Kingfisher Television - Tales from the Country Factsheets

Kingfisher Television Tales from the Country 2005 Factsheets

	Tales from the Country 2005 Episode Two Information for ‘Tales from the Country’ Ep 2. TX date 7.30pm 13th Jan 05. Tony Francis travelled to the Wiltshire/Berkshire border, in search of a rare and expensive fungus – the English Truffle. Truffles – much sought after in Italy and France – add an exotic flavour to oils and pasta dishes around the world. The truffles were discovered last year by a local farming couple, and, after being sent for analysis at Kew Gardens, were declared to be the ‘English Black Summer Truffle’. Chef Roger Jones, who runs The Harrow restaurant in the village of Little Bedwyn bought a batch of the truffles and placed them on the menu. Tony filmed with Roger at the restaurant for the programme. The summer truffle has a nutty, crisp texture, and, should you be lucky enough to find one, Roger advises they should be gently warmed through and instantly served up on warm bread drizzled with olive oil. Truffles are normally sought using pigs or dogs, which sniff out these delicacies. Pigs are used much less these days, as they have a penchant for eating, as well as finding the truffles! For more on The Harrow restaurant call them direct on 01672 870 871, The Harrow Inn, Little Bedwyn, Nr. Marlborough or visit their website at www.harrowinn.co.uk Tony also filmed with Fred J Taylor, cooking crayfish and Rainbow Trout – both alien species imported from America - caught in Shardeloes Lake near Amersham in Buckinghamshire. The lake is privately owned, lying on the Shardeloes Estate, through which runs the River Misbourne.

	Tales from the Country Episode Three Information for Tales from the Country Prog 3 – 20.1.05. Old Welwyn and Old Hemel. After the First World War, the Government was under pressure to build a land fit for hero’s. The concept of the ‘Garden City’, a place bringing together the best of town and country, was born. But what of the villages these places engulfed, and took their names from? Tony Francis went in search of the ‘old’ heart of the new towns. Tony travelled to Welwyn Village, where he visited The White Hart Hotel, an old coaching inn right next to the Great North Road which past through the village. The hotel is currently being renovated, ready to reopen in May 2005. For more on the hotel visit www.thewhiteharthotel.net Tony also met local archaeologist Tony Rook, who discovered the remains of a roman bath house directly under the A1! The site is now a museum, and is open at the weekends between 2-5pm, and during the same hours throughout the week during the school holidays. Admission is £1 for adults, children no charge. For more call 01707 271362 or visit www.hertsmuseums.org.uk/welwyn-roman-baths Laura Martin visited Hemel Hempstead, which was designated as a ‘New Town’ in 1949, yet has a church dating back to 1140! Laura visited the small, yet perfectly formed, Museum of Technology – with exhibits ranging from telephones, batteries to medical coils! The museum is privately run, and visitors are more than welcome by appointment. Call 01442 262541 for more details. Laura also visited the Boxmoor Trust, a charitable trust which manages 450 acres of amenity land, woodland and agricultural holdings within Hemel Hempstead and Bovingdon. The land has been held in trust since 1594, and is still used by ‘commoners’ who exercise their right to graze cattle on the land. For more on the trust, call 01442 253300 or visit www.theboxmoortrust.org.uk
	Tales from the Country Episode Four Information for Tales from the Country Ep 4 – 27.01.05. Tony Francis and Laura Martin travelled to the British National Ploughing Championships held in October 2004 held at South Stoke near Goring on the Berkshire/Oxfordshire border. Ploughmen and women – some farmers, some not - from across the UK and Europe arrive at the annual competition, to see just who can plough the straightest furrows with either tractor or horse power. He talks to the current world champion about what makes a perfect ploughman, and hears from expert horsewoman Ann Williams about the vagaries of using horsepower. The next national championships will be held on the 8th and 9th of October 2005, at Soham in Cambridgeshire. For more information on ploughing and dates of up coming events visit the website of the Society of Ploughmen at www.ploughmen.co.uk or call 01302 852 469. Tony also joined the ploughmen we filmed with named Ian Victor-Smith. As a sideline to his farming business, he runs horse-drawn carriage trips around pubs in the local area, close to his village of Nettlebed, near Henley on Thames. These so-called ‘Pint to Pint’ trips, involve trekking around the local villages and taking a drink in the various pubs around the area The trip often passes along tracks through the nearby Warburg Nature Reserve. For more information about the trips, you can contact Ian directly at Darkwood Farm on 01491 641 324.
	Tales from the Country Episode Five Tales From the Country Factsheet – Prog 5 - 3.2.05 Tony Francis travelled this week to the Hertfordshire/Buckinghamshire border, onto the Ashridge Estate to investigate how the forest’s wild deer population and the thousands of passing commuters exist side by side. The estate covers some 5000 acres of land, managed by the National Trust, and is home to a large fallow deer population. Every year £11m worth of damage is done to vehicles involved in collisions with deer, and with the forest being criss-crossed by busy commuter routes, Ashridge is a hot spot for such collisions. The Ashridge Estate is based close to Ringshall, Berkhamsted. For more on the estate contact the National Trust on 01442 851 227. Or visit their website at www.nationaltrust.org.uk Tony met with deer expert Dr Jochen Langbein to escort him around the estate, and fill him in on the problems and solutions to preventing high incidence of deer deaths. He runs the Deer Collisions website investigating the extent of the problem. For more go to www.deercollisions.co.uk Lee Evans is a legend in the bird watching world. Such is his dedication to ‘birding’, Lee has driven over one million miles to see his quarry, has lost an eye in an accident on his way to try and see a rare spieces, and slipped away from his own wedding reception after only half an hour to Dorset to see a bird. Tony Francis travelled with Lee on one of his organised tours of Scotland, with the goal being to tick off as many rare species of bird as possible. The groups main quarry was the capercaillie, a variety of grouse which occupies the Scottish Pine Forests, and often displays for 6 weeks a year around April. These tours are not for relaxing, as Lee will travel thousands of miles, hopping from glen to glen to give his paying passengers what they want – a sight of that rare bird. Lee runs trips all over the world, and has written numerous books about the Birds of the UK and beyond. For more on Lee you can visit his website at www.uk400clubonline.co.uk/meetlee.htm
	Tales from the Country Episode Six Tales From the Country Factsheet – Ep 6 10.2.05. The Medway Part 1. In his first part of a trip down the River Medway, a river which rises in the Sussex Hills and then flows for some 70 miles through the Kent Countryside out to the sea. Tony Francis sees the Leigh Barrier in action - a damn which controls the Medway when in full spate. The area had a historical flooding problem. One of the worst hit in 1968, when peoples belongings floated down the streets of Tonbridge. Hever Castle was under several feet of water. The barrier was built in 1981, with the dam measuring 1.3km across. It is thought the barrier has averted flooding on average twice a year since it was built. In Oct 2000 the barrier faced its stiffest test. On an average Autumn day, the flow is about 20 cubic meters of water per second – some 80 bathfuls. In Oct 2000 the flow was 13 times that amount. Water levels rose 1.2 inches per minute. The defences worked, and the streets of Tonbridge were in stark contrast to those scenes in 1968. For more visit: www.environmentagency. gov.uk/regions/southern/202391/124016/?lang=_e Tony also travels further downstream to Aylesford – reputed to be the oldest continually inhabited place in the UK. He dropped into The Little Gem, - the smallest pub in Kent. The Little Gem was built in 1106, and is the smallest pub in Kent. It is claimed that one New Years Eve, the pub crammed 200 people inside! The most the current management have had is 80-100. The Pub can be found on the High Street. For more contact the pub on 01622 717 510. The age of the village is also shown by some other inhabitants of the High Street – a group of Carmelite Monks who live at The Aylesford Friary The Friars first came to Aylesford in the 13th Century, but left after the dissolution under Henry VIII. They returned in 1949, and when the monks returned so did many pilgrims. The site is now a permanent home for the monks, and a temporary one for both pilgrims and those on retreat. Regular outdoor Sunday services are also held at the Friary. For more you can visit their website at www.thefriars.org.uk or call 01622 717272.
	Tales from the Country Episode Seven Factsheet – Tales from the Country Ep 7 – Eccentric Hobby Farmers. Tony Francis enters the world of John and Sarah Hall – who describe themselves as ‘continental hobby farmers’ based in Berkshire. 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 the counties own swine, the Berkshire Pig. Sarah and John are among only a handful of breeders of the Berkshire pigs left in the county which gave it its name. 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
	Tales from the Country Episode Eight Factsheet – Tales from the Country Ep 8 – The Medway Prt 2 Tony Francis concludes his trip down the River Medway, travelling down its lower reaches as it winds out towards the Sea. He begins with a visit to the village of Wouldham, which sits on the banks of the river. Every year, on Trafalgar Day, the children of the village gather in the churchyard to commemorate the life of Wouldham’s most famous son – Walter Burke. Burke was the Pursuer on Nelson’s Flagship the Victory, and fought in the Battle of Trafalgar. This year sees the 200th anniversary of the Battle, on the 21st of October when major events of commemoration will be happening. For more on the events planned click here http://www.seabritain2005.com/server.php?show=nav.004018 Ever wondered what happens to those newspapers which you have dutifully recycled? Many of them end up at Aylesford Newsprint, a huge recycling plant on the banks of the Medway. Here they produce 100% recycled paper – every year the company recycling 500,000 tonnes worth of newspaper. For more on their operation, click here http://www.aylesford-newsprint.co.uk Tony also takes to the water on the Kingswear Castle, a coal-fired paddle steamer. Built in 1927, the steamer has had a varied life – including as a boat used by the Americans during the war – she now travels up and down the Medway on pleasure trips across the summer. For more information about sailing dates, and times, and prices go to http://www.pskc.freeserve.co.uk/index.htm or call 01634 827 648. Tony also visits one of the largest operations in the UK – the Port at Sheerness, which handles thousands of tonnes of products which come off the ships arriving in Britain. One of the main products to arrive is fruits from around the world – including 100,000 tonnes of from bananas a year. Tony ends his journey on the Hoo Peninsula, the jutt of land above Rochester sandwiched between the Medway and the Thames. This was an area special to the heart of Charles Dickens, and inspiration for Great Expectations, including the prison ships which used to moor in the Medway’s estuary. Tony visited two villages – Cooling and High Halstow – both of whom lay claim to providing the setting for one passage in the book. In it Dickens talks of child graves in the churchyard, describing them as ‘lozenges’. Child mortality was high in the area thanks to the malaria or ague prevalent in the area. For more on the village and the Dickens connection click here http://recruitmentwarehouse.co.uk/highhalstow/dicken_story.htm