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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Open Country

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Countryside magazine featuring the people and wildlife that shape the landscape of Britain

Countryside magazine featuring the people and wildlife that shape the landscape of the British Isles

BBC Radio 4 LW

Open Country: Walking on Water, Isles of Scilly

Walking on Water, Isles of Scilly

24/04/2014

BBC Radio 4 - Open Country, Walking on Water, Isles of Scilly

Helen Mark walks between Tresco and Bryher on the Isles of Scilly on a low spring tide.

Helen Mark uses a very low tide to walk between Tresco and Bryher, two of the Isles of Scilly, meeting people who delight in what is revealed, such as 3,000 year old field walls.

Without quite walking on water, Helen Mark uses a very low spring tide to walk between Tresco and Bryher, two of the Isles of Scilly. She meets people who delight in what is revealed on the seabed, such as 3,000 year old Neolithic field walls, indicating the time when the islands were a single landmass.
Local harbour master Henry Birch stands with Helen at the mid point between the islands which normally sits 5 meters below the sea.

Helen hears how it's all possible because of what must surely be one the best words to have up your sleeve during a game of Scrabble: syzgy, which is when the sun, moon and earth are aligned creating the extreme highs and lows known as spring tides.

Producer: Mark Smalley.

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