From the White Cliffs of Dover, north to the marshlands of the Thames Estuary, we spend a day with those who live work and play in this beautiful county harvesting the very best England has to offer.
EPISODE 1
We start our celebration of Kent as the sun rises over an old, WW2 grass airstrip. Here we wheel out Elizabeth, a 1944 Spitfire. Soon we are flying high, barrel-rolling over the White Cliffs of Dover in the capable hands of ‘Parky’ Parkinson, a Spitfire veteran with 2,000 hours flying time under his belt.
Further along the coast, in Margate, holiday makers are waking up in a hotel that seems to herald from that same era. Run by Margate’s Eccentric Aunt, Jane Bishop, the hotel was saved from the bulldozer in the mid-90s and is now at the centre of Margate’s artistic revival.
EPISODE 2
We start our day in Kent as the mist rises over Larkins Farm near Chiddingstone. As they have done for centuries, the hoppers have arrived to harvest Kent’s quintessential crop – the hop. Eighty kilometres to the east, in Whitstable, we join Terry Braine as he harvests another famous Kentish crop, the oyster. Those are just some of the 28 million oysters his farm produces each year.
Leaving Terry and his team hard at work, we travel just inland to meet Boatman James Matharu, as he poles his punt along Canterbury’s beautiful River Stour. High above him towers Canterbury Cathedral, where we spend time with mason Benn Swinfield as he shapes a stone for one of its flying buttresses – first built in the 12th century.
EPISODE 3
We open our journey through Kent on Swimmers Beach in Dover. With 34 channel swims under his belt, Kevin Murphy has been crowned The King of the Channel. At 74 his swimming days are over, so today he is training accountant Rob Sisley, who hopes to make the crossing next week. On the River Medway we race Dragons. Once an Olympic class racing yacht, Dragons still attract some of the world’s best sailors, and today we join Quentin Strauss on board his boat, Whisper.
As Whisper does battle on the river, on its banks, in the old Chatham Dock Yards, Leanne Clark is carrying on a tradition that goes back to before the days when HMS Victory was rigged in the dock, ropemaking. The 400-meter-long rope walk uses machinery installed in Nelsons time and still produces hundreds of meters of rope a week.
EPISODE 4
We start our day in Kent aboard the Portia leaving Dover with a party of sea anglers. At the helm is Matt Coker, who can trace his families fishing lineage back to the 19th century. As the Portia rolls around in the English Channel, we head to the country home of a family with even deeper Kentish roots than Matt’s.
Hever Castle, once home to Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII. In its incredible gardens, we learn the ancient art of topiary as Head Gardener Neal Miller clips away at a 100-year-old Yew tree shaped into a tortoise.