Countryfile

Essex (29x23)

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Matt and Ellie are in Essex where Matt jumps aboard the Pioneer, a fully restored Essex oyster boat. He learns about its maritime past whilst some rarely seen archive gives us a flavour of the county's oyster fishing heyday. Matt then meets a group of young people learning the skills to build racing gigs - small fast rowing boats built for competition - and Matt is put through his paces in one of these gigs out on the open sea. Ellie is at the country's only nature reserve managed specifically for dragonflies, where she gets up close to these highly coloured and fascinating insects. She then travels to Hamford Water, where the creeks and inlets are home to an unusual colony of common seals - they're bright red! Steve Brown journeys back in time to medieval England to find out what it's like to fire an English longbow. For years they drove British industry, but now many of our mines lie silent and abandoned, posing a real threat to the surrounding environment. Spoil heaps and mines can leach heavy metals and other poisons into streams and rivers causing untold damage. Tom Heap investigates a new answer to this problem and it's one that could make a bit of cash for the farmer too. And Adam and Charlotte reveal the last of our contenders for Countryfile's Young Farmer Award.