Coast (2005) s06e05 Episode Script
Wales Border to Border
A bridge between two countries.
On one side is England on the other l'm in Wales.
This is a coast of constant comings and goings, a to and fro of people and ideas that haven't only changed Britain.
Events on the Welsh shores have changed the world.
Now we're in search of those stories.
Miranda's away with the birds.
That really is gannet central, isn't it? Dick discovers how a sketch in the sand turned into wheels that conquered the world.
This is great fun.
Tessa meets sisters who sought sanctuary in exile from Africa.
l didn't really know that Wales existed.
Alice tries to re-write the history of flying.
(Train whistle blows) Me? l'm on a train that took Wales slate around the globe.
This is Coast - and beyond.
My destination is the Dee Estuary - the northern border between Wales and England.
But my journey starts at their southern border, on the Severn Estuary.
This stretch of water has brought great wealth to South Wales.
Thanks to the sea, great cities have grown up.
As the people thrived, they've had good reason to be grateful for their coastal connections.
But 400 years ago it was a very different story.
At the start of the 1 7th century, the sea rose up and dashed the people down, wiping whole villages from the face of the earth.
The year is 1 607.
lt's the 30th of January.
Unlike today, unseasonal sunshine bathes the estuary.
lt's a bright start to a disastrous day.
Before long, a strong wind whips up.
Offshore, huge and mighty hills of water are rolling in, set on a collision course with this coast and its people.
ln less than five hours, 200 square miles of low-lying land are lost to the sea, cattle are washed away, 2,000 people are drowned, their lungs filled with salt water.
This woodcut depicts a tragedy of biblical proportions.
Buildings are inundated.
There are people climbing trees.
To many it must have seemed like The End Of Days.
lt was certainly a day that left its mark in people's memories.
Here at the church in Redwick it's commemorated in stone.
That dreadful event has been researched by the church organist, Mark Lewis.
What evidence is there that the church was affected by the flood? Well, we're very fortunate because the height of the floodwater was recorded on the wall of the church just after the event.
We've got a copper alloy bolt set in lead in this stone on the end of the chancel and the word ''flood'' carved above it.
And we believe that this is the height of that 1 607 event.
So the water would have reached my chest? lt would have here, in the churchyard, but we're on a slight hill, so anywhere in any direction one or two miles from this would have been under four, five metres of water.
The best way to take in the scale of the devastation is from the church tower.
MARK: The floodwater covered all the land from the estuary as far as the eye can see, up to the new Severn Crossing, and as far as the foothills at the fen edge, which from here is about two or three miles distance inland.
Most of the houses in 1 607 were timber framed and wattle and daub, and they were swept away or washed away.
How did people interpret the disaster? This was very much seen as a warning from heaven against vice.
400 years ago, the great flood was blamed on divine judgment.
Today, the widely-accepted theory is that terrible weather whipped up the sea, creating a storm-surge of water.
But this man has a different idea.
Professor Simon Haslett from the University of Wales believes this coast contains a warning - to us and to future generations.
What do you think caused the great flood of 1 607? A lot of people think it was caused by a storm-surge, but contemporary accounts that l've read indicate that the weather was fine, the day was fairly and brightly spread.
So if it wasn't a storm, we need other explanations, and one explanation is possibly a tsunami, which we're now considering.
A tsunami in Britain? Well, yes.
How do you define a tsunami? Well, a tsunami is a long wave, which means that from the front of the wave to the back of the wave it can be several kilometres long.
And if you were stood in that wave, at the beach, when it arrived, it would take 1 5 to 20 minutes for that single wave to pass over you.
That's how big a tsunami is.
Somewhere out there in the Atlantic, according to our tsunami theory, there was either an earthquake or an undersea landslide or maybe both, cos earthquakes can trigger undersea landslides as well.
They're one of the most energetic phenomena we have in nature, and they contain far more energy than a normal storm wave would have.
According to Simon's theory, in 1 607 the floodwater didn't rise gradually.
lnstead, a single huge wave smashed into this shore with incredible intensity, a sudden explosion of energy unleashed by an offshore earthquake or landslide.
A tsunami's terrifying force can toss huge boulders around with ease.
SlMON: They've been stacked up like dominoes.
The only thing that can really move boulders like that is a tsunami, and that's seen right around the world where tsunami have been encountered.
So about a five-metre-high wave, and it would have been sloshing against that cliff for about 1 0 to 1 5 minutes as the crest of the tsunami passed, all that time bringing in boulders and laying them down in the fabric that we see them here today.
The great flood of 1 607 levelled villages and left 2,000 dead.
Was the cause a tsunami triggered by an Atlantic earthquake? Certainly, on the other side of the ocean, the Americans have sunk millions into an early warning system.
lt's designed to protect their eastern coast from tsunamis set off by earthquakes.
The likelihood of such an event in our lifetime is remote, but Simon thinks that shouldn't stop us planning for the worst.
Tsunamis are not a regular hazard here in the Atlantic but they do occur, so we need to be mindful of them.
For a very small investment, we could put out in the Atlantic, as the Americans are doing now on their eastern coastline, we could put tsunami warning systems out there.
Then, if we do have one of these freak events, we will at least have some warning time to get people out of the way.
The sea has a terrifying power .
.
and beguiling beauty.
We've reached the majestic Gower Peninsula.
Beyond Gower is Burry Port.
When Amelia Earhart landed here in 1 928, she became the first woman to fly over the Atlantic.
But years earlier, could the Welsh cliffs have witnessed the world's very first powered flight? We're heading for a town which may deserve a special place on the aviation map - Saundersfoot.
An unlikely aviator has Alice intrigued.
At the end of the 1 9th century, here in Saundersfoot, a local carpenter claimed that he'd built his own flying machine.
And this is the man.
His name was Bill Frost, and he said that he'd built his contraption out of canvas and that it got him airborne and he flew for 500 yards.
And he said that he made this flight in 1 896.
That's seven years before the Wright brothers.
So should it be Bill Frost's name in the record books as the engineer of the first powered flight, or is that just a lot of hot air? Supposedly, the scene of Bill's great escape from gravity was this hillside high above Saundersfoot Harbour.
Had you been here in September 1 896, you might have caught sight of Bill Frost in his flying machine, actually flying over this field.
Gloria! Gloria! lt was a bizarre thing - part balloon, part glider, part helicopter.
There were no witnesses, though, to back up Bill's story about his flight.
He said it came to a crashing end when his craft got tangled in a tree.
(Crashing) The next morning, the headlines were all about the weather.
lt says here ''The Great Storm'' and describes ''a tremendous wind storm sweeping over South Wales'' and Bill Frost said that his flying machine, trapped in those trees, was torn apart.
There's no proof for Bill Frost's claim that he made this flight seven years before the Wright brothers, but could he have been telling the truth? We do know that two years earlier, in 1 894, Bill registered this patent for a flying machine.
But even if he had made this aircraft, would it have worked? Scientist Mike Bullivant has cast a critical eye over Bill's design.
The aircraft comprises an upper chamber filled with a non-specified gas which is lighter than air.
Suspended underneath is a gondola, which takes the pilot.
Going up from the gondola, through the upper chamber, is a propeller which is hand-cranked by the pilot.
Then the upper chamber has wings sticking out of each side.
lt's part airship, it's part helicopter, it's part glider.
To get his airship airborne, Bill would have needed to fill it with lighter-than-air gas.
The obvious choice today would be helium, but in 1 896 it wasn't available.
So what gas might Bill have used? l reckon it was hydrogen.
l'll show you how you can make hydrogen.
lt's really easy.
Bill would have needed to know some chemistry.
You can produce hydrogen gas, H2, by adding iron to sulphuric acid.
- What's the formula of sulphuric acid? - H2SO4.
Right.
So the iron is grabbing the SO4 and the H is released.
H2 is released, yeah.
Ooh.
Ooh.
- So Bill Frost could have - Ooh.
- Look at that.
- (Laughs) Bill Frost could have used iron, and sulphuric acid, as a source of the hydrogen to fill that upper chamber.
Even if Bill could have made hydrogen, using it is very risky.
Whoa! lt's a bomb, a flying bomb.
And Bill Frost's aircraft would have been a very big flying bomb.
To see just how big, l'm going to try to get airborne myself.
Thankfully, stunt expert Bob Schofield is filling these balloons with another lighter-than-air gas - helium - which, unlike hydrogen, doesn't explode.
With each balloon blown up to eight feet in diameter, how much gas is inside it? About seven cubic metres.
That will lift about eight kilograms.
Well, l'm 64 kilos.
l'd need eight fully-inflated balloons to get me off the ground - to just lift me off the ground.
And l haven't even got an aircraft around me, it's just me.
Yeah.
Bill frost would have also had all the actual aircraft - the wood, the canvas.
The drawing on that patent starts to look a little bit sketchy, doesn't it? Surely Bill's airship couldn't have contained enough gas to lift off the ground.
l've got four big balloons attached, but l'll need four more to get airborne.
Ooh.
And the weather's against me.
l'm slightly concerned because, just as Bill Frost had his experiment scuppered by a storm, the wind is whipping up here in Saundersfoot.
From the south-west, yeah.
Out of control Within minutes, things go from tricky to treacherous.
- Bill Frost would have had a laugh about this.
- Yeah.
- Just lean into that now.
- OK.
- You ain't going anywhere.
- Ooh, it's not comfortable.
- l don't want to end up with broken ribs.
- No.
And it's not just me feeling the strain.
That one's gone.
lt's leaking.
lt's frayed where the wind's got it.
- Really? - Where it's rubbed.
Yeah.
- l'm losing gas.
- You're losing gas.
As the wind gets stronger, l get seriously worried.
Right.
Go back into that.
l think it's time to call it a day, unfortunately.
lt's your call.
l'm safe on the ground.
You're the one that's tethered.
l can't believe a storm has once again put paid to an experiment with flight at Saundersfoot.
- The curse of Bill Frost.
- lt is the curse of Bill Frost.
We're out of control Bill's claim to have flown before the Wright brothers does seem like a tall tale.
Explosive gas Whoa! .
.
and lots of it.
A machine at the mercy of the wind.
lt may all have been a flight of fancy, but we'll never know for sure.
NlCK: Those who are lucky enough to get off the ground are rewarded with great views of the South Wales coast.
A stroll along this spectacular shore is enough to satisfy most, but some seek more.
My name's Trevor Massiah and l'm a professional climbing instructor.
We're at a cliff called Mother Carey's on Lydstep Head in South Pembrokeshire, otherwise known as Mother Scaries.
l came here to train as an outdoor climbing instructor in 1 984, and l worked a season here at one of the activity centres and really just fell in love with the place.
They go bonkers for this.
Sounds a little bit hollow.
Won't pull on that one too hard.
lt does give you a sense of of what it is to be alive.
There's not so much risk in everyday life, and most climbers, what they're doing is grabbing a little piece of adventure for themselves.
Sea below you.
Blue sky.
Sunny.
Why would you want to be anywhere else? Standing on your toes for a long time, feet are just starting to hurt a little.
You're totally focused on that small piece of rock in front of you, and you haven't really got time to be taking in what's happening with the sea and and maybe theyou know, the wind and the swell and the wildlife.
l can honestly not imagine how my life would be without climbing.
That's got to be one of the best routes in Pembroke for sure.
Wooh! l love the coastal environment.
You're in an amazing place above the sea, watching the ocean.
Oh.
Doesn't get much better than that.
What a day.
The vast natural harbour of Milford Haven.
Massive tankers come here to unload oil from the North Sea and liquefied natural gas from the Middle East.
These ships aren't the only ones making big journeys to this part of the world.
Around eight miles off the coast is the tiny island of Grassholm.
Miranda's heading there in search of some global travellers who come to Wales to give birth.
Only a handful of people are allowed onto Grassholm lsland, and today l'm one of the lucky few.
l'm helping to monitor the gannet population there, and, l have to say, l'm really quite excited.
Grassholm is a remarkable seabird city.
ln summer, 80,000 birds are crammed onto this tiny clump of rock, barely half a mile across.
We're just approaching the island now, and the air is just thick with gannets.
There are gannets everywhere you look, just circling.
Like the welcome committee.
The island itself looks like somebody's poured icing over it, but l know that's gannets and gannet poo, and it's very, very smelly.
(Gannets chattering) l'm with RSPB Warden Greg Morgan and Steve Votier of Plymouth University who's studying the birds.
Wow.
- Gannetsville.
- Just amazing.
Sheer numbers.
Just volume and smell and lt's just lt's a real spectacle.
The birds look well and truly at home, but they only arrived here in real numbers about 1 00 years ago.
The gannets moved into the remains of burrows left by the former residents, puffins.
What we're looking at here is the old puffin colony that used to be here on the island.
- So these are collapsed puffin burrows? - That's right, yeah.
- What caused the collapse? - Puffin numbers just got too high here.
A succession of winter storms would have just slowly eroded the topsoil, and it would have gradually got thinner and thinner and they collapse in on themselves.
The puffins'loss was the gannets'gain.
This is the perfect spot for them to come and rear their young.
The grey ones with the white speckles, they're the youngsters.
Some still have down on their heads and are probably about five or six weeks old.
The ones that have lost the down are six or seven, very close to fledging.
When do they arrive? They're not here all year round.
The first adults, probably back in March.
And they'll probably be laying eggs in April.
But the middle of August is probably the peak fledging time, and then certainly by September, most of the adults would have gone.
Little is known about what the gannets do while they're away from Grassholm.
Steve's research aims to shed some light on their mysterious movements.
He's looking to catch up with one particular bird he tagged with a tracking device.
Crazy thing they're trying to do.
l can't believe they're trying to get one gannet in these thousands that we've got here.
He's got it.
He's got it.
He's got the bird.
- lt's nice in there.
- That was amazing.
You did that really quickly.
l can't believe it.
l've never seen a gannet that close.
You only see them passing overhead.
- Lovely and clean.
- (They laugh) Steve is taking off an electronic tag that has recorded where the gannet's been over the past two years.
They are so tiny, aren't they? We can use these to track the movements away from the colony in the winter.
So the idea is to piece together that part of the season that we know virtually nothing about.
What information are you finding out about the gannets? The results suggest they winter off lberia or head down to the west coast of Africa off Mauritania and Senegal.
(Gannet calls) Seems slightly put-out.
Sounds like he's itching to get going.
But just one more thing before the bird is ready for its long journey south.
This guy is due a weigh-in.
2,800.
2,800.
So you're nearly three kilos.
ls that a good weight for a gannet.
About normal.
About three kilos is standard.
The gannets come and go year on year, winter in Africa or Spain and summer in sunny Wales.
Now it's time to set this one free so it can wash off and prepare for a big trip from this small island.
Just watch its head, cos it will turn round and try and go for you.
- Ready? - Yeah.
Off he goes! Ooh! Oh, he's off! He's off! Brilliant! Sailing right away.
Oh! Another satisfied customer.
NlCK: The gannets of Grassholm nest on the edge of Cardigan Bay.
The huge sweep of the bay opens our way to West Wales.
We're here in search of curious comings and goings.
Aberystwyth University is home to a group of scientists making ready for an epic voyage.
lt's not just far beyond this shore - it's far beyond this world.
Those researchers are preparing for an extra-terrestrial mission here at Clarach Bay.
We can be heroes Fancy a trip to Mars, but you're put off by the millions of miles and months of travel? Then come here to sample the delights of the Red Planet.
That's what the scientists do.
l'm here to meet Lester Waugh and David Barnes and, of course, Bridget the midget Rover.
She's the prototype of a robot that'll look for life on Mars.
Which means Bridget needs to be tested on a makeshift Martian landscape.
So what are we doing on a beach in Wales? Well, we don't have all the diversity of of rock features we have on Mars, but we have some key ones.
First of all, we've got a nice sort of pebbly beach.
Moving further over, we have a nice sort of sandy, mixed region.
And finally, as we go sort of over here, we actually have some rather nice sort of sedimentary regions.
And one can imagine we're actually up against the face of a a crater on Mars, and we can get our Rover up here, we can take some images.
This is the surface of Clarach Bay and this is the surface of Mars.
Mars/Wales Wales/Mars.
l can see the similarity.
lf you're looking for a stand-in for the Red Planet, this bay just outside Aberystwyth is one of the best places in Britain.
lt's an unlikely one-stop shop for a variety of Martian-like landscapes.
ls Bridget up to the task of manoeuvring around this tricky terrain? And she's off! She's moving! - OK, is this full speed or cruising speed? - Full speed.
This is reasonably representative of what a Mars Rover will do.
l know it sounds like a silly question, but where's the engine? - Well, this Rover has six motors for drive.
- Right.
You're seeing, in here, these are the hubs and there's a motor in each of these hubs.
- lnside here? - lnside there, yes.
- ls a motor? - They're very small.
They have a gearbox which reduces the gear ratio.
- There's an engine and a gearbox in each hub? - That's right.
How amazing.
lt pivots here to keep the body stable.
That's called body posture averaging.
- And she's really going to handle this lot? - Yes.
We designed the system so that it would cope with rocks up to 30 centimetres high.
Bridget must be agile and tough.
lf she got stuck on Mars, there'd be no-one to give her a push.
She'd have to haul herself out of trouble.
So how powerful is Bridget? How many Martian horses can she pull? - l'm sure she could pull you along the beach.
- Really? lt might be an idea if we stop her here.
You can have a tug-of-war with Bridget.
We'll see how we go.
No contest.
Me against a shopping trolley? l know who's gonna win.
Maybe.
Right, Bridget, now we're gonna find out what you're made of.
Right, Bridget, now we're gonna find out what you're made of.
l think we're gonna find out what Nick Crane is made of.
Are you really? We'll see.
- Don't strangle yourself.
- l'm digging in.
- OK, let's see what happens.
- OK, off we go.
Come on, Nick.
Come on.
For a shopping Gosh.
She's got a bit of power, hasn't she? Look at those feet, slipping all over the place.
What's the matter? You've got no traction.
OK, Bridget wins, l think.
Can you turn her off, Brian, or l'll end up in the sea.
Clarach Bay is an odd starting point for a voyage that will end far away from the earth.
But then this coast is full of surprises.
As we cross the Dyfi Estuary, it's all a million miles away from the worries of the wider world.
Or so it seems.
Then you reach Tonfanau.
Here an old military camp marked the end of a journey for thousands of desperate people.
They were driven here by political turmoil - half a world away.
Historian Tessa Dunlop is uncovering the story.
ln October 1 972, this remote site almost overnight became home to some 3,000 refugees.
They'd travelled here from Uganda.
They hadn't planned to come to the Welsh coast but they had no choice.
They'd been forced to leave their homes in Africa - homes to which they'd never return.
l'm meeting two of those refugees.
Chandrika and Madhu are sisters.
Some 40 years ago, they were teenagers when they first found themselves on this Welsh beach.
lt must have been quite something, arriving here and seeing the coast.
l didn't really know that Wales existed.
My first impression was it was very calming, very inviting.
lt was in the middle of autumn so l felt it was really cold, gloomy.
When l first came here, and erm, you know, saw all the seaweed by the coast, l was just like, ''Oh.
What's this?'' The sisters had arrived in Tonfanau after a gruelling 4,000-mile journey from their homeland.
Uganda, a country once part of the British Empire.
By 1 972 it was beset by economic and civil strife.
The army officers and the customs department removed my wristwatch and ring, and so l brought my goods back from Entebbe Airport and l could not go.
President ldi Amin had given the Asian minority just 90 days to leave the country, accusing them of profiting at the expense of black Ugandans.
The Asians had lived in Uganda for generations, originally encouraged to settle by the British during the days of empire.
And that is why l said that the responsibility of Asians in Uganda, it is the responsibility of Great Britain.
Amin's ultimatum to leave Uganda caused panic.
British passport offices were besieged by applicants.
l'm still waiting for the British High Commission to decide about the security and safety of lives and goods.
Amid increasing desperation, some 30,000 Ugandan Asians fled to Britain.
The refugees were housed in resettlement centres, 3,000 of them in the former military camp at Tonfanau.
Chandrika, Madhu and their family arrived at Tonfanau's sleepy seaside station, an unlikely contrast to the terror of their expulsion from Africa.
What do you actually remember of leaving Uganda? The worst thing was the airport.
We were the last family to board, and l was the last passenger.
And l happened to Can't do it.
Because they were raping women and things like that, my mother was terrified and l remember my mother's face was really terrified.
Didn't know what to do.
They kept pushing my mum away, to say, ''You leave her with us and you just go.
'' l got a lot of abuse, a lot of aggression, and that is my last memory.
Last memory, and it's not nice.
Tonfanau station serviced the military camp that was sited nearby on the coast.
lt used to be a live firing range.
The row of gun emplacements pointing out to sea still runs along the shore.
When the Ugandan Asians arrived in 1 972, the military were long gone.
But camp life soon developed new routines in the buildings they'd left behind.
lt was like a dormitory with lots of single beds with these army type of rough blankets and little electric heater, which l hogged.
Which she hogged.
Only one, right.
l was freezing.
There were worries about how the new arrivals would cope in the Welsh winter.
What do you think it's going to be like for these people in the winter? Well, taking into account they've never experienced cold weather, l should think we would get quite a lot of illness.
But the cold wasn't the only concern for the refugees.
Elsewhere in the UK, their arrival was provoking bitter hostility.
We are now telling the politicians of this country today that we cannot, and will not, absorb any more Asians.
(Cheering) The welcome on the Welsh coast for the Ugandan Asians was warmer.
Many of the locals rallied around to help.
They were really hospitable, with clothes and things like that.
The locals? Even the camp, the WRVS et cetera, had organised warm clothing for us, so then we started getting coats and little bits of things like that.
But it was very well organised, as well, you know.
Overnight.
And the place was actually buzzing.
This is a map of Wales, and we have put the arrow because we have been talking about Tonfanau before.
ln 1 972, Ann James was one of the teachers drafted in to work at the camp school.
There weren't many foreign people around in these parts at all.
And it didn't seem to matter about them being of a different culture.
ln the 38 years since the camp closed, Ann hasn't met any of the Ugandan Asians she helped - until today.
Yes, l remember you.
Oh, Madhu.
Hello.
Wonderful.
Really lovely seeing you.
l do remember you.
- After all those years, it's lovely.
- l brought a photograph.
Shall l show you? - Goodness me.
l remember.
That's you.
- That's me in my little short dress.
(Laughter) - Well, that's wonderful.
- What was it like to teach these girls? - Were they good students? - Great.
Very diligent.
Wanted to learn.
They were really good.
You must have been sad when the camp closed down, really.
Yes, l was very sad.
We all were very sad, because erm and it closed very quickly.
ln the six months it was opened, this abandoned military base, staffed by an army of local volunteers, managed to keep 3,000 refugees warm and well-fed during a Welsh seaside winter.
(Whistle) By the time spring arrived in 1 973, the last temporary residents were leaving to be resettled around Britain.
So what happened to the sisters? l became a radiographer, in Cardiff, and then l did my masters in Manchester, and l'm a CT superintendent now.
Wow, impressive stuff.
What about you, Chandrika? l became a dentist, and l'm a specialist in special care dentistry, and l work around Cardiff and l love it.
The west coast of Wales can boast one of Britain's great railway routes.
lt runs right beside the sea .
.
and over it.
At Porthmadog the coastal railway connects with another train line that links the sea to the hills of Snowdonia.
The peaks are a rich source of slate.
That Welsh slate was once sought after the world over, a journey that began by train.
This line was built to bring slate from mountain quarries up at Blaenau Ffestiniog, where this train's coming from, down to the harbour at Porthmadog, where l'm headed.
Started in 1 832, the Ffestiniog Railway is the world's oldest independent railway company.
Nowadays, the trains haul tourists, an operation that runs thanks to volunteers who give up their time for the love of steam.
lt's not hard to see why.
What's a fireman's job, Jeremy? Think of it like this.
There's two parts to it.
There's the engine part, which is Carl's job, and there's the boiler part, which is my job.
So l've got to keep the needle up there, which is the steam pressure gauge on the boiler, somewhere between about 1 45 and 1 55, and l've got to keep the water in the boiler as well.
And what's your job in real life? - Me? - Or is this your real life? No.
l'm a technology strategist for Microsoft.
(Whistle toots) Jeremy, this must be one of the most spectacular coastal train rides in the country.
- Look at it.
- lt's unbelievable.
l mean, you've got the bay out there and the view straight up to Snowdon up there.
- You ever get bored with it? - No, of course not.
lt's why we come.
How does it compare to a day in the office? lf this paid as well as the day job, l wouldn't be doing the day job.
(Laughs) (Train whistle) The final stop on the line is Porthmadog.
Today this picturesque coastal town sells itself as the gateway inland, to Snowdonia.
But once this place looked out to sea.
Porthmadog was a gateway to the world.
The slate which came down from quarries inland left here on vessels bound for the Mediterranean, the Baltic and Canada.
Just look at this photograph from the 1 870s.
lt shows a forest of rigging.
This port was absolutely packed with ships.
The boats were built to carry heavy loads of slate.
Without that weighty cargo, they became unstable.
So for their return journey from far-flung parts, the skippers loaded foreign rocks as ballast.
That huge mound over there is made up of stones from all over the world, ballast that was discarded to create an artificial island.
A man-made reef piled up, piece by piece, with rocks from Australia and America - a reminder of the ebb and flow of trade to and from our shores.
But we're heading along the Welsh coast - out to Bardsey lsland.
Bardsey isn't very big, but for some it's their entire world.
One fortunate family lives on this island full-time, and the Porters school their children at home.
For months on end, youngsters Ben and Rachel have Bardsey to themselves, their closest friends a ferry ride away.
l'm Rachel, Rachel Porter, and l live on Bardsey lsland.
l'm Ben Porter.
We moved here two years ago.
We were very excited about coming to live here, obviously missing friends and things.
RACHEL: We do have a lot more freedom here, mainly because there aren't the dangers of being on the mainland.
There's no traffic.
There aren't any people we don't know.
BEN: l like bird-watching, other animals and wildlife.
We don't need nobody else We don't need nobody else l do a lot of art and l go for lots of sketching walks.
l take my sketchbook with me and sketch the wildlife and the birds and stuff like that.
l really enjoy it.
Every day does feel different.
- We've never been bored.
- No.
Obviously there's a limit to how much you can explore here, but l don't feel like l'm missing out on much, really.
My friends come for a week or two in the summer or in the spring.
l'm not sure how well they'd fit in if they lived here, though.
They might miss a few things.
We go back to the mainland about three times a year.
lt's good to go back and see everyone, but at the end of the few days, because it's so chock full of shopping and seeing people, you're so tired that Yeah, it's good to get back again.
On ourjourney around the Welsh coast, we're following a route well travelled by pilgrims seeking spiritual solace.
lsolation has always been sought by those needing space to think.
A very big idea was conceived in the quiet of Red Wharf Bay.
ln 1 947, one visitor here came up with a notion that would change the worldof motoring.
A vehicle dreamt up on this beach would kick-start the British car industry after the turmoil of war.
Dick Strawbridge is going back in time.
lt's Easter, 1 947, and two brothers are on holiday here.
They stop so one can draw a sketch in the sand of an idea he's been working on.
lt's for a novel vehicle.
Starts off with a very conventional rear axle.
There's two wheels here.
The back wheels connect to a box that also drives the front axle, so four-wheel drive.
The concept was a cross between truck and tractor.
Nobody knows what the original sketch looked like, and mine may be a bit ropey, but this is the basis of a utility vehicle that conquered the world.
The Land Rover.
The man who drew that blueprint on the Welsh sand-dunes was chief designer at the Rover car company - Maurice Wilks.
Since its conception in 1 947, the Land Rover's been seen in every far-flung part of the globe, in the toughest terrain.
Now we're bringing one of the very first back home to the beach where it all began.
To understand the secrets of its success, we'll take the skin off and get down to the nuts and bolts to see what makes this tough guy tick.
Ready? l'm stripping away the Land Rover's bodywork to reveal the design that Wilks sketched in the sand, some 60 years ago.
l could hardly have a better model to study.
So how old is this vehicle? Which one is it? This is pre-production number 1 6.
- Prototype 1 6? - Yeah.
So there's only 1 5 older Land Rovers than this one.
- Yes.
- And you're letting us take it apart? Most modern cars need a fancy tool kit and plenty of time to strip down - not this one.
lt's amazing.
lt's nearly taken apart.
A couple of spanners and that's all the bits.
lt's so simple it's great! Over two million Land Rovers have been sold worldwide.
But when Maurice Wilks drew up his design, the plan was for a quick fix, a runabout, to get his business through the post-war slump.
ln 1 947, Britain was almost bankrupt.
Steel was in short supply, so the Land Rover's bodywork was made from aluminium - just one of Wilks'many bright ideas.
Testing the Land Rover was a family affair.
Maurice Wilks came to the beach with his children to put the prototypes through their paces.
To see what Wilks came up with, we're stripping the skin off one of his early models.
But what about the man himself? What made the car's creator, Maurice Wilks, tick? l'm with his son Stephen, in a car he rode in with his dad.
This is Land Rover Number 1, the vehicle that started it all.
An adventure that began on family holidays some 60 years ago.
We'd come down onto the sand, play in the sand, play in the sea, and then it was back into the Land Rover and back up to the hotel.
- Do you remember the trials? - Yeah, well, it was over dunes, over hillocks.
lt was through wet ground.
lt was through the sea itself sometimes.
- Yeah? - Oh, yeah, splashing up everywhere.
As a youngster growing up, it must have been a very exciting time with all these inventions and ideas.
Yeah, well, Dad was always interested in something, you know.
l mean, it might be astronomy, or it could be electrical things, but he really developed a vehicle that was useful for him.
He felt there was a need to have a vehicle that would do more than just what a car would do.
lt would be a farmer's vehicle as well as being something which would be useful for the more sort of general public.
The first time the public saw the Land Rover was at the Amsterdam Motor Show in 1 948, and it was a big hit.
By 1 959, a quarter of a million had been sold.
At the peak of its popularity, over 50,000 Land Rovers a year were produced.
Early on, canny Maurice Wilks had his sights set on the military market.
By testing his new vehicle on the beach, he showed the British Army it could cope with desert conditions.
During the trials, Maurice fine-tuned the Land Rover's design, stripping it back to basics, just as we've done with our early example.
- Here we go.
- (Engine starts) With the bodywork removed, the genius of Wilks'design is laid bare, starting with the strong box-chassis.
lt gave the vehicle great stability over all terrain, and the chassis was complemented by another innovation - permanent four-wheel drive.
Four-wheel drive means the power from the engine goes to all four wheels all the time, which means it's really difficult to get stuck.
lt was also a do-anything vehicle.
We're talking drivability and practicality.
Here is a powered take-off, which means that farmers could drive agricultural machinery.
The Land Rover wasn't just perfected on this beach, it was born here on the day in 1 947 that Maurice Wilks drew his sketch in the sand.
Skirting North Wales, we're on the final leg of our tour to discover the curious comings and goings on this coast.
For thousands of years, copper from the Great Orme was sent around Britain and beyond.
Later, human cargo came in at Llandudno pier.
Tourist boats bringing visitors on ''kiss me quick'' adventures.
All along this porous shore there's been a constant to-ing and fro-ing.
But at our final stop on the Dee Estuary, it's another story.
You find something that's not going anywhere.
Many people making their way along this shore must have wondered what on earth is going on with this ship.
But very few get this close.
She's sat on this site since 1 979.
Remember the '70s? Life was somewhat slower paced.
Especially on Sunday.
(Church bells ringing) Every day is like Sunday Shopping on the Sabbath was seen as something of a sin.
For retailers, every seventh day was an opportunity going begging.
But did it have to be? l just happen to have here a copy of the Shops Act 1 950.
The provisions of this Act used to forbid most shops from trading on a Sunday.
But maybe there was a loophole.
lt says here in part 4 Section 56 sub-section 6, ''The foregoing provisions of this part of this Act shall not apply to any sea-going ship.
'' So perhaps if you got yourself a ship and set it up as a shop, you could open on a Sunday.
(Blast of horn) So the Duke Of Lancaster found herself being towed into place in August 1 979, to become a visitor attraction and a shopping centre.
Alan D'Arcy didn't just work on board - the ship was his home.
- Follow me, Nick.
- lt's quite eerie, isn't it? lt is, yes.
lt feels like a ghost ship.
What used to happen in here? This was a market deck area.
All the traders would rent so much space to sell their wares, andthis is where they'd be.
The traders moved on years ago, but the ship is stuck in the past.
Following a series of planning disputes, this shop on the sea ceased trading.
But those who love this old girl can't let go.
(Echoing ticking) This is the Dolphin restaurant, Nick.
lt's gorgeous, isn't it? Yeah.
lt takes you back, doesn't it? l actually had my wedding reception in here.
- ln here? - ln here, yeah, in 1 982.
What did it look like? Like the Titanic, for want of a better word.
You've got to see her with all the tablecloths on and waitresses and food and people jollying .
.
beer and champagne.
lt was just like that.
NlCK: lt's just crying out for happy people.
- Help.
Crying out for help.
lt is crying out for help.
lt is sad she's sat here empty.
l would have liked to have seen her still open and working, instead of just sitting here waiting for something to happen to her.
- lt's become part of your life, hasn't it? - lt has, yeah.
l do get a little bit emotional, but we just have to wait and see what happens to her.
But that's because it's tied up in your life.
Ships aren't just lumps of metal, they have lives tied in with them.
- And names.
Lives and names.
- Yeah.
This is one of the most bizarre sights l've seen anywhere on the British coast.
A great white beached whale.
The Welsh coast does everything on a grand scale - its scenery, its wildlife, its spirit of enterprise and adventure, the ideas that ebb and flow with every age.
These shores have always been a window on a wider world on far horizons.
Oh, and there's one other thing - they're very welcoming too.
l'll be back.
On one side is England on the other l'm in Wales.
This is a coast of constant comings and goings, a to and fro of people and ideas that haven't only changed Britain.
Events on the Welsh shores have changed the world.
Now we're in search of those stories.
Miranda's away with the birds.
That really is gannet central, isn't it? Dick discovers how a sketch in the sand turned into wheels that conquered the world.
This is great fun.
Tessa meets sisters who sought sanctuary in exile from Africa.
l didn't really know that Wales existed.
Alice tries to re-write the history of flying.
(Train whistle blows) Me? l'm on a train that took Wales slate around the globe.
This is Coast - and beyond.
My destination is the Dee Estuary - the northern border between Wales and England.
But my journey starts at their southern border, on the Severn Estuary.
This stretch of water has brought great wealth to South Wales.
Thanks to the sea, great cities have grown up.
As the people thrived, they've had good reason to be grateful for their coastal connections.
But 400 years ago it was a very different story.
At the start of the 1 7th century, the sea rose up and dashed the people down, wiping whole villages from the face of the earth.
The year is 1 607.
lt's the 30th of January.
Unlike today, unseasonal sunshine bathes the estuary.
lt's a bright start to a disastrous day.
Before long, a strong wind whips up.
Offshore, huge and mighty hills of water are rolling in, set on a collision course with this coast and its people.
ln less than five hours, 200 square miles of low-lying land are lost to the sea, cattle are washed away, 2,000 people are drowned, their lungs filled with salt water.
This woodcut depicts a tragedy of biblical proportions.
Buildings are inundated.
There are people climbing trees.
To many it must have seemed like The End Of Days.
lt was certainly a day that left its mark in people's memories.
Here at the church in Redwick it's commemorated in stone.
That dreadful event has been researched by the church organist, Mark Lewis.
What evidence is there that the church was affected by the flood? Well, we're very fortunate because the height of the floodwater was recorded on the wall of the church just after the event.
We've got a copper alloy bolt set in lead in this stone on the end of the chancel and the word ''flood'' carved above it.
And we believe that this is the height of that 1 607 event.
So the water would have reached my chest? lt would have here, in the churchyard, but we're on a slight hill, so anywhere in any direction one or two miles from this would have been under four, five metres of water.
The best way to take in the scale of the devastation is from the church tower.
MARK: The floodwater covered all the land from the estuary as far as the eye can see, up to the new Severn Crossing, and as far as the foothills at the fen edge, which from here is about two or three miles distance inland.
Most of the houses in 1 607 were timber framed and wattle and daub, and they were swept away or washed away.
How did people interpret the disaster? This was very much seen as a warning from heaven against vice.
400 years ago, the great flood was blamed on divine judgment.
Today, the widely-accepted theory is that terrible weather whipped up the sea, creating a storm-surge of water.
But this man has a different idea.
Professor Simon Haslett from the University of Wales believes this coast contains a warning - to us and to future generations.
What do you think caused the great flood of 1 607? A lot of people think it was caused by a storm-surge, but contemporary accounts that l've read indicate that the weather was fine, the day was fairly and brightly spread.
So if it wasn't a storm, we need other explanations, and one explanation is possibly a tsunami, which we're now considering.
A tsunami in Britain? Well, yes.
How do you define a tsunami? Well, a tsunami is a long wave, which means that from the front of the wave to the back of the wave it can be several kilometres long.
And if you were stood in that wave, at the beach, when it arrived, it would take 1 5 to 20 minutes for that single wave to pass over you.
That's how big a tsunami is.
Somewhere out there in the Atlantic, according to our tsunami theory, there was either an earthquake or an undersea landslide or maybe both, cos earthquakes can trigger undersea landslides as well.
They're one of the most energetic phenomena we have in nature, and they contain far more energy than a normal storm wave would have.
According to Simon's theory, in 1 607 the floodwater didn't rise gradually.
lnstead, a single huge wave smashed into this shore with incredible intensity, a sudden explosion of energy unleashed by an offshore earthquake or landslide.
A tsunami's terrifying force can toss huge boulders around with ease.
SlMON: They've been stacked up like dominoes.
The only thing that can really move boulders like that is a tsunami, and that's seen right around the world where tsunami have been encountered.
So about a five-metre-high wave, and it would have been sloshing against that cliff for about 1 0 to 1 5 minutes as the crest of the tsunami passed, all that time bringing in boulders and laying them down in the fabric that we see them here today.
The great flood of 1 607 levelled villages and left 2,000 dead.
Was the cause a tsunami triggered by an Atlantic earthquake? Certainly, on the other side of the ocean, the Americans have sunk millions into an early warning system.
lt's designed to protect their eastern coast from tsunamis set off by earthquakes.
The likelihood of such an event in our lifetime is remote, but Simon thinks that shouldn't stop us planning for the worst.
Tsunamis are not a regular hazard here in the Atlantic but they do occur, so we need to be mindful of them.
For a very small investment, we could put out in the Atlantic, as the Americans are doing now on their eastern coastline, we could put tsunami warning systems out there.
Then, if we do have one of these freak events, we will at least have some warning time to get people out of the way.
The sea has a terrifying power .
.
and beguiling beauty.
We've reached the majestic Gower Peninsula.
Beyond Gower is Burry Port.
When Amelia Earhart landed here in 1 928, she became the first woman to fly over the Atlantic.
But years earlier, could the Welsh cliffs have witnessed the world's very first powered flight? We're heading for a town which may deserve a special place on the aviation map - Saundersfoot.
An unlikely aviator has Alice intrigued.
At the end of the 1 9th century, here in Saundersfoot, a local carpenter claimed that he'd built his own flying machine.
And this is the man.
His name was Bill Frost, and he said that he'd built his contraption out of canvas and that it got him airborne and he flew for 500 yards.
And he said that he made this flight in 1 896.
That's seven years before the Wright brothers.
So should it be Bill Frost's name in the record books as the engineer of the first powered flight, or is that just a lot of hot air? Supposedly, the scene of Bill's great escape from gravity was this hillside high above Saundersfoot Harbour.
Had you been here in September 1 896, you might have caught sight of Bill Frost in his flying machine, actually flying over this field.
Gloria! Gloria! lt was a bizarre thing - part balloon, part glider, part helicopter.
There were no witnesses, though, to back up Bill's story about his flight.
He said it came to a crashing end when his craft got tangled in a tree.
(Crashing) The next morning, the headlines were all about the weather.
lt says here ''The Great Storm'' and describes ''a tremendous wind storm sweeping over South Wales'' and Bill Frost said that his flying machine, trapped in those trees, was torn apart.
There's no proof for Bill Frost's claim that he made this flight seven years before the Wright brothers, but could he have been telling the truth? We do know that two years earlier, in 1 894, Bill registered this patent for a flying machine.
But even if he had made this aircraft, would it have worked? Scientist Mike Bullivant has cast a critical eye over Bill's design.
The aircraft comprises an upper chamber filled with a non-specified gas which is lighter than air.
Suspended underneath is a gondola, which takes the pilot.
Going up from the gondola, through the upper chamber, is a propeller which is hand-cranked by the pilot.
Then the upper chamber has wings sticking out of each side.
lt's part airship, it's part helicopter, it's part glider.
To get his airship airborne, Bill would have needed to fill it with lighter-than-air gas.
The obvious choice today would be helium, but in 1 896 it wasn't available.
So what gas might Bill have used? l reckon it was hydrogen.
l'll show you how you can make hydrogen.
lt's really easy.
Bill would have needed to know some chemistry.
You can produce hydrogen gas, H2, by adding iron to sulphuric acid.
- What's the formula of sulphuric acid? - H2SO4.
Right.
So the iron is grabbing the SO4 and the H is released.
H2 is released, yeah.
Ooh.
Ooh.
- So Bill Frost could have - Ooh.
- Look at that.
- (Laughs) Bill Frost could have used iron, and sulphuric acid, as a source of the hydrogen to fill that upper chamber.
Even if Bill could have made hydrogen, using it is very risky.
Whoa! lt's a bomb, a flying bomb.
And Bill Frost's aircraft would have been a very big flying bomb.
To see just how big, l'm going to try to get airborne myself.
Thankfully, stunt expert Bob Schofield is filling these balloons with another lighter-than-air gas - helium - which, unlike hydrogen, doesn't explode.
With each balloon blown up to eight feet in diameter, how much gas is inside it? About seven cubic metres.
That will lift about eight kilograms.
Well, l'm 64 kilos.
l'd need eight fully-inflated balloons to get me off the ground - to just lift me off the ground.
And l haven't even got an aircraft around me, it's just me.
Yeah.
Bill frost would have also had all the actual aircraft - the wood, the canvas.
The drawing on that patent starts to look a little bit sketchy, doesn't it? Surely Bill's airship couldn't have contained enough gas to lift off the ground.
l've got four big balloons attached, but l'll need four more to get airborne.
Ooh.
And the weather's against me.
l'm slightly concerned because, just as Bill Frost had his experiment scuppered by a storm, the wind is whipping up here in Saundersfoot.
From the south-west, yeah.
Out of control Within minutes, things go from tricky to treacherous.
- Bill Frost would have had a laugh about this.
- Yeah.
- Just lean into that now.
- OK.
- You ain't going anywhere.
- Ooh, it's not comfortable.
- l don't want to end up with broken ribs.
- No.
And it's not just me feeling the strain.
That one's gone.
lt's leaking.
lt's frayed where the wind's got it.
- Really? - Where it's rubbed.
Yeah.
- l'm losing gas.
- You're losing gas.
As the wind gets stronger, l get seriously worried.
Right.
Go back into that.
l think it's time to call it a day, unfortunately.
lt's your call.
l'm safe on the ground.
You're the one that's tethered.
l can't believe a storm has once again put paid to an experiment with flight at Saundersfoot.
- The curse of Bill Frost.
- lt is the curse of Bill Frost.
We're out of control Bill's claim to have flown before the Wright brothers does seem like a tall tale.
Explosive gas Whoa! .
.
and lots of it.
A machine at the mercy of the wind.
lt may all have been a flight of fancy, but we'll never know for sure.
NlCK: Those who are lucky enough to get off the ground are rewarded with great views of the South Wales coast.
A stroll along this spectacular shore is enough to satisfy most, but some seek more.
My name's Trevor Massiah and l'm a professional climbing instructor.
We're at a cliff called Mother Carey's on Lydstep Head in South Pembrokeshire, otherwise known as Mother Scaries.
l came here to train as an outdoor climbing instructor in 1 984, and l worked a season here at one of the activity centres and really just fell in love with the place.
They go bonkers for this.
Sounds a little bit hollow.
Won't pull on that one too hard.
lt does give you a sense of of what it is to be alive.
There's not so much risk in everyday life, and most climbers, what they're doing is grabbing a little piece of adventure for themselves.
Sea below you.
Blue sky.
Sunny.
Why would you want to be anywhere else? Standing on your toes for a long time, feet are just starting to hurt a little.
You're totally focused on that small piece of rock in front of you, and you haven't really got time to be taking in what's happening with the sea and and maybe theyou know, the wind and the swell and the wildlife.
l can honestly not imagine how my life would be without climbing.
That's got to be one of the best routes in Pembroke for sure.
Wooh! l love the coastal environment.
You're in an amazing place above the sea, watching the ocean.
Oh.
Doesn't get much better than that.
What a day.
The vast natural harbour of Milford Haven.
Massive tankers come here to unload oil from the North Sea and liquefied natural gas from the Middle East.
These ships aren't the only ones making big journeys to this part of the world.
Around eight miles off the coast is the tiny island of Grassholm.
Miranda's heading there in search of some global travellers who come to Wales to give birth.
Only a handful of people are allowed onto Grassholm lsland, and today l'm one of the lucky few.
l'm helping to monitor the gannet population there, and, l have to say, l'm really quite excited.
Grassholm is a remarkable seabird city.
ln summer, 80,000 birds are crammed onto this tiny clump of rock, barely half a mile across.
We're just approaching the island now, and the air is just thick with gannets.
There are gannets everywhere you look, just circling.
Like the welcome committee.
The island itself looks like somebody's poured icing over it, but l know that's gannets and gannet poo, and it's very, very smelly.
(Gannets chattering) l'm with RSPB Warden Greg Morgan and Steve Votier of Plymouth University who's studying the birds.
Wow.
- Gannetsville.
- Just amazing.
Sheer numbers.
Just volume and smell and lt's just lt's a real spectacle.
The birds look well and truly at home, but they only arrived here in real numbers about 1 00 years ago.
The gannets moved into the remains of burrows left by the former residents, puffins.
What we're looking at here is the old puffin colony that used to be here on the island.
- So these are collapsed puffin burrows? - That's right, yeah.
- What caused the collapse? - Puffin numbers just got too high here.
A succession of winter storms would have just slowly eroded the topsoil, and it would have gradually got thinner and thinner and they collapse in on themselves.
The puffins'loss was the gannets'gain.
This is the perfect spot for them to come and rear their young.
The grey ones with the white speckles, they're the youngsters.
Some still have down on their heads and are probably about five or six weeks old.
The ones that have lost the down are six or seven, very close to fledging.
When do they arrive? They're not here all year round.
The first adults, probably back in March.
And they'll probably be laying eggs in April.
But the middle of August is probably the peak fledging time, and then certainly by September, most of the adults would have gone.
Little is known about what the gannets do while they're away from Grassholm.
Steve's research aims to shed some light on their mysterious movements.
He's looking to catch up with one particular bird he tagged with a tracking device.
Crazy thing they're trying to do.
l can't believe they're trying to get one gannet in these thousands that we've got here.
He's got it.
He's got it.
He's got the bird.
- lt's nice in there.
- That was amazing.
You did that really quickly.
l can't believe it.
l've never seen a gannet that close.
You only see them passing overhead.
- Lovely and clean.
- (They laugh) Steve is taking off an electronic tag that has recorded where the gannet's been over the past two years.
They are so tiny, aren't they? We can use these to track the movements away from the colony in the winter.
So the idea is to piece together that part of the season that we know virtually nothing about.
What information are you finding out about the gannets? The results suggest they winter off lberia or head down to the west coast of Africa off Mauritania and Senegal.
(Gannet calls) Seems slightly put-out.
Sounds like he's itching to get going.
But just one more thing before the bird is ready for its long journey south.
This guy is due a weigh-in.
2,800.
2,800.
So you're nearly three kilos.
ls that a good weight for a gannet.
About normal.
About three kilos is standard.
The gannets come and go year on year, winter in Africa or Spain and summer in sunny Wales.
Now it's time to set this one free so it can wash off and prepare for a big trip from this small island.
Just watch its head, cos it will turn round and try and go for you.
- Ready? - Yeah.
Off he goes! Ooh! Oh, he's off! He's off! Brilliant! Sailing right away.
Oh! Another satisfied customer.
NlCK: The gannets of Grassholm nest on the edge of Cardigan Bay.
The huge sweep of the bay opens our way to West Wales.
We're here in search of curious comings and goings.
Aberystwyth University is home to a group of scientists making ready for an epic voyage.
lt's not just far beyond this shore - it's far beyond this world.
Those researchers are preparing for an extra-terrestrial mission here at Clarach Bay.
We can be heroes Fancy a trip to Mars, but you're put off by the millions of miles and months of travel? Then come here to sample the delights of the Red Planet.
That's what the scientists do.
l'm here to meet Lester Waugh and David Barnes and, of course, Bridget the midget Rover.
She's the prototype of a robot that'll look for life on Mars.
Which means Bridget needs to be tested on a makeshift Martian landscape.
So what are we doing on a beach in Wales? Well, we don't have all the diversity of of rock features we have on Mars, but we have some key ones.
First of all, we've got a nice sort of pebbly beach.
Moving further over, we have a nice sort of sandy, mixed region.
And finally, as we go sort of over here, we actually have some rather nice sort of sedimentary regions.
And one can imagine we're actually up against the face of a a crater on Mars, and we can get our Rover up here, we can take some images.
This is the surface of Clarach Bay and this is the surface of Mars.
Mars/Wales Wales/Mars.
l can see the similarity.
lf you're looking for a stand-in for the Red Planet, this bay just outside Aberystwyth is one of the best places in Britain.
lt's an unlikely one-stop shop for a variety of Martian-like landscapes.
ls Bridget up to the task of manoeuvring around this tricky terrain? And she's off! She's moving! - OK, is this full speed or cruising speed? - Full speed.
This is reasonably representative of what a Mars Rover will do.
l know it sounds like a silly question, but where's the engine? - Well, this Rover has six motors for drive.
- Right.
You're seeing, in here, these are the hubs and there's a motor in each of these hubs.
- lnside here? - lnside there, yes.
- ls a motor? - They're very small.
They have a gearbox which reduces the gear ratio.
- There's an engine and a gearbox in each hub? - That's right.
How amazing.
lt pivots here to keep the body stable.
That's called body posture averaging.
- And she's really going to handle this lot? - Yes.
We designed the system so that it would cope with rocks up to 30 centimetres high.
Bridget must be agile and tough.
lf she got stuck on Mars, there'd be no-one to give her a push.
She'd have to haul herself out of trouble.
So how powerful is Bridget? How many Martian horses can she pull? - l'm sure she could pull you along the beach.
- Really? lt might be an idea if we stop her here.
You can have a tug-of-war with Bridget.
We'll see how we go.
No contest.
Me against a shopping trolley? l know who's gonna win.
Maybe.
Right, Bridget, now we're gonna find out what you're made of.
Right, Bridget, now we're gonna find out what you're made of.
l think we're gonna find out what Nick Crane is made of.
Are you really? We'll see.
- Don't strangle yourself.
- l'm digging in.
- OK, let's see what happens.
- OK, off we go.
Come on, Nick.
Come on.
For a shopping Gosh.
She's got a bit of power, hasn't she? Look at those feet, slipping all over the place.
What's the matter? You've got no traction.
OK, Bridget wins, l think.
Can you turn her off, Brian, or l'll end up in the sea.
Clarach Bay is an odd starting point for a voyage that will end far away from the earth.
But then this coast is full of surprises.
As we cross the Dyfi Estuary, it's all a million miles away from the worries of the wider world.
Or so it seems.
Then you reach Tonfanau.
Here an old military camp marked the end of a journey for thousands of desperate people.
They were driven here by political turmoil - half a world away.
Historian Tessa Dunlop is uncovering the story.
ln October 1 972, this remote site almost overnight became home to some 3,000 refugees.
They'd travelled here from Uganda.
They hadn't planned to come to the Welsh coast but they had no choice.
They'd been forced to leave their homes in Africa - homes to which they'd never return.
l'm meeting two of those refugees.
Chandrika and Madhu are sisters.
Some 40 years ago, they were teenagers when they first found themselves on this Welsh beach.
lt must have been quite something, arriving here and seeing the coast.
l didn't really know that Wales existed.
My first impression was it was very calming, very inviting.
lt was in the middle of autumn so l felt it was really cold, gloomy.
When l first came here, and erm, you know, saw all the seaweed by the coast, l was just like, ''Oh.
What's this?'' The sisters had arrived in Tonfanau after a gruelling 4,000-mile journey from their homeland.
Uganda, a country once part of the British Empire.
By 1 972 it was beset by economic and civil strife.
The army officers and the customs department removed my wristwatch and ring, and so l brought my goods back from Entebbe Airport and l could not go.
President ldi Amin had given the Asian minority just 90 days to leave the country, accusing them of profiting at the expense of black Ugandans.
The Asians had lived in Uganda for generations, originally encouraged to settle by the British during the days of empire.
And that is why l said that the responsibility of Asians in Uganda, it is the responsibility of Great Britain.
Amin's ultimatum to leave Uganda caused panic.
British passport offices were besieged by applicants.
l'm still waiting for the British High Commission to decide about the security and safety of lives and goods.
Amid increasing desperation, some 30,000 Ugandan Asians fled to Britain.
The refugees were housed in resettlement centres, 3,000 of them in the former military camp at Tonfanau.
Chandrika, Madhu and their family arrived at Tonfanau's sleepy seaside station, an unlikely contrast to the terror of their expulsion from Africa.
What do you actually remember of leaving Uganda? The worst thing was the airport.
We were the last family to board, and l was the last passenger.
And l happened to Can't do it.
Because they were raping women and things like that, my mother was terrified and l remember my mother's face was really terrified.
Didn't know what to do.
They kept pushing my mum away, to say, ''You leave her with us and you just go.
'' l got a lot of abuse, a lot of aggression, and that is my last memory.
Last memory, and it's not nice.
Tonfanau station serviced the military camp that was sited nearby on the coast.
lt used to be a live firing range.
The row of gun emplacements pointing out to sea still runs along the shore.
When the Ugandan Asians arrived in 1 972, the military were long gone.
But camp life soon developed new routines in the buildings they'd left behind.
lt was like a dormitory with lots of single beds with these army type of rough blankets and little electric heater, which l hogged.
Which she hogged.
Only one, right.
l was freezing.
There were worries about how the new arrivals would cope in the Welsh winter.
What do you think it's going to be like for these people in the winter? Well, taking into account they've never experienced cold weather, l should think we would get quite a lot of illness.
But the cold wasn't the only concern for the refugees.
Elsewhere in the UK, their arrival was provoking bitter hostility.
We are now telling the politicians of this country today that we cannot, and will not, absorb any more Asians.
(Cheering) The welcome on the Welsh coast for the Ugandan Asians was warmer.
Many of the locals rallied around to help.
They were really hospitable, with clothes and things like that.
The locals? Even the camp, the WRVS et cetera, had organised warm clothing for us, so then we started getting coats and little bits of things like that.
But it was very well organised, as well, you know.
Overnight.
And the place was actually buzzing.
This is a map of Wales, and we have put the arrow because we have been talking about Tonfanau before.
ln 1 972, Ann James was one of the teachers drafted in to work at the camp school.
There weren't many foreign people around in these parts at all.
And it didn't seem to matter about them being of a different culture.
ln the 38 years since the camp closed, Ann hasn't met any of the Ugandan Asians she helped - until today.
Yes, l remember you.
Oh, Madhu.
Hello.
Wonderful.
Really lovely seeing you.
l do remember you.
- After all those years, it's lovely.
- l brought a photograph.
Shall l show you? - Goodness me.
l remember.
That's you.
- That's me in my little short dress.
(Laughter) - Well, that's wonderful.
- What was it like to teach these girls? - Were they good students? - Great.
Very diligent.
Wanted to learn.
They were really good.
You must have been sad when the camp closed down, really.
Yes, l was very sad.
We all were very sad, because erm and it closed very quickly.
ln the six months it was opened, this abandoned military base, staffed by an army of local volunteers, managed to keep 3,000 refugees warm and well-fed during a Welsh seaside winter.
(Whistle) By the time spring arrived in 1 973, the last temporary residents were leaving to be resettled around Britain.
So what happened to the sisters? l became a radiographer, in Cardiff, and then l did my masters in Manchester, and l'm a CT superintendent now.
Wow, impressive stuff.
What about you, Chandrika? l became a dentist, and l'm a specialist in special care dentistry, and l work around Cardiff and l love it.
The west coast of Wales can boast one of Britain's great railway routes.
lt runs right beside the sea .
.
and over it.
At Porthmadog the coastal railway connects with another train line that links the sea to the hills of Snowdonia.
The peaks are a rich source of slate.
That Welsh slate was once sought after the world over, a journey that began by train.
This line was built to bring slate from mountain quarries up at Blaenau Ffestiniog, where this train's coming from, down to the harbour at Porthmadog, where l'm headed.
Started in 1 832, the Ffestiniog Railway is the world's oldest independent railway company.
Nowadays, the trains haul tourists, an operation that runs thanks to volunteers who give up their time for the love of steam.
lt's not hard to see why.
What's a fireman's job, Jeremy? Think of it like this.
There's two parts to it.
There's the engine part, which is Carl's job, and there's the boiler part, which is my job.
So l've got to keep the needle up there, which is the steam pressure gauge on the boiler, somewhere between about 1 45 and 1 55, and l've got to keep the water in the boiler as well.
And what's your job in real life? - Me? - Or is this your real life? No.
l'm a technology strategist for Microsoft.
(Whistle toots) Jeremy, this must be one of the most spectacular coastal train rides in the country.
- Look at it.
- lt's unbelievable.
l mean, you've got the bay out there and the view straight up to Snowdon up there.
- You ever get bored with it? - No, of course not.
lt's why we come.
How does it compare to a day in the office? lf this paid as well as the day job, l wouldn't be doing the day job.
(Laughs) (Train whistle) The final stop on the line is Porthmadog.
Today this picturesque coastal town sells itself as the gateway inland, to Snowdonia.
But once this place looked out to sea.
Porthmadog was a gateway to the world.
The slate which came down from quarries inland left here on vessels bound for the Mediterranean, the Baltic and Canada.
Just look at this photograph from the 1 870s.
lt shows a forest of rigging.
This port was absolutely packed with ships.
The boats were built to carry heavy loads of slate.
Without that weighty cargo, they became unstable.
So for their return journey from far-flung parts, the skippers loaded foreign rocks as ballast.
That huge mound over there is made up of stones from all over the world, ballast that was discarded to create an artificial island.
A man-made reef piled up, piece by piece, with rocks from Australia and America - a reminder of the ebb and flow of trade to and from our shores.
But we're heading along the Welsh coast - out to Bardsey lsland.
Bardsey isn't very big, but for some it's their entire world.
One fortunate family lives on this island full-time, and the Porters school their children at home.
For months on end, youngsters Ben and Rachel have Bardsey to themselves, their closest friends a ferry ride away.
l'm Rachel, Rachel Porter, and l live on Bardsey lsland.
l'm Ben Porter.
We moved here two years ago.
We were very excited about coming to live here, obviously missing friends and things.
RACHEL: We do have a lot more freedom here, mainly because there aren't the dangers of being on the mainland.
There's no traffic.
There aren't any people we don't know.
BEN: l like bird-watching, other animals and wildlife.
We don't need nobody else We don't need nobody else l do a lot of art and l go for lots of sketching walks.
l take my sketchbook with me and sketch the wildlife and the birds and stuff like that.
l really enjoy it.
Every day does feel different.
- We've never been bored.
- No.
Obviously there's a limit to how much you can explore here, but l don't feel like l'm missing out on much, really.
My friends come for a week or two in the summer or in the spring.
l'm not sure how well they'd fit in if they lived here, though.
They might miss a few things.
We go back to the mainland about three times a year.
lt's good to go back and see everyone, but at the end of the few days, because it's so chock full of shopping and seeing people, you're so tired that Yeah, it's good to get back again.
On ourjourney around the Welsh coast, we're following a route well travelled by pilgrims seeking spiritual solace.
lsolation has always been sought by those needing space to think.
A very big idea was conceived in the quiet of Red Wharf Bay.
ln 1 947, one visitor here came up with a notion that would change the worldof motoring.
A vehicle dreamt up on this beach would kick-start the British car industry after the turmoil of war.
Dick Strawbridge is going back in time.
lt's Easter, 1 947, and two brothers are on holiday here.
They stop so one can draw a sketch in the sand of an idea he's been working on.
lt's for a novel vehicle.
Starts off with a very conventional rear axle.
There's two wheels here.
The back wheels connect to a box that also drives the front axle, so four-wheel drive.
The concept was a cross between truck and tractor.
Nobody knows what the original sketch looked like, and mine may be a bit ropey, but this is the basis of a utility vehicle that conquered the world.
The Land Rover.
The man who drew that blueprint on the Welsh sand-dunes was chief designer at the Rover car company - Maurice Wilks.
Since its conception in 1 947, the Land Rover's been seen in every far-flung part of the globe, in the toughest terrain.
Now we're bringing one of the very first back home to the beach where it all began.
To understand the secrets of its success, we'll take the skin off and get down to the nuts and bolts to see what makes this tough guy tick.
Ready? l'm stripping away the Land Rover's bodywork to reveal the design that Wilks sketched in the sand, some 60 years ago.
l could hardly have a better model to study.
So how old is this vehicle? Which one is it? This is pre-production number 1 6.
- Prototype 1 6? - Yeah.
So there's only 1 5 older Land Rovers than this one.
- Yes.
- And you're letting us take it apart? Most modern cars need a fancy tool kit and plenty of time to strip down - not this one.
lt's amazing.
lt's nearly taken apart.
A couple of spanners and that's all the bits.
lt's so simple it's great! Over two million Land Rovers have been sold worldwide.
But when Maurice Wilks drew up his design, the plan was for a quick fix, a runabout, to get his business through the post-war slump.
ln 1 947, Britain was almost bankrupt.
Steel was in short supply, so the Land Rover's bodywork was made from aluminium - just one of Wilks'many bright ideas.
Testing the Land Rover was a family affair.
Maurice Wilks came to the beach with his children to put the prototypes through their paces.
To see what Wilks came up with, we're stripping the skin off one of his early models.
But what about the man himself? What made the car's creator, Maurice Wilks, tick? l'm with his son Stephen, in a car he rode in with his dad.
This is Land Rover Number 1, the vehicle that started it all.
An adventure that began on family holidays some 60 years ago.
We'd come down onto the sand, play in the sand, play in the sea, and then it was back into the Land Rover and back up to the hotel.
- Do you remember the trials? - Yeah, well, it was over dunes, over hillocks.
lt was through wet ground.
lt was through the sea itself sometimes.
- Yeah? - Oh, yeah, splashing up everywhere.
As a youngster growing up, it must have been a very exciting time with all these inventions and ideas.
Yeah, well, Dad was always interested in something, you know.
l mean, it might be astronomy, or it could be electrical things, but he really developed a vehicle that was useful for him.
He felt there was a need to have a vehicle that would do more than just what a car would do.
lt would be a farmer's vehicle as well as being something which would be useful for the more sort of general public.
The first time the public saw the Land Rover was at the Amsterdam Motor Show in 1 948, and it was a big hit.
By 1 959, a quarter of a million had been sold.
At the peak of its popularity, over 50,000 Land Rovers a year were produced.
Early on, canny Maurice Wilks had his sights set on the military market.
By testing his new vehicle on the beach, he showed the British Army it could cope with desert conditions.
During the trials, Maurice fine-tuned the Land Rover's design, stripping it back to basics, just as we've done with our early example.
- Here we go.
- (Engine starts) With the bodywork removed, the genius of Wilks'design is laid bare, starting with the strong box-chassis.
lt gave the vehicle great stability over all terrain, and the chassis was complemented by another innovation - permanent four-wheel drive.
Four-wheel drive means the power from the engine goes to all four wheels all the time, which means it's really difficult to get stuck.
lt was also a do-anything vehicle.
We're talking drivability and practicality.
Here is a powered take-off, which means that farmers could drive agricultural machinery.
The Land Rover wasn't just perfected on this beach, it was born here on the day in 1 947 that Maurice Wilks drew his sketch in the sand.
Skirting North Wales, we're on the final leg of our tour to discover the curious comings and goings on this coast.
For thousands of years, copper from the Great Orme was sent around Britain and beyond.
Later, human cargo came in at Llandudno pier.
Tourist boats bringing visitors on ''kiss me quick'' adventures.
All along this porous shore there's been a constant to-ing and fro-ing.
But at our final stop on the Dee Estuary, it's another story.
You find something that's not going anywhere.
Many people making their way along this shore must have wondered what on earth is going on with this ship.
But very few get this close.
She's sat on this site since 1 979.
Remember the '70s? Life was somewhat slower paced.
Especially on Sunday.
(Church bells ringing) Every day is like Sunday Shopping on the Sabbath was seen as something of a sin.
For retailers, every seventh day was an opportunity going begging.
But did it have to be? l just happen to have here a copy of the Shops Act 1 950.
The provisions of this Act used to forbid most shops from trading on a Sunday.
But maybe there was a loophole.
lt says here in part 4 Section 56 sub-section 6, ''The foregoing provisions of this part of this Act shall not apply to any sea-going ship.
'' So perhaps if you got yourself a ship and set it up as a shop, you could open on a Sunday.
(Blast of horn) So the Duke Of Lancaster found herself being towed into place in August 1 979, to become a visitor attraction and a shopping centre.
Alan D'Arcy didn't just work on board - the ship was his home.
- Follow me, Nick.
- lt's quite eerie, isn't it? lt is, yes.
lt feels like a ghost ship.
What used to happen in here? This was a market deck area.
All the traders would rent so much space to sell their wares, andthis is where they'd be.
The traders moved on years ago, but the ship is stuck in the past.
Following a series of planning disputes, this shop on the sea ceased trading.
But those who love this old girl can't let go.
(Echoing ticking) This is the Dolphin restaurant, Nick.
lt's gorgeous, isn't it? Yeah.
lt takes you back, doesn't it? l actually had my wedding reception in here.
- ln here? - ln here, yeah, in 1 982.
What did it look like? Like the Titanic, for want of a better word.
You've got to see her with all the tablecloths on and waitresses and food and people jollying .
.
beer and champagne.
lt was just like that.
NlCK: lt's just crying out for happy people.
- Help.
Crying out for help.
lt is crying out for help.
lt is sad she's sat here empty.
l would have liked to have seen her still open and working, instead of just sitting here waiting for something to happen to her.
- lt's become part of your life, hasn't it? - lt has, yeah.
l do get a little bit emotional, but we just have to wait and see what happens to her.
But that's because it's tied up in your life.
Ships aren't just lumps of metal, they have lives tied in with them.
- And names.
Lives and names.
- Yeah.
This is one of the most bizarre sights l've seen anywhere on the British coast.
A great white beached whale.
The Welsh coast does everything on a grand scale - its scenery, its wildlife, its spirit of enterprise and adventure, the ideas that ebb and flow with every age.
These shores have always been a window on a wider world on far horizons.
Oh, and there's one other thing - they're very welcoming too.
l'll be back.