1 Faringdon and the Major Oak
2 Antiques
3 Dunkerton Cider
4 Market Harborough, Longhorns and Spring Foray
5 Steam Engines, Baker, Quinoa
6 Lincolnshire
7 Ploughing and Summer Solstice
8 Ospreys and Cormorants
9 Herm Island
10 Ludlow
11 Staffordshire
12 Tenbury Wells
13 Vintage Cars, Moths and Goats Cheese
14 Hobby Farmers and Studley
15 Stilton and Northants Stone
16 Felix Dennis and Evergreen Rabbit Control
17 Churches and Great Wyrley
18,
19, Station B&B and River Arrow
20 River Arrow Pt2, The Talbot Farmers Market
21 Christmas Special

Heart of the Country Episode One transmitted 30/06/05

We kicked off the series with a visit to a delightful Midland’s town, which many people will never have visited.

Faringdon in Oxfordshire, has a long association with the English Civil War. The town was taken and retaken as it passed between the Royalist and Parliamentarian forces. Such was the ferociousness of the fighting, that the town’s church – All Saints – had the top of its steeple removed by a cannonball! We visited the ‘Faringdon Folly’ a 140ft tower erected by one Lord Berners atop Faringdon Hill. Built in 1935, it was is ‘newest’ folly to be built in the UK. The tower was restored in 1983, and opens up to the public on the first Sunday of the month between Easter and October.
For more on the town visit www.faringdon.org

Next we went to the Buscot Park, home Lord Faringdon, one Charles Henderson. Lord Faringdon still lives in the house, despite it being ‘owned’ by the National Trust, It is home to one the greatest private art collections in the UK. The house is open between March and October. For more visit www.buscot-park.com

Finally we filmed a couple planting their own oak wood – using acorns taken from one of the most famous trees in the UK, the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest. John and Rosie Palmer, who now live in Dorset, gathered up 500 acorns from the ground around the Major Oak in the year 2000. They then proceeded to plant them up. The saplings have now grown, and been transferred to a 15 acre field the couple have bought. For more on their progress, visit their own website at www.eyemead.com/majoroak.htm

Heart of the Country Episode Two transmitted 14/07/05

We visited the number of members of the antiques trade to find out about the changing face of the business.

We featured an antiques expert named Julian Tatham-Loche, who runs the Top banana antiques in the Gloucestershire town of Tetbury. His premises feature a wide range of antiques businesses selling every possible item at every possible price.
For more on the company visit their website at www.topbananaantiques.com

With Julian we also visited an antiques fair down in Sussex. There are a number of fairs for dealers around the country, run by the organisers DMG Antiques. The company organisers fairs across the year, in all parts of the country. For more information visit their website at www.dmgantiquefairs.com

This programme featured two very different aspects of rural life – the summer solstice and the annual ploughing match!

Stanton Moor in Derbyshire is a bronze age burial ground, with traces of 70 stone cairns and several stone circles. The best preserved of the stones is the ‘Nine Ladies Circle’, which becomes the centre of attention for ceremonies such as the solstice every June and December for the celebration of the longest and shortest days of the year. For more on the moor got to www.stantonmoor.co.uk

We also visited the annual National Ploughing Championships where the fight is on to plough the straightest furrow possible with either tractor or horse. When we filmed, the championships were being held on the Berkshire/Oxfordshire border close to the village of South Stoke. The event is held every year around the first week in October. For more on the ploughing scene and details of events large and small visit the website of the ‘Society of Ploughmen’, at www.ploughmen.co.uk

This week’s edition took a look at two contrasting birds, one thriving against the wishes of many, and another being coaxed back from the brink of extinction – the cormorant and the osprey.

Since 1996 Rutland Water has been the site of a major project to reintroduce the fish-loving Osprey to England. The bird had died out in England, and was hanging on in Scotland. A decision was taken to bring Osprey chicks down from Scotland to Rutland Water in the hope that when the birds migrated to Africa for the winter, they would return to Rutland to breed. And they did. But the work with the Ospreys goes on and on, with continuous tracking and monitoring of their every move. The birds tend to return to Rutland Water in March/April time, and leave for Africa again in September/October. Across the summer the reservoir runs a number of boat trips out on the water to watch the birds in action. For more on the project go to www.ospreys.org.uk

Cormorants are equally proficient catchers of fish, in fact they are to good for most irate fishermen. The cormorant is a sea-bird which has been drawn inland by the ready supply of fish to be found in manmade lakes. Tony spoke to fish farmers who want to be allowed to cull the cormorants, which they claim are damaging their livelihoods.

If asked to name one of the Channel Islands, its safe to say that most of us would not think of the tiny island of Herm – our subject this week.

Tony travelled over to Herm from Guernsey to meet the many Midlanders who have made Herm their home. Herm has a population of only 50 people which rises when the ‘summer season’ to cater for the tourists which take the daytrip boat over from Guernsey to visit the tranquil beaches. Until 1949, Herm was uninhabited. It was brought by Peter and Jenny Wood, who began to establish a community on the island, bringing it back to life. Now it has a hotel, pub, shop and even a school – with pupils taught by a teacher who takes the boat over from Guernsey everyday.Often jobs are advertised to work on Herm for the summer, something which many of the permanent residents did when they first fell in love with the island.

For more on visiting, working and living on Herm visit www.herm-island.com

These weirs are a legacy of Ludlow’s past industrial heritage, powering the mills which processed flour, wool and cloth. And now the weirs are being restored, restoration work involving damning up half the river to get right down to the river bed – and with the onset of winter work has to be completed any potential flooding.

For more on visiting Ludlow go to www.ludlow.org.uk

We also visited Rudyard Lake, which is located close to the village of, you’ve guessed it, Rudyard north of Leek.

For those wondering about any Kipling connection, there is indeed a very strong one, for the parents of the famous author visited Rudyard Lake before moving to India. Recalling the beautiful Staffordshire spot their named their son after it. Rudyard Kipling himself never visited the lake.

For more on Rudyard Lake go to www.rudyardlake.com/index.htm

Tony also travelled to meet Francis Fitzherbert – alias Lord Stafford. He lives in the county that his title bears, at the village of Swynnerton close to the town of Stone.

He took Tony on a tour of his estate, including around his plantation of elephant grass, which he is currently growing. The grass can be bailed and burnt to produce energy. It is ‘carbon neutral’, and also will reappear from the ground year on year like a daffodil.

Finally Tony was in the Staffordshire village of Farewell, north of Lichfield, to try and discover just how it got its name. The village of Farewell has a rather bland derivative to its name. It originates from Fagerwell, meaning ‘Pleasant spring or stream’ in Olde English!

As the name indicated this sleepy market town attempted to cash in on the Victorian craze for Spas, by opening up its own ‘pump rooms’ complete with special bathing areas.

But the spa water was disgusting to drink, and Tenbury had come on the spa scene to late – the likes of Harrogate, Bath, Leamington and Cheltenham dominated the spa town market.

Tony met up with engineer and all-round Tenbury man John Weston. John has built his own hotel, golf-course, lake and fountain and is now building his own mill, why? Well why not?

For more on the hotel John built you can visit the website at www.cadmorelodge.co.uk/pages/index.asp

The countryside continues to change pace, we met a group of Lincolnshire based Czech builders who have come over to the UK, to help meet the shortage of skilled workers in Britain.

Tony Francis looked at the world of vintage cars, moths and goats cheese – talk about variety!

We featured a group of petrol heads named the Vintage Car Club. The club is based in Gloucestershire, and membership is open to any car owner – as long as their car was built before 1930! We filmed at the highlight of the group’s year, the Prescott Hill Climb. This event, which takes place close to the village of Gotherington near Cheltenham, features cars zooming up a hill track against the clock. The event has snowballed in popularity, and become something of a social gathering. For more on the club please contact them via their website at www.vscc.co.uk

We also filmed with a volunteer at Rutland Water, whose passion are moths. During the summer months, the best time of the year, John Wright sits through the night with his moth traps, identifying the huge number of species which can be found in the UK.

There are a number of local moth groups across the country which hold regular meetings and ‘mothing’ nights throughout the summer. For a guide to Britain’s moths and links to local groups close to you, visit the UK Moths website at http://ukmoths.org.uk/

Finally we featured a couple making some award winning goats cheese – from organic Anglo-Nubian Goats - on the Nottinghamshire/Leicestershire border. The couple have not been long in their cottage industry, but already they have won awards at numerous cheese festivals. The producers are called Skylark Hill Goats, near the village of Upper Broughton. For more on the company visit their website at www.skylarkhillgoats.co.uk

Tony Francis enters the world of John and Sarah Hall – who describe themselves as ‘continental hobby farmers’ based in Oxfordshire.

Every week day John treks to ‘The City’, leaving Sarah behind to care for the many rare breeds of stock which live on the farm. Amongst them are Berkshire Pigs. Sarah and John are among only a handful of breeders of the Berkshire pigs left. The breed is listed by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, and there are under 400 breeding sows left in the UK. Ironically the best way of ensuring the breeds survival is to eat them – the more demand there is for the meat from these farm animals, the less ‘rare’ they will become. The Halls also keep, British White Cattle, and Suffolk ‘Punch’ Horses – of which there are only 70 breeding females left in the UK. Thousands of the horses existed just in East Anglia after the First World War. Mechanisation – particularly in the flatlands of East – hit the breed hard, and hundreds of horses were slaughtered, with numbers replaced only by tractors not new stock.

For more on rare breeds visit the Rare Breeds Survival Trust website at www.rare-breeds.com or call them on 024 7669 6551. The site also list various approved butchers selling meat from rare breeds.

For more on the Berkshire Pig, visit the Berkshire Pig Breeders Club website at www.berkshirepigs.org.uk

We also met two vicars in the Wawrwickshire village of Studley, where, as we showed, they sometimes perform baptisms in the river which flows close to the village church. For more on the church go to their website at www.studleychurch.org.uk

Freddie De Lisle is the owner of Quenby Hall, close to the hamlet of Hungarton in Leicestershire. Heart of the Country visited Freddie back in 2003, when he was launching his own herd of pedigree longhorn cattle. Back then he revealed to Tony that Stilton cheese was first made in the parlour at Quenby Hall hundreds of years ago.

‘Why not do it again now?’ ventured Tony. So he did!

One addition of some modern cheese making facilities later we returned to Quenby Hall to see just how Freddie’s foray into the world of the grandest cheese of them all was going. The answer was very well thank you – the first batches of Quenby Stilton are fast approaching maturity, and will hit the shelves in late 2005/early 2006.

Stilton is of course one of those cheese which is geographical by nature, and can only be made within certain areas of Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. Why then is it named after a village on the Great North Road in Northamptonshire. The answer lies at The Bell Inn at the village of Stilton. The then landlord, one Cooper Thornhill, took delivery of some cheese made by his housekeepers sister in Leicestershire. He then began selling it at his Inn which lay on the busy coaching route. The talk amongst the travellers was of this marvellous ‘Stilton’ cheese – and the name stuck.

We also travelled to the Northants town of Oundle to meet the owners of one of the most successful boating companies in the world – despite being in landlocked Northamptonshire. Fairline boats is their name, and if you have a few million to spare, then their top of the range boats will be well within your reach!

For more on the company go to www.fairline.com

Tony Francis took a look into the world of rabbits on this week’s ‘Tales from the Country’.

Rabbits are not native animals of the UK, as it is thought they were introduced to the country by the Romans. Inevitably they escaped their confines, and colonised Britain. For the last 200 years man has seen the rabbit as a adversary to do battle with, as the animal can cause extensive crop damage. In 1954, a flea-carried virus called myxomatosis was introduced to the wild rabbit population and this killed more than 95% of Britain's rabbits. However, rabbits are once again more common, having developed a resistance to the virus, although populations in some areas are occasionally affected by new strains of the virus. The breeding speed of the rabbit is legendary, each female, the doe, can have up to 20 offspring a year. And these youngsters will all reach a breeding age themselves when only four months old. Tony went out in the field with a company called ‘Evergreen Rabbit Control’, who take a traditional approach to the problem of rabbit numbers. Rather than gassing the animals, they use ferrets, dogs, long-nets and rifles to try and keep on top of the population. It’s a 24 hour a day, 365 day year operation.

For more on the company, you can visit their website at
www.evergreenrabbitcontrol.co.uk

Tony also went to home of publisher Felix Dennis. Dennis is one of the richest men in the country, after making a fortune through his publishing business. Now he is spending some of his money creating a brand new forest around Warwickshire. His plan is to buy up hundreds of acres of land and plant as many native trees as possible to create a brand new 30,000 acre woodland. For more on the man, his poems and his planting plans visit www.felixdennis.com

Tony Francis visited some of the more unusual churches around the Midlands this week. He began in Herefordshire, in the village of Shobdon. From the outside the village church seems unremarkable, but inside tells a very different story. The church was on land owned by the Bateman family, and the then Squire of the time ordered the church to be knocked down – leaving only the tower.

The Squire thought the interior was so beautiful that he wished to see it from his home, so had the arches brought outside and placed atop a hill where he could admire them. In its place he had to build a new church. The style of the day was ‘gothic’, and the squire created an all-white ‘strawberry gothick’ interior which is still dazzling to this day.
For more on the church go to www.shobdonchurch.org.uk

Tony also visited nearby Pembridge, over the border in Shropshire. Here the church is deemed unusual as it has no bell tower – instead the bells are placed in their own tower on the ground adjacent to the church. One theory as to why this is so lies in the location of Pembridge – border country. The marauding Welsh would often pay a visit, and the bell tower could offer both sanctuary and an early warning system!
For more on the church go to www.pembridgechurch.org.uk

Tony also visited the smallest Baptist church in the country in the Lincolnshire village of Hacconby. It was built in 1867 and is the smallest galleried chapel of worship in England, being only 24 ft long and a mere 13 ft 6 in wide. It was originally intended to seat only 100 people on the ground floor but due to a mistake by the builder, it was finished 18 inches smaller in width and to make up for the lost seating room, he added two galleries facing each other. They were so close together that worshippers could actually shake hands with each other, if they so wished.

Finally Tony was in the Staffordshire village of Great Wyrley to tell the amazing true life story of George Edlaji. Back in the early 1900’s, George, the local vicar’s son, was accused of heinous crimes – including the maiming of farm animals. George’s father was a parsi from India, and was subject to terrible racism. George was found guilty of the crimes and was sent to jail. An outcry ensued, and Arthur Conan Doyle took up the case to prove George’s innocence. Eventually George was released – but never pardoned. The case was revived by award winning author Julian Barnes, in his book Arthur & George, nominated for this year’s Booker Prize.

For more about the castle visit their website at www.studleycastle.com

The River Arrow cuts straight through the town, which lies around 8 miles to the west of Stratford Upon Avon. The town itself has many medieval buildings and makes a great place for visitors wanting to escape the crowds in Stratford!

Tony also visited a hotel which lies directly next to the river named The Arrow Mill Hotel. Owner Dennis even took Tony for a spin above Warks in his helicopter! For more about the hotel visit it their website at www.arrowmill.com

Farmers markets are now common sites in towns and cities across the UK. One of the first was set up by the amazing Clift family who own and run The Talbot Inn at the village of Knightwick in Worcestershire. Sisters Annie and Wiz Clift are in charge (with help from their mum Jean) and the trio have honed the pub and the market into something special. Cakes, wines, eggs, honey, cheese and game are just some of the items on offer at the monthly markets held right next door to the pub. The Xmas market takes place on Sunday 11th of Dec 2005 at 11am. All other markets are held on the second Sunday of each month.

For more on the Talbot and/or the markets call the pub direct on 01886 821235 or visit their website at www.the-talbot.co.uk

In the company of Worcestershire’s rural minister Robert Barlow, who was leading the ‘on-site’ harvest festivals, we also visited The Swan Inn at Birlingham.

For more on that pub visit www.theswaninn.co.uk

It is still the most popular bird with the public to this day.