Countryfile

Somerset (26x11)

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The team head to Somerset, a county which has taken a battering from the winter storms since December, leaving large parts of the Somerset Levels flooded. As a result, communities and animals had to be evacuated. Matt Baker meets some of the resourceful locals who have come together to create a silage food bank, with contributions coming in from farmers from all over the country. Matt also visits a beef farmer to find out how he is coping with aftermath of the floods. Ellie Harrison discovers that human resilience and ingenuity are a common feature in the character of its people. She makes herself at home in the glorious Exmoor landscape where a remarkable woman spent sixty years drawing, painting and writing about this wild place. Hope Bourne was to become known as 'the woman of Exmoor'. Tucked away in the streets of Somerset's Castle Cary is one of only two factories left in the world using horse hair to make textiles. John Craven tries his hand at weaving and discovers it has a proud tradition here. Turning waste into electricity seems like the perfect way of creating power, and as such the last few years have seen anaerobic digestion units spring up all over the country. But, as Tom Heap finds out, while some claim AD has become too successful, others are worried we're starting to pull the plug before it has really got off the ground.