Keswick
In the Lake District, Matt Baker discovers a piece of mountain rescue equipment being used to enable wheelchair users to abseil and Ellie Harrison climbs Helvellyn.
The team are in the Lake District. Matt Baker finds out about a charity opening up the adventure of the Lakes to all. He discovers a piece of mountain rescue equipment which is being used to enable wheelchair users to abseil.
Ellie Harrison climbs to great heights on Helvellyn to help predict the weather with the hilltop assessors. She also visits Keswick to find out about early tourism in the Lakes and the recreation of a 3D model of the landscape which was designed to draw in the tourists.
Sanjida O'Connell is on the banks of Coniston Water trying her hand at the Cumbrian craft of oak swill basket making. Adam Henson travels to Wales and learns the secret origins of white park cattle.
In isolated parts of the countryside, providing a good doctor's service is a real challenge. Tom Heap travels to Scotland to see if experiences there could help to improve rural healthcare across the whole of the UK.
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Keswick tourism
Ellie Harrison travels to the popular tourist destination of Keswick to find out how the romantic imagery of the 18th Century drew in the early Lakeland tourists.聽 She meets Sue Mackay, curator of Keswick Museum, to discover the dramatic descriptions of the area from the very first guidebook and the more unusual methods used to entertain visitors. Ellie also finds out about the recently rediscovered Mayson鈥檚 model. First displayed in 1875 by local brothers Thomas and Henry Mayson, this scale model of the Lake District was mathematically constructed from the Ordnance Survey. Ahead of a new exhibition at Keswick Museum, Dr Gary Priestnall shows Ellie how the original model was constructed and the modern digital techniques used to recreate parts of the model.
The Calvert Trust
Matt Baker visits the Calvert Trust Outdoor Adventure Centre on the shores of Bassenthwaite Lake near Keswick. Set up in 1976, the Calvert Trust鈥檚 mission is to make adventure activities accessible to people with a range of disabilities. At their centre, Matt joins ex-Royal Marine Alex Crow to tackle the trust鈥檚 鈥榳heelchair challenge鈥 assault course. He later finds out how a piece of specialist mountain rescue equipment, adapted by the trust鈥檚 climbing instructors, is helping wheelchair users to abseil in the great outdoors.
Oak swill baskets
Sanjida O鈥機onnell meets Owen Jones, the last oak swill basket maker in the Lake District - and has a go at making one of these traditional baskets for herself. Around the southern Lakes, oak swills were once produced in their thousands by an army of craftsmen. They were used in agriculture, industry and in the home, but production fell into decline after the Second World War with the growth of new materials. In his workshop near Coniston Lake, Owen Jones shows Sanjida how he is keeping this traditional craft alive.
White Park heritage
Adam鈥檚 father Joe Henson helped rescue a herd of White Park cattle in the 1970s and these rare breed animals have had a home on the ever since. Adam has always believed it was the Romans that introduced them to the UK, but was it? To find out more about the breed鈥檚 heritage Adam visits Dinefwr Castle, where they have farmed White Parks for over a thousand years.
Lakeland upkeep
Ellie Harrison heads to the village of Patterdale to meet a group of apprentices training in the skills essential to looking after somewhere as special as the Lake District. There she meets Apprentice Supervisor Matt Eaves to find out more about their work and also to lend a helping hand. Later Ellie joins Fell Top Assessors Jon Bennet and Graham Uney on their way up to the summit of Helvellyn. Every day between December and March, come rain, shine or even snow drifts, it鈥檚 their job to scale the 950 metre peak to provide an up to date weather report for the Lake District鈥檚 forecasting service Weatherline.
Rural doctors
Covering large sparsely populated parts of the UK has always been a challenge for the NHS. But now there are predictions of a 鈥淧erfect Storm鈥 in rural healthcare caused by shortage of doctors and money, combined with a growing and ageing population. Charlotte Smith visits doctors in Scotland to see for herself some of the challenges that are being faced. She also joins the staff of a remote island practice which illustrates how GP services in Scotland are changing.聽
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Presenter | Matt Baker |
Presenter | Ellie Harrison |
Presenter | Adam Henson |
Presenter | Tom Heap |
Presenter | Sanjida O'Connell |
Executive Producer | William Lyons |
Series Producer | Joanna Brame |