Open Country

When Donald Campbell died on Coniston Water in Cumbria in January 1967, attempting to break his own water speed record it was, to many people, the end of an era. Many would always remember where they were when the images of Bluebird K7, the jet hydroplane he was piloting, crashing and disintegrating on the lake appeared on TV screens and the story broke across the world.In March 2001, after 34 years underwater, Donald Campbell’s ill-fated craft was raised from the deep by wreck-finder and engineer, Bill Smith. Later that year, at the request of Donald’s daughter Gina, his remains were also recovered - and in September 2001 he was finally laid to rest in the churchyard at Coniston. A painstaking restoration project began and in 2026, over 20 years after she was raised from the depths, Bluebird is set to finally return to Coniston Water.Caz Graham visits Coniston Water to discover what Bluebird means to the Lake District as she returns to the water 70 years after Donald Campbell set the water speed record in 1956.Producer: Helen Lennard

Britain's roadside verges rarely get much attention, but can play host to a whole range of plant and animal species. In this programme Martha Kearney finds out about this overlooked habitat. She meets a community group in East Sussex whose members grow plants at home specially to plant in the verges of their village, and talks to the charity Plantlife about the importance of verges as an environmental habitat. She goes out exploring with artist Nessie Ramm, who focuses on painting the tiny details of roadside verges, and who last year won the New English Art Club Climate Emergency prize for her work entitled 'Reduce Speed Now'. Producer: Emma Campbell

Martha Kearney visits one of the UK’s earliest environmental restoration projects. Southern Scotland was once covered in broadleaf woodland, rich scrub, heath and bog. That was before sheep, humans and conifers took hold. Now a group of visionary volunteers are restoring that landscape in what they call the ‘wild heart of southern Scotland’.Set in a 1600 acre glacial valley in lowland Scotland, Carrifran Wildwood is the first tranche of a wider restoration area which aims to wheel back six thousand years. The idea is to recreate the primeval forest that proliferated back then. It will act as a carbon sink, a flood mitigator and a generator of biodiversity.The planting schedule is drawn from a catalogue created from evidence in the ancient peat bog. Unlike other ‘rewilding’ projects, Carrifran Wildwood aims to exclude human beings from this valuable space, an unusual step which the founders see as crucial to its success.Producer: Mary Ward-Lowery

Martha Kearney visits Wallasea Island in Essex, the largest manmade coastal nature reserve in Europe. It was created from the 3 million tonnes of London clay that were excavated in the digging out of the Elizabeth Line. The RSPB project used soil from the Crossrail scheme to raise the land, and flood almost 170 hectares of arable land to create saltmarsh, mudflats and lagoons. This was to mitigate for land loss as sea levels rise and it’s the only place that has raised land in order to bring the sea back. It’s the largest complex of saline lagoons in the UK. The project tells an unusually positive story about adapting to climate change and coastal erosion before it happens, for the benefit of nature. Martha goes to see the waders and waterbirds that now over-winter there.Producer: Beth O'Dea

Martha Kearney visits the unique cave dwellings at Kinver Edge that were lived in until the 1960s. Cosy cottages were built into the soft red sandstone with windows and doors and families lived in them for generations. Martha looks around a cottage which has been restored as it was when it was lived in and hears about the family that lived there. She also finds out about the heathland restoration project which is bringing rare wildlife back to this valuable sandscape. And she meets Brett Westwood to try and track some of it down.Producer Beth O'Deahttps://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/shropshire-staffordshire/kinver-edge-and-the-rock-houses

It's an ancient hunting ground with thousands of 'veteran' trees. Henry VIII visited often as it was the seat of the Seymour Family at nearby Wolfhall. Martha visits the forest to learn about its past as well as how ecologist Andy Harris and forester Nikki Morgans manage this special site and aim to 'future proof' it protecting the ancient trees and wildlife for the next thousand years. Historian Graham Bathe helps her measure one of the thousand year old trees and Emma Heard who produces the Weird Wiltshire blog recounts tales of hauntings from the forest.Producer: Maggie Ayre

Have you ever heard of a black poplar? You've probably seen one, at least in a painting, even if you didn't recognise it as such. The black poplar is Britain's most endangered tree, and features in Constable's famous work, The Hay Wain. Martha Kearney is in Suffolk to see black poplars at Flatford Mill, the location in the painting, and to talk to botanical artist Ruth Wharrier about painting from nature. With tree wardens David Appleton and Fe Morris, Martha surveys new trees on the riverbank nearby. She finishes by visiting a new clone bank of trees at Jimmy's Farm, which are thriving between the wolves and polar bears. Without active support, this native British tree could disappear from our countryside altogether. Suffolk Tree Warden Network: https://www.suffolktreewardens.org.uk https://ruthwharrier.com https://www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org/adult-learning/botanical-artProducer: Beth O'Dea

Halfway between Orkney and Shetland, Fair Isle is one of Britain’s most isolated inhabited islands. It's famous for knitting and birds, and those still form the basis of the island's economy, as Martha Kearney discovers.As an inviting rock in the North Atlantic it’s a magnet for migratory birds, with exhausted individuals blown off course regularly adding to a long list of unusual species recorded by the local bird observatory. Martha joins the island’s Head of Ornithology, Alex Penn, to ring some visitors and sit for a while with Britain’s friendliest colonies of puffin.French knitwear designer, Marie Brahat introduces Martha to her flock of sheep and gives her a lesson in turning their wool into the unique designs of Fair Isle knitwear. School teacher Jonathan Pye is the newest arrival on the island, currently dealing with a school roll of just two pupils - brothers Luca and Anders.Producer: Alasdair Cross

Martha Kearney discovers the Ice Age ponds in Norfolk, called pingos, which are being brought back to life, and provide a home for the Northern Pool Frog. It's the UK's rarest amphibian and had become extinct in this country, but it's now breeding there again and Martha is keen to see one. With 400 pingos, Thompson Common is the most important site for pond wildlife in the country and also holds a precious store of seeds.Norfolk Wildlife Trust: https://www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/ThompsonCommonFind out more about The Pingo Trail Walk: https://www.explorenorfolkuk.co.uk/pingo-trail.htmlWork supported by Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme.Producer: Beth O'Dea

Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire is one of the few remaining fragments of England’s original fenland. A place loved by naturalists for generations, it was Victorian botanists and entomologists who led the efforts to ensure the land was entrusted to the National Trust, which has protected it for 125 years. Today, Wicken Fen is a thriving mosaic of flowering meadows, sedge and reedbeds. It is one of the most species-rich areas in Britain, home to endangered species such as the crane, bittern, marsh harrier and great crested newt. Martha Kearney explores the unique history and ecology of this remarkable landscape alongside sound artist Kathy Hinde. Together, they craft a handheld aeolian harp – a stringed instrument played solely by the wind. Kathy Hinde has created sound sculptures across Wicken Fen to celebrate 125 years of this special place, called 'Listen to the Voices of the Fen'.Martha also meets local volunteer Gerard Smallwood, who demonstrates how the last surviving wooden windpump in the Fens, an iconic piece of machinery, is now used to re-wet the land. Ajay Tegala, a National Trust warden, shares recent wildlife sightings, offering a glimpse into the lives that flourish in this delicate ecosystem. Producer: Eliza Lomas

Helen Mark visits the port of Bristol – finding out how it changed the local landscape, and how the landscape in turn shaped it. She learns how and why Bristol became a port city in the first place and finds out about the creation of the floating harbour in 1809. She uncovers a tale of mud, the enemy of shipping, which scuppered the port’s ability to take on larger ships, resulting eventually in its move down to the mouth of the river in 1873. Helen visits the historic Underfall boat yard, which was badly damaged in an arson attack two years ago, but is now gradually returning to its former glory. She finds out how the modern port has managed to carve out spaces for wildlife, learns how it still continues to change the landscape today, and hears about plans to build a “compensatory” nature reserve further down the coast.Contributors include:Tiggy Latcham - Bristol Ferry Company Sarah Murray - Director, Underfall Yard Anne Hayes - Head of Environment and Sustainability, The Bristol Port Company Lucy Taylor - Deputy Environment & Sustainability Manager, The Bristol Port Company John Chaplin - Director of External Affairs and Special Projects at The Bristol Port Company Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton

Helen Mark hears the story of how the ancient Epping Forest was fought for, and saved by, the people of East London. In the late 19th century, Epping Forest was threatened with enclosures. As elsewhere in Britain, local landowners were selling off common land for farming or building developments. But local people fought back. Beginning with a Loughton man, Thomas Willingale, who continued to assert his commoner rights to lop trees for firewood, the groundswell of protest later became thousands of working class East Enders gathering on Wanstead Flats - the area closest to the city of London. The land of Epping Forest was eventually bought by the City of London Corporation, and with the Epping Forest Act of 1878, was forever saved from more enclosures. As Queen Victoria declared in 1882, "It gives me great satisfaction to dedicate this beautiful forest for the use and enjoyment of my people for all time”.Part of the responsibility of the new conservators of the forest, the City of London, was to look after and protect the forest for both people and wildlife. Helen Mark hears from those who job it is to carry that out, including Senior Epping Forest Keeper Martin Whitfield and Head of Conservation Tanith Cook. She also speaks to local historian, Georgina Green - author of 'Keepers, Cockneys and Kitchen Maids: Memories of Epping Forest, 1900-25', a book about the forests' eventful past, who also talks about her own memories of the place. And finally Luke Turner, author of 'Out of The Woods', who lives on the forest border talks about the myriad ways humans and Epping Forest are entwined.Produced by Eliza Lomas, BBC Audio Bristol.

The Sefton coastline stretches for around twenty miles between Liverpool and Southport. It has one of the largest sand dune systems in the country, but is also one of the fastest-eroding shorelines, shifting back by around four metres ever year. In this programme, Martha Kearney visits Sefton to explore the ways in which this ever-changing landscape has been shaped by both human activity and the elements. She walks along Blitz Beach, where rubble was dumped from buildings destroyed when Bootle and Liverpool were bombed during World War II, and finds out how this has affected erosion over the decades since then. She learns about the treacherous sands of Crosby, where the famous Antony Gormley sculptures on the beach have proved a huge tourist attraction, but where an RNLI lifeguard explains how it is all too easy for unwary visitors to get stuck in the quicksand and mud. A few miles further up the coast at Formby, she finds out how work is going on to restore degraded sand dunes and goes out looking for sand lizards with one of the National Trust rangers. She asks what the future holds for this coastline, with its diverse wildlife habitats and fascinating history.Producer: Emma Campbell Assistant producer: Jo Peacey