of water into it,
38:36and then we removed the wood and you've got a solid block, almost like sandstone.
38:39And we made a kind of wedding cake, if you can imagine,
38:42different levels and steps going up,
38:44and on each step we would pour water and make a kind of moat.
38:54Did you start with an idea in your mind of exactly what this would be like?
38:58Or have you done it as it's gone along, developed it?
39:01You just kind of adapt and evolve as you carve.
39:04And I've got lots of source material.
39:06I've got pictures of old-fashioned postcards here that I've been referring to.
39:10Yes.
39:11And the idea originally was to do a fun cartoon seaside,
39:14old-fashioned postcard type thing.
39:16But because the sand is not so strong, it left little room for elaborate shapes.
39:21But she is elaborate. She's got sunglasses.
39:24Wacky hair.
39:26Sour-looking mouth, slightly.
39:28She looks like one of those pilot things.
39:31Ice-cream cone, melting.
39:33Yes.
39:34Huge thunder thighs.
39:36And a beach ball.
39:38Yes.
39:39You've got everything you want.
39:40More than you want, I don't think.
39:42And a swimming costume with polka dots on it.
39:44What happens at the end?
39:46I mean, traditionally, with a sandcastle, you kick it down, don't you,
39:50before the tide comes in.
39:51Yeah, you do.
39:52I mean, they are... It is temporary art.
39:54They are transient, so they don't last forever.
39:58And if they're not taken away by the elements,
40:00then they're often bulldozed down and the sand is recycled for another sculpture
40:04or put back on the beach, like this one will be.
40:06I've never seen anything like this.
40:08I'm absolutely gobsmacked by it. I think it's wonderful.
40:27Our next stop is a town that went to extraordinary lengths
40:31to attract visitors.
40:33We're heading to Southend-on-Sea,
40:36home to the boldest pier on the British coast.
40:48So, John, we're really at the mouth of the Thames, aren't we, here?
40:52It feels like it now to me, yes.
40:54The longest pier in the world.
40:57Has it always been the same length or did they make it gradually longer?
41:00No, it's grown, it's grown.
41:01The Victorians had a wooden pier at the very end
41:03and then it grew and grew and grew.
41:05But it's always in trouble because, you know,
41:08boats collide with it, don't they?
41:10Boats have collided with it over the past few years, boats have.
41:13Yeah. Gone through the middle of it.
41:15It's not a very easy entry.
41:17It's a bit rough.
41:20The pier at Southend stretches almost a mile and a half
41:25into the Thames estuary.
41:27The original iron structure was completed in 1889,
41:32but it's been extended twice in the years since
41:35to accommodate growing numbers of visitors.
41:38It stands like a barometer of Southend's changing fortunes.
41:44When this pier was threatened with demolition in the late 70s,
41:48the poet laureate, Sir John Betchman, along with others,
41:51came to the rescue.
41:52He said, I love this place.
41:53To lose it would be like losing a limb.
41:55The pier is Southend and Southend is the pier.
41:58And he was dead right.
41:59It was the Victorians who had discovered the pleasures of the pier.
42:03The illusion of being out at sea, but in perfect safety,
42:07and in perfect safety,
42:09the illusion of being out at sea,
42:11but in perfect safety and no risk of seasickness.
42:15Or, as another writer, William Thackeray, put it,
42:18to pace these vast decks without the need of a steward with a basin.
42:28The Victorians loved walking up and down seaside pleasure piers
42:32and they've assumed being built at resort towns all around Britain.
42:40In 1883, the American artist, James McNeill Whistler,
42:45came here to Southend.
42:47He captured the scene on a busy bank holiday,
42:51with Victorian day-trippers promenading along the seafront.
43:09This is the face of today's seaside.
43:11Loud music, rides that are more and more terrifying.
43:15The Victorians would have absolutely loved it.
43:18I'm on one of the gentlest of the rides.
43:21But this has all taken the place of promenading on the pier,
43:25of Punch and Judy, of tea dances, of music hall shows.
43:30This is a trend that actually began here at Southend.
43:40MUSIC PLAYS
43:45It all started in a building just half a mile along the seafront.
43:57This ornate interior was once the lavish entrance hall to the Cursel,
44:03which claims to be the first purpose-built theme park in the world.
44:10Beyond these walls lay 20 acres of funfair.
44:17It was this great hall, a cinema, a ballroom,
44:21which was used for all kinds of exhibitions and sports,
44:24as well as for dancing and eating.
44:26An arcade there, with sideshows all the way down,
44:29disguised as a Cairo street.
44:31There was everything you could think of.
44:33There were roller coasters, there was a trotting track,
44:36and then there were weirder ones.
44:38In the middle of the First World War,
44:40there was a reconstruction of an Ypres trench,
44:44and there was a sideshow where you could knock the Kaiser's head off,
44:49which was very popular. The man who had that made a fortune.
45:02It's difficult now to imagine all that,
45:04but the Cursel, in the years between the wars,
45:07was everything that Southend had to offer.
45:10All the excitements, all the attractions,
45:13constant novelties, come and see Al Capone's car,
45:16come and see the fattest man, come and see the thinnest man,
45:20watch the First Lady lion tamer.
45:23Just what you want on a day out.
45:35Yeah, that's a good view of the pier, isn't it?
45:37You can see how long it is from there.
45:39As we leave Southend's magnificent pier behind,
45:43the light is starting to fade.
45:46Fortunately, our next stop is nearby.
45:51Just a few miles to the west
45:54lies a strip of land separated from the coast of Essex
45:58by a series of creeks.
46:01Canvey Island.
46:04Canvey Island.
46:11You might not think it at first glance,
46:13but this was once Britain's top holiday destination.
46:21Extraordinarily, in the 40 years leading up to 1950,
46:24Canvey Island was the fastest-growing seaside resort in Britain.
46:29The Victorians came to the seaside for the beach and swimming in the sea,
46:33but all they wanted was fresh air and sunshine,
46:37and Canvey Island provided both.
46:40And it had two advantages.
46:42It was close to London, and it was cheap.
46:49The 1930s were really Canvey Island's golden age.
46:54You can still see the evidence today.
46:57Standing on the beach, overlooking the Thames estuary,
47:01is the Labworth Cafe.
47:09The Labworth was built in 1932,
47:12one of the first modern buildings to be put up
47:14just after the First World War.
47:16It's in what's called the Art Deco style,
47:18decorative style.
47:19And it was built by a famous engineer, Ove Arup,
47:22who went on to build the Sydney Opera House,
47:25rather grander than this.
47:27But this design is said to be based on the bridge of the Queen Mary,
47:31the bridge above, and then cocktail lounge below to sip your drink
47:36while the sea rolled past.
47:40In the 1930s, Art Deco was all the rage.
47:45It was the architecture of sunshine and light.
47:51Seafronts and coastal towns were redeveloped
47:54with the sun and leisure in mind.
48:00The Labworth Cafe tells the story of the British seaside.
48:03Hugely popular in the 1930s,
48:05falling into disrepair in the 1960s,
48:08and now being revived by the British.
48:11A cafe downstairs, a restaurant upstairs,
48:13and sitting here reminds me of being on the Queen Mary.
48:17And it's cocktail time.
48:19Pina Colada, top of the list. Excellent.
48:27Here's to the British seaside.
48:30The final leg of our journey brings us into the Thames proper,
48:34the Royal River, on which London's fortunes were built.
48:39We're heading for Greenwich.
48:46The Thames is the largest river in the world.
48:49It's the largest river in the world.
48:51It's the largest river in the world.
48:53It's the largest river in the world.
48:56But the weather, it seems, has turned against us.
49:00This feels rather more like the great British summer
49:03we know and love, or love to complain about.
49:07Looking for Thames Haven.
49:09That's the next place to look.
49:11I was hoping we'd be able to sail up here,
49:13but I don't think it looks very likely, does it?
49:16My dream was to sail up the Thames,
49:19past Greenwich, under Tower Bridge, all under sail.
49:23Instead, we've got drizzle and grey skies.
49:27No sign of wind at all.
49:29It may come.
49:35Even for experienced sailors,
49:37the Thames can be a daunting waterway to navigate.
49:40I can't see very much, really.
49:42It has strong tides, narrow channels and sandbanks.
49:47And it's one of the busiest shipping lanes in Britain,
49:50handling some 45 million tonnes of cargo every year.
49:54OK? Yeah.
49:58Here, a little local knowledge goes a very long way.
50:02How does that look? All right, I think.
50:05We're going to take on board a Thames pilot
50:08to guide us safely upriver.
50:10Good morning.
50:13Where do you want to get down? On the shroud?
50:15Yeah, I'll be good.
50:18John Stafford has been a river pilot for 18 years.
50:22OK.
50:23There have been men like him working these waters for generations.
50:28Good morning. Good morning.
50:30And welcome. Thank you very much.
50:32Thank you very much for coming.
50:34Since the time of Henry VIII,
50:36local sailors have been boarding ships on the river
50:39to deliver them safely to their destination.
50:42Pilots deal with traffic control.
50:46If you only had the one ship on the river,
50:50life would be a doddle.
50:52But you don't. You have multiple ships.
50:54You'll hear it as we go up and I'm listening to the port control radio.
50:58You'll hear lots of ships calling
51:00and they're all doing things with the ships going on to berths, off berths.
51:04And you don't want to be in the same place at the same time.
51:07So, as a pilot, you're adjusting the speed
51:09to make sure that everything matches.
51:11And it's choreography, really. Choreography.
51:14Choreography. Marine choreography on the decks.
51:17So you're kind of... The ballet thing is being organised.
51:20Yes, a dance orchestrator. A dance orchestrator.
51:32On this river, it's hard to escape the weight of history.
51:37For centuries, sailors have navigated these waters.
51:41Generations united by a passion for the sea
51:45and the simple power of wind and sail.
51:59There's Canary Wharf.
52:01This is Blackwall Point.
52:03And this is just the beginning of the city.
52:06How far have we got to go till we get to Greenwich?
52:09Just round this corner and then round, yes.
52:18Greenwich.
52:20For five centuries, this place has been at the heart
52:23of our relationship with the sea.
52:25A home to maritime science, history and art.
52:33Can you slow down?
52:35Watch the bowsprit!
52:37Another entrance to Greenwich is a flight of slippery steps,
52:41where grandees used to disembark.
52:44That was dodgy!
52:51Today, Greenwich is a monument to some of our greatest sailors
52:55and their mastery of the seas.
53:08Of all the places we've visited in our journey round Britain's shores,
53:12Greenwich is the most powerful symbol of our relationship with the sea.
53:18It was here that Henry VIII was born, the father of the Royal Navy.
53:23It was here that Queen Elizabeth was born.
53:26It was here that she welcomed Francis Drake back
53:29from his circumnavigation of the world in the Golden Hind.
53:32And it was here that Lord Nelson lay in state
53:35after his death at the Battle of Trafalgar.
53:37This great palace with Christopher Wren's buildings there,
53:41the old hospital and then the Royal Naval College.
53:45But the building I'm going to see is the oldest building on this site
53:49and the most delicate one.
53:51The Queen's House.
53:54MUSIC PLAYS
54:04The Queen's House was built in 1616
54:08as a royal waterside retreat close to the river.
54:18Now it's home to the National Maritime Museum
54:22and the greatest collection of maritime art.
54:42It's been a fascinating journey around Britain,
54:45but for me, one tiny object captures the spirit
54:49of the seafaring past we've been looking at.
54:52It's a treasure from Britain's first great era of sea travel,
54:56the Elizabethan Age.
55:00This is the most extraordinary object.
55:03It looks like a large pocket watch.
55:07It's gilded brass.
55:10It was made in 1569.
55:14It's said to have been made for Francis Drake
55:17in the West Indies in 1570.
55:19It's called Cole's Compendium.
55:22It's actually a present for a sailor who has everything,
55:26because this really does have everything you could need.
55:30Very delicate, and I have to open it up rather carefully.
55:34It has a series of dials on the inside.
55:37The first one is to tell you the phases of the moon.
55:42And then the next dial to it here is a perpetual calendar,
55:47giving you dates, year on year on year.
55:51And then we come to the key measurement for sailors,
55:54the measurement of latitude.
55:57And this one... I have to put spectacles on to see this.
56:02This one gives various places and the latitudes they're at.
56:07Antwerp, Venice, Lisbon, Naples, and so on.
56:14Now, this is the most complex and difficult bit,
56:18if I can do it like this.
56:21It folds up, and that way...
56:24Don't ask me how, but it helps you tell the latitude that you're at.
56:29And it reveals beneath it a little tiny compass in the centre there.
56:34How you do this in a rough sea, I can't imagine.
56:37And then I fold the whole thing up and open the other side, the back.
56:45A rather mysterious dial of seaports,
56:48and the inscription says,
56:50the names of principal ports and havens of Europe.
56:57And finally, in the last leaf, this very beautiful device,
57:01almost incomprehensible to a layman's eyes,
57:04which allows you to work out the tides.
57:07All important, of course, when you're sailing.
57:10What time the tides are high and low,
57:12and therefore also which way they're flowing.
57:17And there it is, Cole's Compendium.
57:21In a way, this beautiful, complex object
57:25perfectly illustrates our island's story.
57:28How we, who the Romans thought of as the furthest people in the world,
57:33living on an island set in an unknown sea,
57:37became, by conquering that sea,
57:40among the richest and most powerful nations on Earth.
57:45If we successfully navigate Tower Bridge,
57:49it'll be my dream come true, Kelly.
57:52How exciting.
57:54For me, it's the perfect end to a journey
57:57to all the four corners of Britain,
58:00is to end up in the heart of London, going under Tower Bridge.
58:05And I'm delighted to be here.
58:07I'm delighted to be here.
58:09I'm delighted to be here.
58:11I'm delighted to be in London, going under Tower Bridge.
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