Wales and its Unknown Beauties | Free Documentary Nature

what do we know about Wales the small Celtic country and the southwest of Great Britain is supposed to be beautiful but also a bit sedate but instead Wales is full of lively people and wondrous transportation devices the tramway sneaks up the hills nutshells out of cowhide float down the river the baby blue castle slides over the water and Mars rovers roll along the beach [Music] the rugged coast of the crown [Music] there are strange noises at London or prominent they are made by Jason Miliband who's just entering his workplace it's show time why does Jason sound like a broken lead speaker - piece of silver reed instrument popping him out three times a day Jason performs the classic puppet play Punch and Judy bad mr. punch the kids are all upset [Music] while mr. punches up to mischief beats his wife and child cheats on everyone and even kills people Jason's mother Jacqueline collects the money they wouldn't believe that your Kasper was as naughty as our paint a few years ago they changed him to be a message on a stack even British visitors are sometimes irritated by the evilness of mr. punch but it's not that bad this is a slapstick okay so loud but it's not necessarily hard so it's not that hard so we don't know we have damaged them of course I damaged them but I fix them but I've learnt to be more gentle and that's a good thing as Jason's puppets are antiques cotton ins Punch and Judy is an old family business puppet stage and props are all originals for 154 years the box with its red and white stripes has been located at the promenade of London all the Queen of Welsh seaside resorts and over the years mr. punch hasn't become even the slightest bit nicer [Music] my great-great grandfather Richard cotton rise into Canada mama is in this horse and carriage horse drops that he thinks are what am I gonna do he puts Judy man all around the country doing pundit Judy thought I'll do a better yours on the beach get some wood together make some puppets makes the dresses start spongy econo in 1860 and that's Richard Kaufmann he showed 450 48 years up until his death in 1908 Punch and Judy at the beach a native British puppet show that is not necessarily suitable for children mr. punch gets away with everything his evil deeds defeat the police the hangman and even the devil children love this show and luckily Jason loved it too [Music] the only time I ever saw [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] he might get one complaints every two years and they say it's not right it's not right children shouldn't see punch hitting them with a circle or PA plate they shouldn't see the hangman come up to hang mr. punch but I think they can t give kids more credit kids know the difference it's a publisher and it's also heritage and my argument always is when you clean Shakespeare I will clean on Jujubee what we won't actually just carry on over stop [Applause] [Music] close to the Welsh English border a man who looks like a turtle with a cow's tail Peter Faulkner is the coracle man coracles are tiny wobbly Welsh boats Peter has been building them in his workshop for 27 years always with background music the 72 year old loves hard rock the villages of sleepy lanois dine are used to their neighbors heavy bass a sight from noise emissions Peter cares a lot for nature and his surroundings all the materials are sustainable so they do get the regrowth from my willow bed those are cut off at ground level the hides come from the butcher's next door and the Hazel woodland willow yeah that's it really if everything is found in the locality [Music] this ancient type of bolts has been common in many countries for more than 3,000 years but in Wales coracles are still in use traditionally or perhaps historically they've been used as a means of transport across rivers salt marsh but over the centuries they developed into boats for fishing and in West Wales they are used for netting salmon this obviously is as you said it is a club of course if you're catching fish before catching big salmon and they start jumping them out in the boat they're gonna cause trouble so this is the priest for dispatching the last bites to make the salmon stop jumping about anyway I think we spent a lifetime indoors there are many shapes of coracles depending on the river and nowadays they are also built out of fabric plastic or aluminum but Peter builds them traditionally out of cow skin one cow per coracle he leaves the tail connected it can serve as a shaving brush during camping getting a board isn't really elegant but once you're seated it's hard to capsize a coracle you move by scowling writing an eight in the water with the paddle in front of the boat but Peter enjoys drifting best I've done the rivers I've done the 760 miles 130 down the Thames 85 down the river spey some of the Shannon you just touched the bog and you just can't stop the 72 year old rock fan enjoys the peace and quiet on the water some of Peters Klein's share his other passion as well rockin coracles works beautifully special commission for a gentleman who was a famous rock star I'm going to deliver the lead singer of Led Zeppelin once a cowskin Boat Show Wales is located on the Irish Sea in the southwest of Great Britain the south of the country with its many mines and seaports has always been the industrial center the North is mainly rural and serene and there's a London no home of evil mr. punch it was planned and built by the large landowner Lord Mauston he wanted to build no less than the most beautiful seaside resort in Great Britain a strange little tramway was built in 1906 so that people could have a beautiful sight over the posh resort halfway station or change place the nice conductor with excellent manners is Martin's Idol he has a slight accent Oh fantastic okay boy the Great Orme tramway only transports people from town up to the scenic outpost the ancient trains are busier than ever a lot of work for Welshman by choice Martin [Music] at a distance of half a mile we drive 4,500 miles in eight months with our tramways you can imagine how often we go up and down during that period of time what goes up must come down Martin drives up to the passing point with a handbrake applied he only releases it once the trams have passed each other now will gain momentum as both trams are connected with one cable one pulls up the other Martin started early with the training for this job [Music] johnny mize I've always had model railways my wife bought me one for Christmas many years ago I set it up once a year around Christmastime running through the whole house and then I pack it up again when we need to vacuum clean we talked about the tramways route is split in two thank you okay at the lower route one of the trams has an axle fracture this means stress Martin needs to join the repair work tomorrow morning okay four seats left Martin loves his little Welch coastal trim but the Augsburg native struggles a bit with the British puppet show tradition I used to live in Augsburg old city not far from the famous traditional puppet theatre I saw Jim cannot back then and now I Drive a trim which is a great thing Punch and Judy is a bit too cruel for my taste [Music] in the north-west of wales lies the big island of Anglesey and close to angle C is a small island with a very small church st. coffins Ramey uns is the church warden Mass can only be celebrated if the tide is right ray is always the first one to prepare everything he's very proud that things always went well during Mass but sometimes the church is booked for wedding celebrations that's when things usually go wrong [Music] you'll always guess a lot of the family this will arrive with I don't know six inches heels on high-heeled shoes and think how they go to walk across the stones they also get them with fancy hats and if you saw the number of times I retrieved hats through out of the sea on a wedding day it's quite unremarkable because they get blown up and they don't understand any merit here the difference from getting married on the land it's a very remarkable we're going to the ancient Church in the sea stood here since about the 10th century and as you can see it's not easy to get here we have to come at low tide and I think it's coming in quite fast actually so I hope we get off Reverend Christine Loveland is also headed for Saint coffins it's a bit strange really they're attracted by the fact that it is an island and that the the church is off the island and it's got a special field [Music] [Music] when Christine prepares a sermon for the little Church in the sea she always needs to time it to fit the tide and everything they need must be transported here the church bell silverware and wine and where do they plug in the organ [Music] thank you very very rough day we're going to go through the service as quickly as possible so that you can all get off the island safely I hope the dress code for saint coffins is clearly defined the best suit and sturdy shoes masses held in two languages English and Welsh every few minutes ray needs to check whether the way back is still dry it starts to run from the left-hand side across it comes around very quickly I have to just be careful that we need time if necessary to get the people off the island christine administers the sacrament and the path is still clear it all went well this deserves a zip the congregation carefully reaches land on dry feet it'd be a bit awkward if we were here for a few hours no toilets no food no tea we difficult [Music] [Music] it's early morning in London Oh in the middle of the high season now of all times one of the town's main attractions has come to a halt the tramway the axle has been replaced but it still doesn't fit time for special tools you need to be a bit more resilient with these old things Martines idols still laughing but his boss John Platt makes a more serious face 3/4 and I will want to see it running by that time anything after that I'm grumpy one hour 45 that's tight the buckets simulate the weight of the 48 passengers testing the brakes hopefully the emergency brake works ok the car can now be positioned will do the brake test during the ride if that goes smoothly and everyone's happy we'll return the tram remove the ballast and switch to regular service again at the steepest point of the route the stopping distance shall not be more than 10 meters they simulate a broken cable as if the tram was pulled down by its own weight but the new brake doesn't connect emergency brake we've got it we'll change that yeah okay this one didn't drop it off so we're going to adjust it we're going to adjust it and do it all again John is starting to get a bit grumpy the second test runs perfectly Martin can return to work making the slum dude no visitors happy it's best if they don't know how little control the conductors of the great home tramway have over their vehicle there's only one big break at the double-acting winch in the middle I can stop the tram only via the red button or the black lever further than even the village what's even [Music] Peter Faulkner meets his friend cliff Benson in Fishguard an old fisherman's village on the western coast of Wales they built a very special boat together some years ago and it's got a leak now we'll catch up the boat is a curdle a seagoing version of the coracoid and then a run down inside and set and produce a waterproof it was needing fixing so we brought Peter here to help fix it he's come all the way from when Tamar Dean with his wheelbarrow and basically it's all hands to the to the ship now and we've got to get in the water as soon as possible Peter Faulkner usually only builds two small one-man coracles they are fine for rivers but useless on the open sea that's where the big corals come in but you need many helpers luckily cliff has many friends [Music] you ever been in a boat like this before no right well no one else has really except for people about 7,000 years ago [Music] this Kerbal was built four years ago as an archaeological experiment a team of volunteers built a seagoing boat out of cow skins and branches in ten days Peter even paddled from Ireland to Scotland in such a model her goal is spelled cwr wgl by the way as all the materials are organic these boats completely vanished into oblivion but people in ancient times must have been able to get to the islands traces were found in caves historically rock carvings found in no way an island depicting skin boats which are dated sort of 8,000 years ago the mythic period and they were trading around the British Isles possibly the continent trading stone axes and things like that so they must have been at the top of their technology [Music] [Applause] [Music] the South of Wales was characterized by hard labor Mining Works and the steel industry in former times the technical marvel was built to reach Newport Harbor the huge Newport transporter bridge with its floating ferry [Music] Thomas Givens could see the transporter bridge from his bedroom window as a child his biggest wish was to work here one day [Music] who's come down you're playing all the time I mean these kids I've lost 20 trainers in the mud I said I'll watch my brother hang on for the bottom of the bridge across the water how is he was feeling for his life like a movie okay baby I just thought you would be dead baby I can't go home and deal with my master oh it's an Ellen that would have been a much worse situation of falling in the river as the river asked has a tide of up to eight meters regular ferries couldn't be operated at low water levels and a regular bridge would have been way too long and high at its inauguration in 1906 the transporter bridge was celebrated like the eighth wonder of the world Martin Newman has been working at the transporter bridge for 19 years he's very proud of it we do some greasing I am I don't know if you know about it but this transporter bridge is the tallest transporter bridge in the world it's the longest spanning transporter bridge in the world and by putting this grease on here I am sell the fastest transporter bridge in the world this bridge where I work on what I look after is known as the Ferrari of transporter bridges Ferrari okay a few years ago the bridge was closed and renovated the cables were freshly taunton the 100 year old electric engines completely over old martin also played his part his colleagues and him had to climb up and down the 74 meters if they needed to pee on old photos martin discovered that there had been a toilet aloft once he rebuilt it as you see I stepped inside the toilet on the top of the bridge and if you look over by there there's a big gaping hole that's where you actually do actually use the toilet you actually do what you want to do my boss did tell me never to use the toilet as a bridge goes back and forth crossing I can understand why the men from the transporter bridge now care much more for their passengers than in earlier days and when [Music] for everyone working at the Newport transporter bridge it seems more of a relationship than a job it's like a living thing it actually talks you every day telling you if she's here or she's running well she Alice's like being with your wife [Music] when there's low tide in flannel eBay it really is low tide the sea retreats so much that it can hardly be seen anymore then it's time for the cockle Pickers they need to move fast now [Music] the guys are all dunks because they used to transport their catch with donkeys head donk is Glenn - this is Roman times they tell me but a physique and more commercial when the railroads give to and cloud probably wrote around about the 1860s before that news out five with Warfel you for those of car since the railroad kid you expanded the market more to what maybe as far as Bristol maybe London Glen organizes the international sales for the other dongs has hardly anyone in Great Britain eats cockles anymore each of the cockle Pickers has a license which they mostly inherited there are only 50 permitted Pickers at the 7 River Delta and they must pick the cockles by hand in the traditional way it's back-breaking work everyone is allowed to pick 300 kilos of cockles a day under serious time pressure joery certainly is the fastest donk picking cockles between work a walk and so when when you scrape in the Cochran's water mixes in this and that makes it easier for mud come down [Applause] that's another bucket of cockles at this speed Joe regularly needs a new rake you're raking from one side away all the time the cockles wear them metal Rick we nine weeks cockles that are collected with a dredging pump get scared close and swallow sand hand picked cockles are already closed because they're on dry land eating cockles without having to grind your teeth is more expensive five-year-olds so far back as you can remember is farm we've been doing it you run beam it in tank houses well it's a long time tradition a lot diseases at the sea returns almost every dunk got stuck at least once with his 4x4 I think I counted at his fastest raising fall I think we're part of the seven and we the second but were there raise inform I think are neither be just a few feet down Dan yeah I love the big equal to six was John we're at Wayne once said there's light the fuse and get the hell out of you [Music] it is said that 20,000 Saints are buried here and King Arthur as well Bart Sea Island at the northwestern coast of Wales has a special history the island is called innocently in Welch Island of currents the name fits as the passage is difficult even when the weather is good islander Colin Evans the ferries captain does his best but he can't promise anything in my time in the summer we've known people stuck for four or five days but we can get the moment in the winter two weeks because of the weather in the Bart Sea Islands population consists of 10 people and a colony of gray seals at the dock barsy is a small nature's paradise there are rare migrating birds insects flowers and more than 350 varieties of lichen and nobody knows nature here better than Ben Porter the 17-year old has been living on the remote island with his family for six years he just passed his correspondence school exam [Music] Bar C is exciting enough event then sells the lobsters to the few holiday visitors during summer his earnings finances passionately then is a birdwatcher he wants to study zoology next year in a small town if possible okay yeah I'll have a look at it in a bit he had a he'd caught him off some description but didn't know what it was I did quite a lot of moths roughing so I know quite a lot of different species and I'm into the very small ones as well and my kuma an extremely rare bird has been sighted on the island a citrine wagtail then goes stalking we came here for first winter is it was quite nice and then yeah just adjusted and just yeah do that different hobbies and things like that that suited to place in summer day visitors friends and new bird species come to the island suddenly Ben's remote island is packed it's quite a big thing for teenagers to come to such a remote place but they're amazing and I don't think any of us have regretted the move Ben did you see that citria motto this morning yeah yeah we got some peas although he managed to catch it Ben's father Steve also has aa bee that suits Island life Bar C Island a small island with surprisingly much going on Clara Bay is a place of research this van is a mobile laboratory and these men are on a mission a Mars mission address is ready the scientists are from Aberystwyth University they use the good weather to advance their space project it's a robot that we use for our research and all sorts of applications initially came from a French company and we've modified so much of it that it's kind of not really what it was initially professor Lawrence Tyler is the head of the team of scientists the whole idea is to try and get more science back from every mission that we send up and the way to do that is to make the Rovers more intelligent so we can give them high level command instead of telling them every little thing to do so if the rover can choose its own rocks to look at and take images of and send them back and that data is valuable then then that that's a good thing and we've achieved more science for for our euro so to speak once the sensitive camera system Lawrence and his team developed arrives on Mars there can be no error so they need to continue testing the surface of Mars is basically covered in very fine sand and dust and gravel all over the place so it's although you might there's a lot of water here and there isn't much water on the surface of Mars in other respects it's quite a good place to go and it's very handy for the University because it's just down the road from where we are so would you like to switch the suit on yeah okay an operation [Music] there's another difference between the red planet and cleric Bay there is definitely more life here the test site is on a campsites beach danger danger fret lebra's thought of everything we're very conscious like it could be a dangerous device and so here we've used the lasers which measured the distance of obstacles in front there's also also some mechanisms at software level and hardware level with the ultimate one being the remote switch which will stop it completely okay carefully egress approaches its favorite rock and starts to record the camera system provides data in different color spectrums [Music] address concentrates its attention on the rock formations of cleric Bay it doesn't care for the bathers on Mars it needs to work better the 2018 mission ExoMars is a really exciting mission it's Europe's first Rover mission to Mars the cameras work with a radar that it will have that looks under the ground and the drill to drill out samples and hopefully to find signs of life having been there if we're really lucky life still existing on Mars space technology on a campsite Beach you only find that in Wales Wow there are maras on Mars to the large blue areas but mara TV is so far only available on the blue planet [Music] [Music]

Channel: Free Documentary - Nature

Views: 11,436

Rating: 4.787879 out of 5

Keywords: Free, Documentary, Documentaries, adventure, nature, nature documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), Wales, United Kingdom, Saint Cwyfan, North Wales, South Wales, Cardiff, Swansea, Brecon Beacons, Brecon Beacons National Park, Visit Wales, Snowdonia National Park, Mount Snowdon, Irish Sea, Caernarfon Castle, Clarach Bay, Welsh, Welsh Coast, Mars Robot

Id: SGsq5IPcyqQ

Length: 43min 20sec (2600 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 13 2020