 |
|
|
|
|
PROGRAMME INFO |
|
|
|
|
|
From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Open Country travels the UK in search of the stories, the people and the wildlife that make our countryside such a vibrant place. Each week we visit a new area to hear how local people are growing the crops, protecting the environment, maintaining the traditions and cooking the food that makes their corner of rural Britain unique.
Email: open.country@bbc.co.uk
Postal address: Open Country,
91热爆 Radio 4, Birmingham, B5 7QQ.
|
|
|
|
|
LISTEN AGAIN |
|
|
|
|
PRESENTERS |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
More about Helen Mark |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
More about Richard Uridge |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Guest presenter David Hartley |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PROGRAMME DETAILS |
|
|
 |
Papa Stronsey
| |
|
Throughout the western world Christmas is a brash and brightly coloured commercial celebration, all tinsel and turkey, noise, expense, and over-indulgence. On the tiny Orkney island of Papa Stronsay, however, a group of monks will be celebrating in a much quieter, more contemplative way. They are the Transalpine Redemptorists, who broke away from the Catholic Church and who celebrate the old Latin mass. Although spirituality is at the core of their being, they are an eclectic bunch of lively and characterful people, each with a tale to tell. David Hartley joins them in their preparations for Christmas, explores the environment and community around them, and discovers a Christmas that is a refreshing change to the rest of the country.
 |
Transalpine Redemptorists
| |
It takes David Hartley two hours and two boats to get from Orkney mainland to Papa Stronsay. There are around 30 monks from all over the world on the island, led by the redoubtable Father Michael Mary, a tall New Zealander dressed in the order's ankle-length black habit with a long rosary slung from his neck. They're building a traditional monastery and have already completed a church in a disused herring packing shed. In contrast, they monks' individual cells look like little bungalows. The monks make cheese from a small herd of Jersey cows they keep on Papa Stronsay and have ambitions to go into bigger scale cheese making, using the profits from sales to pay for the building of a church on the island.
Local fisherman Bill Miller, whose tiny boat takes David across to the monastery, was born in Stronsay, but left to become a member of the Flying Squad, but the islands brought him home again, and a chance discovery of his father's old lobster-fishing boat led him back to the family trade.
North Ronaldsay naturalist Martin Gray takes David to Harray Loch on the Orkney mainland to look at the millions of wildfowl which migrate here for the winter. In particular, there are over 40,000 grey-lagged geese - whereas only a few years ago, there were only around 300. Local farmers find them a destructive pest, but it's a lucky break for the ducks. These days, locals out to grab something for the pot find it easier to shoot the geese!
The Orkney islands have been inhabited for thousands of years. Local archaeologists Julie Gibson and Nick Card take David to Maeshowe, a 5000-year-old Neolithic chambered cairn (burial chamber) regarded as one of the finest examples of Neolithic architecture found anywhere in Europe. In the weeks leading up to, and following, the winter solstice, the setting sun sends a shaft of light down the entrance tunnel that suddenly lights up the rear wall of the chamber with a fiery glow. A webcam has been set up inside the chamber to beam pictures at sunset around the world.
Orkney still seems a beautifully quiet place to spend Christmas. But if you're in the island's capital, Kirkwall, on 25 December, all hell breaks loose as 300, people divided into two teams (the Uppies and the Doonies, depending on where you were born in the town) take part in the annual street football game, the Ba'. The game starts at 1.00pm and sometimes goes on for eight hours as the teams try to reach their goal. The Uppies head for a corner up-town, whilst the Doonies aim for the harbour. Legend has it that the game originated with the Vikings - who used a human head instead of a leather ball. Each year one man is awarded the ball at the end of the match. Veteran players Billy Jolly (a Doonie) and Duncan Currie (an Uppie) try to explain to David the finer points of the game.
Email Open Country: open.country@bbc.co.uk
The 91热爆 is not responsible for external web sites
|
|
|
RELATED LINKS
91热爆 Holiday Category
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Audio Help
|
|
|
|
|
|
PREVIOUS PROGRAMMES |
|
|
|
|
Current Week
Last Week
The A44
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire, River Don
Aberfan
Alderley Edge, Cheshire
Ancient buildings
Anglesey
Applecross Peninsula
Aran Islands
Armistice Day, Somerset & Sussex
Auxiliary Units
Bardsey Island
Batsford Park Estate, Glos
Berkshire
Berwyn Mountains
Birdsong
Blackwater Estuary, Essex
Blaenafon
The Blean, Kent
Bosworth Field
Brecon Beacons
Buckinghamshire
Butterflies
By Brook Valley
The Cairngorms
Caithness
Cambridgeshire
Carmarthenshire
Cheddar Gorge
Cherwell Valley
Cheshire: Harrop Valley
Chesil Bank
Clee Hills, Shropshire
Climbers
Corfe Castle
Cornwall
Cornwall: Cape Cornwall
Cornwall: Padstow Lifeboat
Cornwall: Roseland Peninsula
Cotswold
Cotswold Way
County Clare, Ireland
Cranbourne Chase
Cumbria: Eden Valley
Cumbria: Coniston Water
Cumbria: Sellafield
Cumbria
Daingean in Glengarry
Dee Estuary
Derbyshire
Devon & Somerset: Grand Western Canal
Donegal
Dorset
Dorset: Cranborne Chase
Dorsetman
Dowsing
Dunalastair
Durham
Durham: Witton Park
East Anglian Churches
Eden Valley in Cumbria
Eigg
Eire: Co. Mayo
Eire: Skibbereen
Eire: West Cork
Elan Valley, Wales
Eshott, Norhumberland
Essex
Essex: coastal
Exmoor, churches
Falkirk
Farne Islands, Part 1
Farne Islands, Part 2
Fenn's, Whixall & Bettisfield Mosses National Nature Reserve
The Fens
Fife
Flanders
Forster Country
Glencoe Mountains
Glencoe
Gloucestershire
Goa
Goodwin Sands
Gower Peninsula, June 2006
Gower Peninsula, October 2005
Grouse shooting
Guernsey
Hadrian's Wall 2003
Hadrian's Wall 2004
Hambledon Cricket Club
Hampshire: Odium
Hampshire: Selborne
Hardcastle Crags
Heart of Wales Railway
Hebden Bridge
Herefordshire
Hertfordshire
Hidden Treasures
High Weald, Sussex
Holy Island
Ilmington
Isle of Gigha 2004
Isle of Gigha, 2005
Isle of Man - Seas
Isle of Man
Isle of Wight, 2003
Isle of Wight, 2005
Izak Walton
Kent: Dover
Kent: Dungeness Peninsular
Kent: North
Kielder Water
Kinver Edge
Kingham, Oxfordshire
Lake District
Leicestershire: Bosworth Field
Leicestershire: death rituals
Lincolshire farming
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Loch Morar
Looe Island
Ludlow
Lunar Influence
Don McCullin
Richard Mabey
Marsden, West Yorkshire
Mary Towneley Loop
Mersea Island
Mersey Marshes
Metal Detectingg
Mid-Wales
Morecambe Bay
Moel Findeg, North Wales
Morecombe Sands
Nant Gwrtheyrn
National Forest
New Forest
Newton Dee, nr Aberdeen
Norfolk Broads
Norfolk: Thetford Forest
Norfolk: North Norfolk coast
North Devon Combes
Northants: Sulgrave Manor
Northants: Underground
Northern Ireland: Belfast
Northern Ireland: Border Counties
Northern Ireland: Moneypenny's Lock
Northern Ireland: Sperrin Mountains
Northern Ireland: Strangford Lough
Northern Ireland: Toomebridge
North Norfolk Coast
Northumberland, part 1
Northumberland, part 2
North Wessex Downs
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire Moors
North Yorkshire Moors Railway
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire: Sherwood Forest
Oak Trees
Offa's Dyke
Orford Ness
Orkneys
Out Skerries, Shetland
Outward Bound
Oxfordshire
Peak District
Peak District
Pembrokeshire Coast
Pentland Hills
Perthshire
Poachers
Pony Club
River Severn
Romney Marsh
Rutland Water
Scilly
Scotland: Abernethy Forest
Scotland: Loch Morar
Scotland: Shetland
Scotland: Strathclyde
Scotland: What value the countryside?
Scottish Borders
Sefton Coast
Self-sufficient communities
Severn Valley Railway
Shropshire: Ellesmere
Shropshire: Much Wenlock
Shropshire and Wales, Newport
Skegness
Skomer Island
Snowdon
Snowdonia National Park
Somerset Levels
Somerset Levels
Somerset: Montacute House
Somerset writers
South Downs
South Somerset: watermills
Southwold
Spurn Peninsular
Start Bay
Stour Valley
Survival
Sussex
Sutherland, Scotland
Tamar Valley
Thornham Estate, Suffolk
Thurstonland Cricket Club
Twyford Down
Tyntesfield, North Somerset
Village Life
Terry Waite
Wales
Wales: Flatholm Island
Wales: Nant Gwrtheyrn
Wales: Snowdonia
Warwickshire: rare breeds
Wayoh Reservoir
Wenlock Edge
West Sussex
West Yorks: Calder Valley
Weston Common, Surrey
Wild boar
Wiltshire
Wiltshire: Savernake Forest
Women's Institute
Wroxeter
Yorkshire Dales, June 2002
Yorkshire Dales, 1 July 2006
Yorkshire Dales, 8 July 2006
Z to Z Britain
Open Country looks back 2003
|
|
|
|
|
MESSAGE BOARDS |
|
|
|
|
Join the discussion:
The Learning Curve
Pick of the Week
Questions, Questions
Woman's Hour
Word of Mouth |
|
|
|
|
RELATED PROGRAMMES |
|
|
|
|
Excess Baggage
Changing Places
|
|
|
|
