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10 Episodes 2023 - 2023
Episode 1
Ben Robinson visits Culross, a stunning example of a 17th-century Scottish royal burgh village. Culross was a major centre for Scottish coal mining and boasts the very first place in the world to have a mine shaft that extended under the sea floor. Entering this village is like stepping back in time 400 years, with many of the interesting details and decorations of the buildings remaining. It is also a place where witch hunting was rife and superstitions lived alongside innovative industry.
Episode 2
Ben Robinson examines the remains of a lost harbour in Port Carlisle, Cumbria, a small village near Carlisle which grew as a consequence of the canal building surge that swept the nation. For a very short time, this village was a thriving port with ambitions to rival Liverpool. It welcomed tourists, but its canal was soon overtaken by the advent of the railways. Ben goes on to discover the cauldron-like original boiler behind the Victorian bath house.
Episode 3
Ben Robinson travels to Cushendall, one of the finest planned Georgian villages in Northern Ireland. It was owned and shaped by a series of owners but most notably its 19th-century merchant landlord Francis Turnly. The forward-thinking man hoped to try out his ideas for a new global order - ideas akin to such organisations as today's UN and the WHO. He also built an intriguing tapered tower, from which he rang a curfew bell to keep his villagers in check.
Episode 4
Ben Robinson makes an amazing discovery at Norfolk's impressive Holkham estate - its lost medieval village, seen for the first time since its disappearance some 200 years ago. The current village was once owned by Thomas William Coke, known as Coke of Norfolk, who was one of the great farming reformers of his time, instrumental in the agricultural revolution. Ben explores its oldest building, the Ancient House, as well as Holkham's beautiful stately home and the Great Barn, whose sheep shearing events are credited as the forerunner to today's country shows.
Episode 5
Ben Robinson discovers the impressive lime kilns in Solva, Wales. This picturesque 19th-century port is famous for producing quicklime, a vital ingredient in both agriculture and the building industry. The kilns here are well preserved and contributed to making the soil in farmers' fields more alkaline, which helped to increase crop yield at a time when the nation's population was growing. It's a pretty spot now, but Ben learns how this industry would have made life tough for the locals.
Episode 6
Ben Robinson heads to Beer, Devon, home to beer stone, which has been quarried since Roman times and used in many of the nation's cathedrals and landmark buildings, including Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London and St Paul's Cathedral. Ben finds ancient Roman arches in the quarry and discovers the stone's origin in the village's unique white cliffs. He also learns of the village's lace industry and finds original lace-making needles in a house where Queen Victoria's wedding dress lace is likely to have been made.
Episode 7
Ben Robinson travels to Seaton Sluice in Northumberland, home to the notorious Delaval family. These wealthy bottle makers were some of the greatest players on the Georgian party scene. Their pranks and parties were infamous at their impressive mansion, but they also brought great innovation to the area when they redesigned the harbour. Ben tracks the site of the past bottle works, dubbed by locals as the 'city', and unearths numerous glass fragments. By using modern science to analyse their unique glass recipe, he hopes to determine if they were made in the village itself.
Episode 8
Ben Robinson unearths the unique past of Porthgain, a small Pembrokeshire village built for its industry, first as a slate quarry, then exporting brickwork and finally producing a granite-like stone that helped to create the nation's roads. The heavy industrial infrastructure that remains in this tiny village is a sight to behold. Porthgain's prosperity rose and fell over the years, and many of the houses were owned by the quarry companies who mined there. Eventually, the villagers took back control and bought the village themselves.
Episode 9
Ben Robinson unearths the ancient past of Greyabbey, a small village on Northern Ireland's beautiful Strangford Lough. The village name comes from Grey Abbey, its Cistercian abbey-monastery. This is a story of life from the sea - of the moneymaking kelp industry and ingenious methods of catching fish. The village has some of the most impressive archaeological remains in Northern Ireland, including a Neolithic boat that predates the Pyramids and stone fish traps that are almost 1,000 years old.
Episode 10
Ben Robinson travels to Johnshaven, a once-important Scottish fishing village. When its skilled sailors were press-ganged into the Royal Navy in the late 18th century, it had to diversify into the flax and jute trade - which fed into the jute capital, the nearby city of Dundee. Ben discovers the ruins of an old cloth mill used to make cloth for sails and later coarse linen sacking, a product vital for transporting goods, and tries to solve the village mystery of what a circular building in a local's garden could have been.