(Kate) From its pebbled beaches and rugged cliffs to its seaside towns and fish and chips, I love the British coast.

Ah, look at that!

Beautiful, beautiful.

The birds, the flowers, and most of all, the sea.

♪ So, across this series, I'm taking a journey along some of the most beautiful walks in the world.

♪ These footpaths, gloriously uncluttered.

I'll be meeting the people who live... (man) So, if they're alive and big enough, they go into that basket.

(Kate) ...and work along them... -Wow!

-Oh, look!

(man) Both the sunshine and the dolphins were ordered special.

(Kate) ...as I discover paths I've never walked before... -It is a kind of sci-fi set.

-It is.

-You don't think England.

-No.

(Kate) ...and reveal the secrets of ones I know well.

(man) It's a dinosaur's footprint.

-No, it can't be!

-Yeah, toe here.

-Oh, you are right!

-Another toe there.

♪ (Kate) It is heaven.

If I didn't have so far to walk, I'd just sit on here all day.

(spirited music) Today, I'm stepping back in time...

I am literally walking in the footsteps of dinosaurs.

...along the Jurassic Coast...

I can't help but walk along here and think I might just see the nose of a dinosaur poking out.

...discovering how in Lyme they're holding back the waves... How much does this cost, Geoff?

(Geoff) We've spent around about a hundred million pounds.

(Kate) ...and tasting the local brew... Crikey, are you trying to get me drunk, young man?

(Wes) All in moderation.

(Kate) ...before hauling in the catch of the day.

-Don't miss.

-I won't miss, Jim.

(Jim) I'll have to throw you overboard if you miss all that.

♪ (birds squawking) (guitar music) ♪ (Kate) Ah, just lovely.

Whoosh!

Ha-ha!

♪ Look at that.

So you can almost see the whole route of the walk mapped out from here.

Charmouth down there and then the coast swings around.

There's Lyme Regis, and you can see its little harbor sticking out.

But you can also see here, look how the land is just falling away into the sea.

You know, next year, you, cameraman, may not be able to stand exactly where you're standing.

Come on, don't fall over the edge.

I need you.

My coastal walk today will take me along a 13-mile stretch of the South West Coast Path.

I'm starting in Dorset on Stonebarrow Hill before dropping down to Charmouth, Jane Austen's favorite seaside resort, and on to the pearl of Dorset, Lyme Regis.

I'll then cross into Devon to the Victorian seaside town of Seaton and on to the ancient fishing village of Beer before ending my walk on Beer Head, renowned for its incredible views back down the coast and across Lyme Bay.

I think as far as coastal walks go, this one is really accessible and it's kind of great for families.

And the nice thing is, if you don't want to do the whole length, there's lots of places you can essentially hop on and hop off.

(soft music) ♪ One thing that you're reminded about on these cliffs is their ever-changing nature.

Beneath me is a huge stretch of landslide called Cain's Folly, where the land has just fallen into the sea.

Who knows what it will look like in 50 years' time?

♪ It's a little bit overcast this morning.

And, somehow, it's making this purple heather just absolutely pop.

It's glorious, there's patches of it everywhere.

(uplifting guitar music) ♪ We've got this beautiful swathe of meadow wildflowers here.

♪ And they're alive with insects.

So many different species.

There's scabiosa with white-tailed bumblebees, while the exotically named hogweed bonking beetles are feasting on wild carrot.

♪ Ah, look at this.

Great squadron of ravens.

Just magnificent birds.

Ravens just indulge in aerobatics just for the hell of it.

♪ Ah, I love 'em.

♪ Ah, here comes the sun.

My first stop is Charmouth.

Popular since the early 1800s when it was visited by none other than Jane Austen who wrote that it was "the perfect spot for sitting in unwearied contemplation."

(lively piano music) ♪ But I've brought along a book by a less well-known author.

My trusty guidebook for this walk is Murray's handbook, Wilts and Dorset.

Yours for just six shillings.

This was published in 1899, and it's here that you see why Charmouth became such an attraction.

"The cliffs at Charmouth, descending in dark slopes to the sea, exhibit a fine section of the strata and are bound in interesting fossil remains.

These include the bones of colossal saurians of the pterodactyl and numerous fish, ammonites, and belemnites are found in great quantities."

(spirited music) These cliffs are known as Black Ven, though my guidebook calls them Black Vein, which I think is far more fitting.

♪ The beach underneath is one of the best places in Britain for fossil hunting... (clacking) ...which is just what I'm planning to do.

And I've arranged for paleontologist Chris Reedman to help me with my search.

-All right, Chris!

-Hi.

-How are you doing?

-Great, thank you.

(Kate) This is what I think of as classic fossil hunting weather.

Have you found anything this morning?

(Chris) A few little bits, yeah.

These locally we call pooh stones... -Right.

-...because fairly often they contain a small coprolite which is actually... -That's dinosaur pooh.

-Yeah, exactly.

(Kate) And just blow my mind now.

How old is that?

(Chris) Uh, so this one will be about 190 million years.

-That's so brilliant!

-Yeah.

So this is right from the base of the Jurassic, and so that's the cliffs we're looking at here.

(Kate) By the time of Jane Austen's visit, fossil hunting was growing in popularity, but it was the discovery of an ichthyosaur in around 1811 by local girl Mary Anning that really kick-started our fascination with geology and fossils.

♪ So, what is a classic Jurassic rock then that I should be looking for?

(Chris) So these gray limestones.

(Kate) And are there any clues?

'Cause if I look at that stone, it just looks too--too solid, if that's not too stupid -a thing to say.

-No, so we typically like to concentrate on the sort of material that you can see stripy lines down the side of which represent layers of deposition on the seafloor.

(Kate) And because there are layers, there's likely that something would've been trapped in it.

-Yeah, exactly.

-It's so exciting.

It's wet, but exciting.

Right, I'm gonna start having a look.

(soft music) ♪ Mm, don't think so.

What about... something like this?

(Chris) Yeah, it's about the right size to contain something.

Those are always worth hammering open to see if there's anything else inside.

-Let's hammer it.

-Absolutely.

(Kate) You just haven't got your hammer, have you?

(Chris) It's over there.

(laughing) (Kate) Among the most common fossil finds are ammonites, a group of snail-like creatures which died out with the dinosaurs sixty-six million years ago.

(Chris) So, as we were saying earlier about those layers in the rock, that's what we want to split.

So you can see it's gone all the way down one of these bedding planes and we open it up.

Sadly, there's--there's nothing in there.

(Kate) Not getting that lovely break.

(Chris) Yeah, there's a bit of a technique to it.

(Kate) And I haven't got it.

Is that what you're saying?

-So how would you do it?

-If we put it flat... -And then just wallop it.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That, like, should just break quite nicely.

-There we go.

-Hee-hee!

You've actually got just the edge of a little ammonite poking out there.

(Kate) It's not overly exciting, though, is it, Chris?

(Chris) It's not the largest one that's ever been found.

(Kate) Best leave this to the expert.

Now this one, Chris assures me, will contain Jurassic treasure.

And it's called a wood stone.

-Do you want me to open it up?

-Yeah, would you?

(guitar music) -Wow!

-There we go.

So that was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

So if we open that up... -Oh, that's beautiful!

-So you can see why they're called wood stones.

So this is the branch of a tree sat in the middle here.

-Chris, that's amazing!

-Do you see all these small bits around there?

These are actually oysters.

(Kate) Oh my goodness.

♪ (Chris) So there we go, we've got... (Kate) Oh, look!

Oh, wow!

(Chris) That is one of the small ammonites that we're looking for.

So the shell is left on one side and this is the inside.

Interestingly, as well, this iridescent patch here, that's actually remnants of the original shell mineralogy.

About one in a thousand ammonites that we find locally actually preserve evidence of the original shell, so we were quite lucky to have captured that.

♪ (Kate) Thank you again, Chris.

-I'll treasure this.

-No problem, cheers.

(Kate) Coming up... Oh, it's like walking out into the middle of the sea.

...I discover just what it takes to keep one of my favorite towns from falling into the sea... (Geoff) Just in that area there, there's over a thousand concrete piles going deep into the ground, holding everything together.

(Kate) ...and I learn how a thousand-year-old mill...

It's like Flintstones technology, isn't it?

-It is, yeah.

-...is behind a brand-new seaside business.

-Can I sniff it?

-Yeah, of course, yeah.

-Very strong.

-Ooh, it is, wow!

♪ Today, I'm following in the footsteps of dinosaurs as I walk along a 13-mile stretch of the Jurassic Coast, known for its charming seaside towns and crumbling cliffs full of fossils.

There is just something fantastic about walking along these old landslide cliffs.

The kind of ten-year-old in me just emerges because like all ten-year-olds, I was obsessed with fossils!

Absolutely obsessed with them.

My next stop is the ancient town of Lyme Regis, which boasts breathtaking scenery and a rich history dating back to the Domesday Book.

(energetic music) ♪ In fact, its dramatic sea defenses even featured in the Hollywood movie The French Lieutenant's Woman.

♪ (birds squawking) ♪ It's also a place I know well.

♪ I used to come down here when I was much younger, and we used to come and go mackerel fishing in the bay, and buy ice cream, and stand at the end of the Cobb, which is this huge sort of sea defense wall that sticks right out into the bay, and stand at the end and pretend we were Meryl Streep in The French Lieutenant's Woman, which only some of you will get that reference.

I do realize you have to be of a certain age.

(uplifting guitar music) The iconic harbor wall has protected the town from the ravages of the sea for almost 800 years.

♪ And like most of this coastline, it's also in danger of landslides from above.

Oh, it's like literally walking out into the middle of the sea.

If anyone should know what it takes to keep the town safe, it's engineering geologist and local boy Geoff Davis.

-Are you Geoff?

-Yes, I am.

-Hello, lovely to meet you.

-Nice to see you.

(Kate) What a meeting point!

It's almost French Lieutenant's Woman.

-It is almost, yes, yes.

-Almost, almost.

(Geoff) It's a bit choppy.

(Kate) You grew up here, didn't you?

(Geoff) That's right, and when I was a little boy, my father took me on the back of his motorbike to the top of the hill in Charmouth.

There, the road came to an end and beyond it was the huge landslide of Black Ven, and the road had been completely taken away by the landslides.

And as a small boy, I thought, I says, "What the hell is going on here?

This is...

This is amazing."

And that's what got me interested in geology and then the coastal defenses in Lyme Regis.

(Kate) You basically have devoted a large amount of your working life to protecting Lyme Regis from the elements, from the cliffs falling down and from the sea, but it does seem to me to be a battle that almost can't be won.

(Geoff) Well, Lyme Regis has always had this long history, even though the Cobb was here, of disasters and houses falling down and roads being taken away due to landsliding.

If we were to do nothing, then it was certain that the town as we know it would've been completely destroyed.

(dramatic music) ♪ (Kate) Over the centuries, Mother Nature has certainly left her mark on Lyme Regis with storms battering its seafront every winter.

♪ (waves crashing) ♪ But as well as the sea, the town needs protecting from frequent landslides from above.

♪ So, looking at it now, what's stopping the land falling down here?

(Geoff) In a word, engineering.

Huge concrete piles going deep into the ground, miles of drainage, steel soil nails going deep into the ground.

(Kate) So, all that I'm looking at, I mean, for example, the kind of gardens up there in the middle, you know, lovely sort of manicured grass and trees and things, are you saying that underneath that is effectively a sort of scaffolding -holding it all up?

-Indeed.

So, in that--just in that area there, there's over a thousand concrete piles going deep into the ground holding everything together.

But the beauty of it is, you can't see it.

You can't see any of it.

It's all hidden.

(Kate) How much does this cost, Geoff?

I'm guessing it's a fortune.

(Geoff) It's an enormous amount of money, yes.

Over the last 25 years, we've spent around about a hundred million pounds.

(Kate) A hundred million pounds?

I mean, I hate to say this because I love this little town, but is it worth a hundred million pounds?

(Geoff) Well... What do you think?

(Kate) I just think I've asked you a really stupid question.

(Geoff) People who live in Lyme Regis... -Yeah.

-...and the people that come to visit and enjoy themselves in Lyme Regis, I think, would agree that it is worth it.

(uplifting music) (Kate) The town's attraction as a holiday resort dates back to the early 1800s... when Jane Austen wrote that "a very strange stranger it must be, who didn't recognize Lyme's charms, to make him wish to know it better."

(birds squawking) ♪ Two hundred years later, that's still as true.

♪ So I'm heading up into a part of town that is even older than the ancient harbor wall.

♪ The town's water mill is thought to be one of 5,000 listed in the Domesday Book and served Lyme Regis for centuries.

♪ Sadly, it closed in 1926, unable to compete with modern mills.

♪ But a group of locals banded together to save it.

And in 2001, flour was milled again for the first time in 75 years.

♪ -How are you?

-Okay, how are you?

-Yeah, good, how are you?

-Do you want to come into the mill?

(Kate) Wes is going to show me around.

(Wes) Mind your head.

(Kate) Wow, this is amazing!

(Wes) Yeah, it's a bit, um, a bit tight in here.

(Kate) As well as flour, the mill grinds barley malts for a local microbrewery, much as it would've done in medieval times.

So can we actually see this in action?

(Wes) Of course, yeah.

(Kate) So this is gonna get the water wheel -actually turning?

-Exactly, yes.

(Kate) Opening the sluice lets in water from the River Lim that flows right through the heart of town.

(whimsical music) (Wes) You'll see it slowly start to move now.

♪ (Kate) There it goes!

(whooshing) (Wes) Gets a little bit noisy now, Kate, as well.

(Kate) But I just--I lo-- It's like Flintstones technology, isn't it?

(Wes) It is, yeah.

And what that does is it drives the stones.

(Kate) The 13-foot Victorian water wheel powers two sets of millstones, each weighing a whopping half a ton, which grind the locally grown barley malts.

(clanging) (Wes) They basically get rolled through, mildly crushed, and they drop down a chute and we collect them in a bag at the bottom.

-Mind your head again.

-Yeah.

Millers were small in those days, weren't they?

(Wes) They were, yeah.

(Kate) Oh, wow, so this is...

These are all the kind of-- It's the gearing effectively we're looking at here.

(Wes) That's right, and around the back you can see the water wheel going through as well.

(Kate) Oh, it's amazing.

(Wes) It's like the inside of a watch.

(Kate) Unlike flour, which is finely ground, the barley only gets a mild crush to release the natural sugars needed for brewing.

Is that about the consistency that you want?

(Wes) Um, it's probably on the finer side.

You can see in there some are pretty whole.

Um, others are a little bit crushed.

With the stones, we're getting a bit of variation in there because, you know, it's a natural piece of rock.

That might change the characteristics of beer, -it probably does.

-In a good way.

(Wes) I mean, the first brew we did using this technique was a pale ale and it came out beautiful.

-Really?

-Really, really nice, yeah.

(Kate) You would say that, though, wouldn't you?

It's beer.

Yeah, yeah.

(soft guitar music) (Kate) A stone's throw from the mill, Wes and his three friends run their microbrewery.

So this is where all the action happens, is it?

(Wes) It is, yes.

This is Adam, our brewer.

He's just in the process now of getting another brew underway.

(Kate) Right.

The barley, water, and hops are mixed, and the beer brewed right here behind the bar.

(Wes) What we have to do, first and foremost, is get our water up to temperature and put hops in to flavor the beer.

(Kate) So it's the hops that adds the flavor, is that right?

(Wes) Absolutely, yeah.

Different hops add different profiles.

-Are these hops here?

-Yeah, these are some hops.

This is a leaf hop and this is a pellet hop.

-Can I sniff it?

-Yeah, of course, yeah.

-Very strong.

-Ooh, it is, wow!

But it's really--weirdly, it's really citrusy.

(Wes) That's right, so a lot of American-style IPAs, pale ales that we're generating and brewing down here essentially use things like Citra hops which are characterized by real citrusy flavor, hence the name.

Okay, let's try some beer.

(soft music) ♪ (Kate) Crikey, are you trying to get me drunk, young man?

(Wes) All in moderation.

-Okay.

-So, is there an order that I should try these in?

(Wes) Yes, there certainly is.

-We go light to dark.

-Okay, so start with the... (Wes) Start with the Session IPA, yeah.

(Kate) Do you know what?

I don't like beer, but I really like that.

♪ -That's really good.

-Really summery, easy drinking.

(Kate) It is, I'm really surprised, but it's properly delicious.

-Yeah.

-This one next?

-So that's a golden ale.

-Right.

That's quite good as well.

Dear.

I've always thought of beer as being quite heavy.

It's like a kind of meal in a glass almost, but these are much, much lighter.

They're... -They're dangerously... -On that note, let's have a heavier one.

(Kate) Oh, okay.

That one scares me.

(Wes) So this is a London-style porter.

-Right.

-So, with this, we use really dark malts.

(Kate) Now, oddly, I quite like that.

It's not as chewy as I was expecting it to be.

I couldn't drink a whole glass.

-Half.

-No, all I'm going to say to you is that I have now got to walk to Beer Head.

-See what I did there?

-It's very apt.

-But, yeah, it's brilliant.

-Thanks for coming.

(Kate) Thank you very, very much, indeed.

(spirited music) Coming up... Oh, and now we're right along the river here.

...I take a trip back in time... (Gareth) So we're up to about top speed now.

(Kate) Are we?

I'm holding on, Gareth!

(Kate) ...indulge in one of my favorite hobbies... -Lovely egrets.

-Yeah.

(Kate) Ten years ago, never have seen... (Izzy) They would have been a rare sight, definitely.

(Kate) ...and unearth secrets of the past.

(Steve) This is a hidden Catholic church.

(Kate) A sort of "up yours" to Henry VIII.

(Steve) Yeah.

(uplifting music) ♪ (Kate) I'm halfway along my 13-mile Jurassic Coast walk which started at Stonebarrow Hill and ends at Beer Head with its stunning views across Lyme Bay.

(birds squawking) This is quite fun to look at my route on this old map.

All the main points are here.

There's Stonebarrow Hill, where I started, down to Charmouth, Lyme Regis.

And, then, there is this place called Humble Point just along the coast from Lyme which, clearly, must belong to me.

Don't you think?

♪ Leaving Lyme Regis, I'm about to cross the border from Dorset into Devon.

♪ (birds chirping) Hee-hee.

There is something just...

I don't know.

I love that, where the land just disappears and then all you can see is blue.

(mellow guitar music) I'm now heading to my next rendezvous at the seaside resort of Seaton.

Running in between is the Undercliff National Nature Reserve... ♪ ...a wild area with a special microclimate rich in ferns, fungi, and wild orchids.

♪ I, though, am pushing on to Seaton.

(projector clicking) (upbeat music) ♪ In the 1930s, families flocked here to a newly opened holiday village which boasted an outdoor swimming pool and tennis courts.

♪ And by the 1970s, tens of thousands of visitors were coming to Seaton's holiday camps every summer.

♪ Its heyday may be behind it, but one of the town's long-standing attractions is still as popular as it's ever been.

Morning.

Are you Gareth?

(Gareth) Hi, Kate, yes!

Welcome to the Tramway!

(Kate) Do you know what?

This visit is so overdue.

I have been hearing about this tramway for years and years.

-It's so exciting.

-Great.

It's lovely to have you here.

(Kate) So, how do they actually work?

(Gareth) Okay.

We've got a key.

-Okay?

-I love that!

That goes on there.

-Yeah.

-Push it forward... -Yeah.

-...we go forwards.

Push it back, we go backwards.

-Top speed?

-Twelve miles an hour.

They're capable of doing more than that, -but 12 miles an hour.

-How much more?

Uh, you could get them up to probably 15, perhaps 20 on a good day with the wind behind you.

(Kate) Formula One, Gareth!

-Can I hop in?

-Of course you can.

Let me jump out of the way.

(guitar music) Okay.

Ah.

Let's go.

(whistle blowing) ♪ (Kate) I've been looking forward to riding this particular tram for many years because of where it passes through, a rather special nature reserve.

Oh, that's an amazing view.

Actually, I mean, having been slightly disparaging about your speed, it's a perfect viewing speed, isn't it?

(Gareth) Absolutely.

♪ (Kate) Oh, and now we're right along the river here.

(Gareth) This is the River Axe, yeah.

Up until a few hundred years ago, from the bank over there to the bank right over there -was water.

-Oh, was it?

-Oystercatchers.

-Oystercatchers.

(Gareth) Yeah.

(Kate) This estuary marshland is part of the Seaton Wetlands and it's a haven for birdlife.

In other words, an absolute paradise for a birdwatcher like me.

(brakes squeaking) There we go, Kate, mind your head as you go up.

(Kate) Lovely, thank you.

Oh, it's amazing up here.

Brilliant, a fellow birder.

-Hello.

-Hi!

(Kate) Spotter Izzy comes here most days.

This is fantastic up here, isn't it?

(Izzy) Oh, it's a beautiful area.

(Kate) Absolutely amazing.

So, what are we looking at here?

(Izzy) If you just see that island in front of us... You might have to look past the oak.

-I've got it, yeah.

-Can you see all the egrets?

-Lovely egrets.

-Yes.

(Kate) Two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Yeah!

Are they quite a common sight here?

(Izzy) I'd say I pretty much see them daily here.

(Kate) Do you?

I mean, it is amazing, isn't it?

I mean, you know, ten years ago, probably would never have seen... (Izzy) They would have been a rare sight, definitely.

Little egrets would've been one of those real birds that everyone would flock to come and see.

(Kate) Oh, that's oystercatchers, isn't it?

(Izzy) Yeah.

(soft music) (Kate) This place is packed with birds.

♪ There's moorhen.

♪ Mallards, of course.

They're foraging for plants on the bottom.

♪ Those little waders, they're redshanks and they love coastal wetlands like this.

♪ Those are very sexy.

It's been absolutely lovely sharing some birding time with you.

Thank you.

-Gareth, shall we move on?

-Okay!

(Kate) As much as I'd like to stay, the views from Beer Head beckon.

(energetic music) Oh, it's beautiful.

♪ Gareth was right.

I can't believe it, but actually, it does feel kind of quite fast.

Wind in the hair.

(chuckling) And this wonderful sense of being in the valley, moving through it at this perfect pace.

And that just--I'm just going to lean my microphone over here and let you listen to the ripple of the reeds.

That's such a wetlands sound.

♪ A little over a mile along the coast lies the picturesque fishing village of Beer.

♪ Sheltered in a shallow bay, it sits in the shadow of my final destination: Beer Head.

♪ It's famous not only for its crab and mackerel, but for the quality of the local limestone which was mined here for 2,000 years and used in some of our most important buildings.

♪ Westminster Abbey.

St. Paul's Cathedral.

Even the Tower of London.

♪ (bird squawking) And I've arranged for a tour of the quarry from Steve, who comes from a long line of quarrymen.

Ooh, God, it's amazing, isn't it?

The cold air just hits you as you're going in.

You grew up in Beer Head, didn't you?

-Mm-hm, I did.

-So is this somewhere that you used to come as a child?

(Steve) Yeah, I came down here and did a bit of exploring and had a little poke around and look around like you would, and I came across my grandpa's name here on the wall.

-Eddie Rodgers.

-So he was a miner here?

(Steve) He worked as a quarryman in his younger days.

But that is definitely my grandpa.

I can actually recognize the handwriting.

(Kate) That's an amazing connection of name.

(Steve) A lot of these would've been workers that worked here that just left their name on the wall.

(Kate) Yeah.

(soft music) ♪ So, how far back does it go?

-About 400 meters.

-Really?

(Steve) We have around 40 acres underground.

-Forty acres?

-Yes.

I don't know how long you got, but... (Kate) You could lose me in here, Steve.

What are those marks on the wall there?

(Steve) This the old tallow candle marks.

This would've been an area where the stonemasons would've worked.

They worked on the stone below ground while it was still moist, it was easier to work on.

And they would've taken a handful of clay out of one of the seams in the wall, flopped it on the wall, and that is how they attached the candles.

(Kate) So they were working by candlelight?

(Steve) They worked with a very dim candlelight.

Yeah, indeed.

(Kate) And presumably, back then, they weren't using dynamite or anything.

-It was all done by hand.

-It was all pickaxe.

You can still see the pickaxe marks in the walls and the ceiling to this day.

-And what were miners paid?

-Very little.

In fact, many had to resort to smuggling in the evenings -to make ends meet.

-Really?

(Steve) Yeah.

(Kate) I love that idea.

Quarrymen worked punishing 14-hour days to extract huge slabs of this unique limestone.

Prized for its color, strength, and carving qualities, it would be loaded onto carts and shipped around the country directly from the beach.

♪ And what's that doing down here?

(Steve) That's a window tracery, and it was used to create the windows that you see in many churches.

It's 600 years old.

This was actually carved and used before Columbus got to America.

-No.

-Yeah, seriously.

-That's bonkers.

-It's been down here some years.

(Kate) So, I never heard of a tracery before.

So, it was something that people copied?

(Steve) Yeah, and that looks like one piece, but in fact, there's actually 40 pieces there and they would take piece by piece, lay it on top of a block of stone which was cut from down here, and the stonemasons would work on it underground, copy the shape and create a window for whatever customer wanted it.

♪ (Kate) And that's not the only secret held in these caves.

(Steve) What we're coming to now actually is--was carved out after our friend Henry VIII created the Church of England, broke away from the Catholic Church.

And this was carved out by order of the lord of the manor 'cause he was a Catholic so they could come down here and preach in this chamber without fear of persecution.

(Kate) So it was a hidden Catholic church?

(Steve) This is a hidden Catholic church, yeah.

(Kate) A sort of "up yours" to Henry VIII.

(Steve) Yeah, "Up yours, we're gonna..." -"We're gonna keep doing it."

-Yeah.

♪ (Kate) Time to head back to the entrance, if we can find it, that is.

-It goes on and on and on.

-Yes.

You could get lost in here very easy.

♪ (energetic music) (Kate) Coming up...

Right, I've got it, Jim.

...I try my hand at fishing for lobster and crab.

(Jim) He's a bit camouflage, isn't he?

(Kate) He's brilliant.

(Jim) You're not gonna spot him, are ya?

(Kate) No!

And the sun comes out with a view to die for as I reach the end of my walk on Beer Head.

Looking out there, you can almost imagine that I have the whole coastline to myself.

It is a treasure.

(uplifting music) My 13-mile walk along the Jurassic Coast from Dorset into Devon is almost over.

♪ I've reached the ancient fishing village of Beer which, for centuries, has launched and landed its fishing fleet right here from this beach.

♪ Many villages are descended from families who made their livings from the sea, including Jim, a third-generation fisherman who still takes his boat out six days a week and who I'll be playing deckhand to, helping to haul in his crab pots today.

♪ -Jim?

-Hello!

(Kate) Hello!

Can I come aboard?

(Jim) Yeah.

-There you are.

-Perfect.

(ukulele music) ♪ Well, this is very good of you, Jim, 'cause I've been hugging the coast, obviously, for the last few miles, so it's really, really nice to get a different perspective.

I mean, you really see the limestone.

Flint (inaudible).

Thing is it's the last place to the west of England -and the southwest.

-Right, that has the limestone.

(Jim) Yeah.

♪ (Kate) So, this is a proper working boat.

You're a--can I--dare I say it, a proper working fisherman.

-You don't... -I only fish for a living.

-That's it.

-Yeah.

(Kate) This is--well, how big is this boat?

-Twenty-one foot.

-Tiny.

-It is.

-And you can make... (Jim) I haven't got a lot of room for a dance or anything like that.

(Kate) So you can make a living from a 21-foot boat.

And how long have you been fishing?

-Forty.

-Forty?

-Forty?

-Yeah!

(Kate) You must have started when you were two!

(Jim) Yeah, something like that.

(Kate) Jim knows every inch of the shoreline and the stories that go with it.

(Jim) As you can see now, we've come around Beer Head.

-Yeah.

-And now we're looking down towards Sidmouth.

There is the cave of Beer in a minute.

They call it Jack Rattenbury's Cave, he was a famous smuggler here, apparently smuggled all over this undercliff.

It was his sort of haunt, if you like.

(Kate) This was his patch.

Jack Rattenbury, nicknamed Rob Roy of the West, was born in Beer in 1778 and took up smuggling age 16.

He must have done all right from it, too, as he died at the ripe old age of 65, having written an autobiography called Memoirs of a Smuggler.

So how would it work?

Would somebody like Jack have a kind of deal with ships' captains and... -I think so.

-...sort of backhanders and... (Jim) Yeah, yeah, I think it was left out here with a buoy on and, obviously, anyone looking from the shore would just think it's a pot or something.

And, then, he would come out when he thought there was nobody about, pick it up, and off he'd go with it.

And up to the pub, back door, "Here you are."

You know?

I presume that's what went on.

♪ (Kate) These days, the buoys just mark where the crab and lobster pots have been dropped.

Time for me to get to work.

-This is your main weapon.

-That's my pot grabber.

(Jim) Don't stick that bit in the buoy.

It won't make me very happy.

You got to try and get the rope.

(Kate) Okay.

(Jim) Try not to get too wet.

(Kate) I'll try.

-Don't miss.

-I won't miss, Jim!

(Jim) I'll have to throw you overboard if you miss all that.

-Right, I've got it, Jim!

-Lovely!

(Kate) To be fair, that was quite easy.

(Jim) And, then, this thing pulls it all up for me just like that.

-Oh, no, that's rubbish.

-It is!

Okay, so does that one just go back-- -straight back in again?

-Yeah, just put that one back now.

We'll try some different ones.

(splashing) Lovely.

(Kate) Oh, I tell you what... -Not very good, is it?

-It's not very good.

(Jim) We should have something somewhere.

Sometimes you get an influx of spider crabs, but that's something we don't really sell a lot of -in this country.

-Well, there's a spider crab.

(Jim) It is a spider crab.

Yeah, he's a bit camouflage, isn't he?

(Kate) He's brilliant, isn't he?

Look at that.

(Jim) You're not gonna spot him, are ya?

(Kate) No.

(Jim) Oh, well, he's off.

He wants to go back, I think.

(Kate) Yeah, let's pop him back.

We're not having much luck.

But, thankfully, Jim's got a binful he caught before picking me up.

Now you're talking!

Wow!

And where will they end up?

(Jim) In my son's shop 'cause he owns a fishmonger shop on the beach.

They'll probably be cooked later on today.

-Right.

-And, then, in the morning, he'll take out the ones he's gonna sell whole and the rest will be picked out and processed into meat.

And then it's sold on to restaurants and sandwich shops, places like that.

(Kate) Right, do you want me to do the shoving again?

(Jim) Yes, please.

There you go.

Get ready with the buoy.

(Kate) Oh, yeah, okay.

(Jim) That's it, chuck it over.

(guitar music) And, then, hopefully, we'll have something in the morning.

(Kate) The final destination of my walk is right above us, Beer Head, and from here, you can see just how the cliffs are crumbling away, scattering rocks along the shoreline and into the sea.

♪ Yeah, how on earth do you get the boat back up onto the top there?

Show you in a minute.

I'm not going really fast.

Hopefully, we'll get there.

Right, just hang on to something 'cause we're gonna come to an abrupt halt.

(Kate) Okay.

(engine whirring) ♪ (thudding) ♪ -There you are.

-Thank you.

I feel rather stately.

(laughing) (mellow music) ♪ I have one final push out of Beer, a 300-foot climb to the end of my walk on Beer Head.

♪ But will it live up to its reputation for those incredible views?

♪ Ah, just lovely!

What a spot.

♪ There are still places like this.

I mean, look where I am now.

And looking out there, you can almost imagine that I have the whole coastline to myself.

It's amazing.

(birds squawking) ♪ It has been wonderful to walk this stretch of coast.

It's got beautiful beaches, pretty villages.

It's got fossils.

And there are these wonderful areas in between the more, you know, known and popular areas that feel completely wild, but all joined up by this very accessible and well-marked South West Coast Path.

It is a treasure.

♪ (violin music) -Next time... -You can bash it.

(Kate) ...I'm in Suffolk learning an ancient craft... -What on earth is that?

-That's called a Dutchman.

(Kate) ...and blending a tasty tipple... -That's pretty good, actually.

-That is very good.

(Kate) ...along a disappearing coastline.

I don't feel like I'm actually going anywhere.

A bit more oomph, I feel.

(laughing) (spirited music) ♪ (bright music)